LSA Summer Institute 2025

This summer, I had the privilege of spending five weeks in Eugene for the 2025 LSA Summer Institute (hosted by the University of Oregon). From July 7 to August 8, Eugene became a temporary home where I immersed myself in courses, connected with fellow linguists, and explored the Pacific Northwest.

The classes

Sociolinguistic Perception with Charlotte Vaughn and Abby Walker was a standout for me. As someone who spends a lot of time thinking about voice quality and its social meanings, getting to dive deep into how listeners extract social information from speech was great. The course gave me new frameworks for thinking about the perceptual side of my creaky voice research, as well as new ideas for future projects.

I also took Introduction to Pragmatics (Lucien Brown), Linguistic Variation and Social Networks (Robin Dodsworth), Adaptive Speech Perception and Comprehension (Chigusa Kurumada and Xin Xie), Acquisition of Variation (Naomi Shin), and Speech Accommodation, Convergence, and Imitation (Cynthia Clopper). Each one added another piece to the puzzle of how variation actually works in the social world—from network structures to how kids pick up variation to real-time accommodation in conversation. While I’m not going into detail about each course individually, they were all incredibly engaging. I felt really lucky to learn from such thoughtful instructors, and I came away from each one with new ideas, readings, and perspectives that I’m excited to keep exploring.

I also attended the co-located Community-Based Sociolinguistics conference (organized by Nicole Holliday, Sabriya Fisher, and Tyler Mendez Kline), which ended up being another highlight. The workshop revisited classic sociolinguistic fieldwork approaches and highlighted the importance of building relationships with communities when studying language variation. One of my biggest takeaways was how easy it can be, especially after the shift toward digital and remote data collection, to lose sight of the value of in-person, community-centered research. Hearing about current large-scale community projects and practical strategies for ethical collaboration was both inspiring and a helpful reminder of the kind of research practices I hope to prioritize in my own work.

The people

Honestly, the community aspect was one of the best parts. Five weeks of being surrounded by people who geek out about language in all its forms creates this really special energy. I got to meet people whose work I’d been citing, other grad students wrestling with similar questions from different angles, and researchers whose enthusiasm was genuinely infectious. There’s something about being in a space where everyone gets why you’re excited about, say, the social meaning of creaky voice or the intricacies of speech perception.

Oregon adventures

I had no idea what to expect from Eugene, but it ended up being such a pleasant surprise. The Oregon Country Fair was wonderfully weird—just this celebration of creativity and community that felt like stepping into a completely different world. The Saturday Market became my weekend routine for fresh produce, tasty snacks, and browsing local crafts. I checked out the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, took a day trip to Portland, and went horseback riding on the beach in Florence. Riding a horse along the Pacific, with the salt air, sound of waves crashing, and rhythm of hooves… It was almost mediatative.

The UO campus itself was gorgeous. All green and lush in the summer, with quiet spots tucked away even when the institute was in full swing. I biked around the city quite a bit, which turned out to be a perfect way to unwind after long days at the institute. The bike-friendly paths, riverfront trails, and green spaces made it easy to see why Eugene has such a strong cycling culture, and it was a really nice way to experience the city beyond campus.

So long, Oregon

I’m heading back to Montreal with way more than just notes and syllabi. I’ve got new ways of thinking about my research questions, connections that’ll definitely shape my work going forward, and honestly just a renewed excitement about what I’m doing. The institute reminded me that linguistics works best when we’re bringing different perspectives into conversation—some of my best insights came from courses that weren’t directly in my wheelhouse.

Anyway, back to Montreal and back to my own research… but with new questions, new frameworks, and the memory of an Oregon summer to get me through winter.