Alumnus gives to Linguistics Department, lends expertise to curriculum development
James Stratman’s gift to Ohio University not only reconnected him to his alma mater but also opened the door for him to give of his talents and support new avenues of learning in the Linguistics Department.
“It means everything.”
That’s how Chris Thompson, associate professor of linguistics and former chair of the Linguistics Department, described an Ohio University alumnus’ decision to give back to his alma mater—a decision that has resulted in an even bigger impact than originally imagined.
A retired associate professor of communication studies at the University of Colorado Denver, James Stratman, BA ’73, spent his days at Ohio University studying both philosophy and English. When he arrived on the Athens campus, there was no linguistics program.
Stratman’s post-OHIO years were spent studying composition, rhetoric, reader comprehension and linguistics. He was one of seven students accepted into Carnegie Mellon University’s new doctoral program in rhetoric in 1980.
While in the program, Stratman was retained by the United Steelworkers in a case that involved alleged employer-health benefit fraud. His work in that case required significant analysis of benefit plan documents and testing them empirically to help determine readers’ understanding of them. Stratman’s findings in the case were published in the Industrial Relations Law Journal, and this research was cited in two different later federal circuit court decisions also involving allegations of employer benefit fraud.
That early work led to other opportunities for Stratman to lend his expertise in discourse analysis, consulting as an expert witness in several large class-action pension fraud cases, including the now famous Amara v. CIGNA case, which was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2011. This work further opened his eyes to the greater implications of his work and the field of forensic linguistics.
“Such cases,” he said, “ask us to consider the role studies in linguistics might play in many other kinds of legal and civil controversies that courts address.”
Stratman’s fond memories of his undergraduate years at OHIO and of the University’s dedicated faculty—combined with a desire to encourage the field of linguistics—left him thinking about his alma mater as he contemplated the beneficiary designations for his retirement accounts.
“There is an increasingly active interchange between the disciplines of law and linguistics in ways that were never true in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s. There is now an international journal devoted to forensic linguistics. There are anthologies of research published and books by forensic linguists, and I wanted to encourage that as an area of undergrad study and hopefully attract more students, talented students, into the discipline,” Stratman said of his decision to give to OHIO.
Much to his surprise, Stratman’s gift not only reconnected him to his alma mater but also opened the door for him to give of his talents and support new avenues of learning in the Linguistics Department.
Faculty within the department have been charting a new vision for the program that has been educating OHIO students for nearly 50 years. One result of those efforts gained significant traction this past spring when linguistics faculty and their peers in other departments began crafting a proposal that would broaden OHIO’s applied linguistics approach and bring a forensic studies curriculum to the University.
“The Linguistics Department is sort of updating what it does and recreating itself for the 21st century,” explained Thompson. “One of the directions we decided we want to go in was forensic linguistics. … When we heard about Dr. Stratman, his gift to the department and his experience in forensic linguistics, there was a natural connection right away.”
Working with their peers in the College of Business, in several College of Arts and Sciences’ programs, and in the Law Enforcement Technology programs on both the Athens and Chillicothe campuses, faculty in the Linguistics Department have proposed the creation of an undergraduate certificate in forensic studies.
Michelle O’Malley, assistant professor of linguistics and chair of the department’s undergraduate program, has led the Linguistics Department in the development of the certificate and is spearheading efforts to seek its approval. Upon hearing of Stratman’s gift and knowing his professional background in forensic linguistics, O’Malley reached out to Stratman to thank him for his generosity and to share with him the work being done on this new curriculum.
“He was really receptive and excited to know about what is in development and that the timing of his gift was such that it was,” O’Malley said.
In addition to encouraging the development of the curriculum, Stratman made suggestions regarding readings that might be helpful in that course development. O’Malley and her colleagues envision Stratman as a valuable resource and expert as the forensic studies curriculum at OHIO moves forward.
“Dr. Stratman is a resource who is operating in the professional realm of what we’re trying to train the students to do,” O’Malley said. “(This curriculum) is not just interdisciplinary and filling a gap where students have expressed interest over the years, it’s also preparing students to be really productive professionals locally—in local businesses, in law enforcement and social services—training them in the relevance of not just forensic language but forensic science and forensic business. All of those things really serve a larger community.”
During his career, Stratman saw firsthand the role linguistics plays in both legal and civil controversies before the courts and how it impacts society as a whole.
“Forensic linguists study the interface between our ordinary understanding as nonlawyers and the way the law works with language, unfortunately often in very nontransparent ways. Linguists’ involvement is very critical to really make sure that justice is done and that parties in cases are treated fairly,” Stratman said. “(Forensic linguistics) is a really excellent area for study and there’s frankly just a great social need.”
Both O’Malley and David Bell, associate professor of linguistics and chair of the department, described Stratman’s gift—of both treasure and talent—as “life affirming.”
Bell noted that Stratman’s support comes in the midst of a concerted effort within the department to reach out to its alumni. Those efforts included the department’s first alumni newsletter, which was distributed in September and generated responses from the department’s graduates.
“The fact that alums are contacting us and an alum is giving us an award and is interested in the development of the program … this department has a life, and that life is pulsating,” Bell said.