Workshop in General Linguistics (WiGL) 17 wrapup

Photos by Language Sciences Multimedia intern Miranda Vescio, unless otherwise noted

The 17th annual Workshop in General Linguistics (WiGL) was back again in 2023 after several years of pandemic-related hiatus, and it was probably our biggest and most successful WiGL to date!

WiGL is a fully student-run conference which was founded by the UW–Madison Linguistics Student Organization in 2003. The workshop provides academic and professionalization opportunities for our own students, as well as students on other campuses.

Both graduate and undergraduate students participate in various aspects of running the conference such as abstract review, conference planning, and may present their own research at the workshop as well.

WiGL spanned two days this year (Friday-Saturday March 24-25), and for the first time ever included an interactive poster session as well as the standard 20-minute presentations.

Also for the first time, the conference featured two invited keynote presentations: Professors Ryan Henke and Laura Horton from UW–Madison Language Sciences both gave valuable presentations related to the development of research questions in linguistics.

Over 60 people altogether attended WiGL this year as a presenter, volunteer, or audience member. Even a big unexpected snowstorm on Saturday morning didn’t keep everyone away!

Student presenters came from all over the US (New York, Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Washington DC, and more!) as well as abroad (the UAE and Ethiopia!).

The hardworking and creative organizing committee of Jae Weller, Rachyl Hietpas, Eleanor Sand, Thomas Harb, B Dowling, and David Daum invested significant time and effort to make the conference a smooth and enjoyable experience for the participants.

The LSO plans to publish the proceedings of this year’s workshop online in the LSO Working Papers in Linguistics.

We were delighted to welcome everyone back to the UW–Madison campus for WiGL, and we hope to see you next year!