I just returned from Miami Beach, Florida, the site of the most recent meeting of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. In truth, I can't say that I would have chosen Miami if it had been up to me. First, it is close to absolutely nothing. I did enjoy my flight back, but only because I was in first class. On the way down, I was sitting in the midst of a group of eleven highly spirited (and spirit-imbibing) guys from North Dakota who were on their way down to Florida for some NASCAR thing. They bought me beer and gave me venison jerky. Second, it was so outrageously expensive. How can people live there?
Today, of course, I'm feeling completely overwhelmed by the amount of work that managed to pile up while I was gone. It doesn't help that today I have three meetings--two scheduled and one that popped up at the last minute. Despite that, I wanted to post my handouts on the web for anyone who is interested in reading them and is having trouble navigating the ASHA conference website.
First, we have Perceptual Bias and the Myth of the Gay Lisp, a poster that certainly attracted more than its fair share of attention.
Second, we have Technology-Enhanced Phonetics Instruction, a one-hour seminar that did not attract as much attention as I had hoped it would.
And last, we have Exploring the Etiology of Phonological Impairment, which I think got just the right amount of attention.
As always, you are invited to read 'em and comment on 'em.
I just got back from NWAV in Columbus.
Let me first say that NWAV was absolutely a class act from start to finish. The talks ranged from good to excellent, and the distribution was highly negatively skewed (i.e., the mean was considerably higher than the median, if that makes sense). I really enjoyed stepping out of my comfort zone and interacting with a group of people who I really don't know. I got to see people who I know (some pretty well), see a great plenary by Janet Pierrehumbert, and meet people I had always wanted to meet. As usual, I left the conference knowing that I have many, many more things to read and many, many more studies to do. I was particularly glad also that I was able to manage to get a picture of Carrie Munson on the screen during my talk. She's a legend.
I promised to post my handouts on my blog, so here they are! Leave a comment, let me know what you think.
Laura Crocker and Ben Munson, "Speech Characteristics of Gender-Nonconforming Boys"
Ben Munson and Lindsey Zimmerman,
"Perception of Sexual Orientation, Masculinity, and Femininity in Formant-Resynthesized Speech"
Beyond the conference, this visit was oddly elegiac. It has been over six years since I left Columbus, and this was the first time when I looked around and realized that I didn't even know the place anymore, and that I didn't really have strong memories of what it felt like to be there or to be a graduate student at Ohio State. I can imagine that sounds quite pretentious, but it's a pretty accurate report of what I felt.
And lastly, I should say that Jennifer Windsor would never ACTUALLY brain me with a shovel. Just a figure of speech, of course.