Western Interdisciplinary Student Symposium on Language Research 2026
Attending in-person? Conron Hall UC3110
There might be some swag waiting for registered attendees when they arrive at the conference – snacks and drinks will also be available throughout the day, so we want to know if you have any dietary restrictions!
Attending online? Catch the whole thing on zoom:
https://westernuniversity.zoom.us/j/98066952047
Meeting ID: 980 6695 2047
2026 Conference Information
WISSLR Information
Date: March 7, 2026
Time: 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
Location: Western University, Conron Hall UC3110, (in person)
Online: Zoom (virtual)
https://westernuniversity.zoom.us/j/98066952047
Meeting ID: 980 6695 2047
Registration: On Eventbrite
Program: tinyurl.com/WISSLR-Program
Key Note Speaker
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Ida Toivonen, Carleton University
Dr. Ida Toivonen is Professor of Linguistics and Cognitive Science at Carleton University. Between 2002 and 2005 she was a member of the Department of Linguistics at the University of Canterbury in New Zealand. She received a BA in Linguistics and French from Brandeis University in 1995, and a PhD in Linguistics from Stanford University in 2001.
Title: Animacy Effects in Language
Most (perhaps all) languages exhibit effects of animacy, where animacy is roughly understood as the classification of entities based on whether they are alive or agentive. This talk will provide examples of animacy effects in several languages. The examples will illustrate that the data are not always straightforward. Furthermore, the effects sometimes seem gradient. I will argue that in order to make sense of the data, it is important to distinguish between grammatical animacy features, conceptual animacy, and actual biological animacy.
Website: https://carleton.ca/toivonen/
Email: ida.toivonen@carleton.ca
Committee Members
Committee Members; MA Graduate Students:
Past programs:
