Faculty in the Department of Linguistics recently worked with the Department of Second Language Studies and the Hamilton-Luger School to host MidPhon30, the 30th anniversary meeting of this workshop, which started in the 1990’s as a joint meeting between Indiana University and Ohio State University, and then the University of Illinois. The workshop has since this early beginning consistently brought together some of the most prominent scholars in phonology and phonetics from around the country, and it’s called ‘mid’, because these scholars happen to be working at neighboring universities. Though local, it’s been one of the world’s most high-powered annual venues in the discipline showcasing early-concept research in linguistic theory, language documentation, social variation, multilingualism and language acquisition, and psycholinguistics. It’s been a model launching point for our graduate students and an important place for our junior faculty to become connected into the research network.
The program was compacted into a two-day period on October 10 - 11, involving almost 50 presentations from people within relatively easy driving distance, brought together about 100 attendees, including the faculty from these institutions. This workshop was particularly noteworthy as a return to I.U. organized by Stuart Davis and his colleagues, since Prof. Davis organized the original series. The workshop stands as a testament to the power of the American academy to bring scholars together to solve intellectual and scientific problems and to draw in and nurture the next generation.
The workshop was supported by the Departments of Linguistics, Second Language Studies, Speech Language and Hearing Sciences, French and Italian, and Central Eurasian Studies, as well as the Hamilton-Luger School of Global and International Studies and the Chin Languages Research Project, another testament to the richness of language research and teaching at Indiana University.