Senior Lecturer Awni Etaywe
Dr Awni Etaywe is a Senior Lecturer in Linguistics and an award-winning researcher specialising in forensic linguistics, (AI-generated) discourse analysis, and strategic political and activist communication. His research examines how language operates as both a mechanism of harm and a resource for social transformation. On one hand, he investigates violent extremism, terrorist threatening and inciting communication, and the role of disinformation, polarisation, and grievance narratives in radicalisation. On the other, he analyses positive and reparative discourses, including digital activist communication, Positive Environmental Journalism, eco-cultural affiliation, and the semiotics of peace, compassion and empathy in social justice movements. This dual focus aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goal 16, bridging counter-extremism and peacebuilding through linguistic inquiry. Dr Etaywe has led a nationally funded Australian Department of Home Affairs project on countering violent extremism, supporting policy and practice through AI-enhanced, corpus-based forensic linguistics. His work informs criminal profiling, threat assessment, and the identification of manipulation, victim-blaming, and legitimisation strategies. He publishes in leading journals such as Language in Society, Discourse & Society, and Discourse & Communication, contributes to Routledge handbooks, and regularly engages public audiences. He is currently authoring a Cambridge Element on terrorist incitement and co-authoring a book on AI-human conversations and another on the discourse of solidarity. He welcomes research students interested in forensic linguistics, digital activist discourse, political-violent discourse, peace communication, critical AI-generated discourse analysis, and relevant interdisciplinary, impact-driven research.
Research Interests:
- Forensic linguistics and language as evidence in legal, security, and intelligence contexts
- Terrorist threatening, and inciting communication (online and offline)
- Incitement to hatred, violence, and genocide
- Disinformation, polarisation, grievance narratives, and identity-based radicalisation
- Hateful extremism, racism, and Islamophobia
- Jailbreaking, AI-human conversation, and AI-generated discourse analysis (critical, forensic, and applied)
- Corpus linguistics and computational methods for threat assessment and profiling
- Manipulation, victim-blaming, legitimisation, and moral disengagement in harmful discourse
- Digital activist discourse and strategic political communication
- Semiotics of peace, compassion, empathy, and solidarity in social justice movements
- Positive Environmental Journalism and environmental news values
- Peace communication, counter-extremism, and discourse-based prevention strategies
- Language, ideology, identity, and social affiliation in high-stakes communication