Digital Science Speaker Series: Elizabeth Stokoe ‘Why We Need a Science of Talk’

On the 18th of October, we were delighted to welcome Professor Elizabeth Stokoe to present at our London headquarters as part of our Digital Science Speaker Series. She captivated attendees by answering the question ‘Why We Need a Science of Talk’. During Elizabeth’s career, she has collected tens of thousands of recordings of talk ‘in the wild’ – from first dates to neighbor disputes. From this research, Stokoe developed the pioneering ‘Conversation Analytic Role-play Method’ of communication skills training, based on evidence about how talk works. In this presentation, she will reveal what happens in the engine room of social life and why studying talk scientifically is crucial.

Elizabeth Stokoe is Professor of Social Interaction in the Department of Social Sciences at Loughborough University. She uses conversation analysis to understand how talk works and, across over 100 publications, has studied interaction in many settings: police interviews with victims and suspects, dating, initial inquiry calls to different types of service providers, and the mediation of conflicts and disputes. Stokoe has consulted for the Ministry of Justice and the US Superior Court Alternative Dispute Resolution Service, providing research-based input to mediation marketing materials. She was one of thirteen WIRED 2015 Innovation Fellows, awarded for the development of CARM. She has given TEDx and Royal Institution lectures, and her research and biography were featured on the BBC Radio 4’s The Life Scientific. Most recently, she performed on the Wellcome Trust Hub at Latitude Festival, addressing the topic of “How to talk so people listen”.