Peter Andrews and Marie Bissell, both first-year MA linguistics concentration students, presented at the Linguistic Society of America and American Dialect Society conferences this past January 2019. Andrews felt that presenting his paper, “Gender Differentiation of Ruralness in Southeastern Ohio,” was a valuable professional experience, saying that it “gave me a chance not only to present my own research, but also to attend interdisciplinary workshops and presentations that expanded my perspective on the role of sociolinguistics in relation to other sub-fields of linguistics.”

Marie Bissell, who presented on “The phonology of intrusive [l]” and “The Role of Linguistic Self-perception in Perceptual Dialectology Tasks,” agreed on the value of traveling to conferences as a graduate student. She noted that “having the opportunity to travel to and present … was an excellent way to gain experience presenting research and also to network with other linguists. Both conferences featured up-and-coming linguistics research, and conference participants got to experience a wide array of engaging activities: plenary speakers, panels, poster sessions, workshops, and many more.”

Congratulations to both of them on their achievement!