LabPhon 20 in Montreal

This year I had the opportunity to help organize LabPhon 20, hosted June 25-29 in Montreal across McGill and UQAM campuses. This was a milestone edition, marking the conference’s 40th anniversary as a venue for work that sits right at the intersection of phonetics and phonology. It was a real multi-institutional effort, organized together with Morgan, Meghan, and me at McGill University, Suzy at the University of Ottawa, and Beth at Carleton University.

Being on the organizing committee meant a lot of unglamorous work: catering, permits, venues, housing… countless details, and a few last-minute scrambles behind the scenes! I tried to help out wherever was needed and keep things running smoothly day to day. It was a ton of work, but worth it to see and hear how much attendees enjoyed it. (Also, somewhat unexpectedly, a great cardio program. I’m pretty sure all of us volunteers logged a marathon’s worth of steps just pacing hallways and hauling various boxes.)

A few pictures from behind the scenes:

This year’s theme “Looking Back and Looking Forward” meant that we got to hear many reflective & inspirational talks looking at where the field has been and where it’s headed. For me personally, this one had an extra layer of meaning: LabPhon 19 was the first big international conference I ever attended, and it left a real impression on me. Getting to help organize LabPhon 20 felt like a nice way of giving back to a conference that gave me so much early on. Amid all the organizing, I also got to present a poster of my own: “Modelling the acoustic structure of creaky voice: Mediation and factor analysis,” and had some great conversations at the poster board.

This was also the first time LabPhon was held in Canada, so we leaned into it where we could! Snack tables throughout the conference were stocked with bagels, nanaimo bars, maple cookies, butter tarts, pets de soeur, cannolis, croissants, canelés for a bit of nostalgic Canadiana.

None of it would have happened without our amazing team of volunteers. A huge, heartfelt thank you to everyone who pitched in ♡. Special shout-out to our team captains (Josh, Kuilin, Massimo, Alessio, Tony) and to Claire and Amelia from CRBLM especially, who went above and beyond.

Grateful it all came together. I think we’ve all earned a bit of rest after this one.