Summer School

Programme 

09:30 - 10:00 Registration (with coffee and pastries)

10:00 - 10:15 Welcome remarks

10:15 - 11:15 State of the Field Address with Prof. Enoch Aboh: Academic grants & underrepresented languages in syntactic theory

11:15 - 11:30 Comfort break

11:30 - 13:00 Careers Event with the PSC: Interview workshop

13:00 - 14:30 Lunch*

14:30 - 16:00 Skills Workshop with Dr Laura Bailey: Academic and public-facing presentations

16:00 - 16:30 Coffee break

16:30 - 17:30 Comparing Approaches with Prof. Miriam Butt: Approaches to computational linguistics

17:30 - 17:35 Closing remarks

* Food is not provided but we will lead a group to Mix on campus if you'd like to chat to the other attendees over lunch. Details tbd but we promise it'll be budget friendly 

Events 

State of the Field Address: Academic grants & underrepresented languages 

Prof. Enoch Aboh (University of Amsterdam) will be presenting on 'Underrepresented Languages in Syntactic Theory', showcasing the importance of diverse data in theoretical work. As well as focusing on academic findings, he will spend some time talking about his experience of successful applying for big research grants. Prof. Aboh has lead a number of different large-scale research projects. There will be something for everyone in this talk! 

Skills workshop: Academic and public-facing presentations 

Dr Laura Bailey (University of Kent) has extensive experience of presenting to both academic and public audiences. Come along to our skills workshop at the LAGB summer school (2nd September 2025, University of Suffolk) to get her tips and tricks for making your presentations pop!

Careers Event: Interview workshop with the Postgraduate Student Committee

Thinking about your career next steps? Bring along an ad for a job you could imagine applying for, and get some hands on practice asking and answering interview questions in this fun and collaborative workshop. 

Comparing approaches 

Prof. Miriam Butt (University of Konstanz) will present on computational approaches to linguistics. What status does theoretical linguistics have in a world with powerful LLMs? 

Registration 

To help cover our costs, registration for the summer school will be £10.  You must be registered in order to attend. Please register as soon as possible in order to confirm your spot. 

Registration is available via the main LAGB website. You can register for the summer school by selecting an 'individual days' option. You need to do this even if you are also registering for the full conference.

Programme: 

09.45-09.55 Registration and Welcome
09.55-10.00 Opening from the LAGBPSC Chair: Gianluca Porta (Ulster University)

10.00-11.00 State of the Field Address 1:  Evaluating Large Language Models as Linguists - Dr Itamar Kastner (Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh)

11.00-11.15 Break

11.15-12.00 Company Deep-Dive: Meaning and Mathematics in Artificial Intelligence - George Lodge (Language Engineer) and Nancy Palumbo (Language Engineer) from Unlikely AI

12.00-12.15 Break
12.15-13.15 State of the Field Address 2: Social Meaning and Identity Construction in Game-Theoretic Pragmatics - Dr Heather Burnett (Research Director, Formal Linguistics Laboratory, Paris Diderot University)

13.15-14.00 Lunch

14.00-15.30 Comparing Approaches: Perspectives in Language Acquisition - Prof Silvina Montrul (Professor of Spanish and Linguistics, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign) and Prof Ben Ambridge (Professor of Psychology, University of Manchester)

15.30-15.45 Break

15.45-17.00 Skills Workshop: Inferential Statistics for Linguists: Revealing Underlying Mechanisms and Making Them Work for You - Dr Lauren Ackerman (Research Associate and LingLab Manager, Newcastle University)

17.00-17.15 Break

17.15-18.30 Careers Talks: (1) A Career After Linguistics: Perspectives from graduates - Dr Ben Naismith (Senior Assessment Scientist from Duolingo), Noriyasu Li (Principal Product Manager from Moderna), and Tynisha Brice (Assistant Director for International Career Development from Davidson College) 

(2) Getting Career Opportunities as a Linguistics Student - Dr. Abdesalam Soudi (Project Manager of Humanities @ Work in the Community, Health & Tech Industries from University of Pittsburgh)

18.30-on Informal social gathering

Programme: 

Chair: Gianluca Porta (Ulster University)

10.00-11.00 Talk 1: Sounds and meaning in constructed languages - Dr. Bettina Beinhoff (ARU)

11.00-11.30 Break

11.30-12.30 Workshop 1: Academic publishing: One bottle, many necks? - Dr. Yuni Kim

12.30-12.50 JoULAB presentation: Núria Bosch Masip (University of Cambridge)

13.00-14.00 Lunch (provided)

14.00-15.00 Talk 2: Deficit, difficulty, difference: alternative perspectives into  autistic people’s pragmatic skills - Prof. Napoleon Katsos (University of Cambridge)

15.00-15.15 Break

15.15-16.15 Workshop 2: Formulating and Testing Hypotheses in Historical Syntax - Dr. Krishnan J. Ram-Prasad (University of Oxford)

16.15-16.45 Break

16.45-17.45 Talk 3:  Direct/Inverse systems in a Cyclic Agree approach from a broader  typological perspective: Successes, challenges and potential extensions - Prof. Elena Anagnostopoulou (University of Crete)

17.45- Informal social gathering