Organized by the Sociolab’s doctoral students Anne-Marie Moelders, Johanna Mechler, Christian Paga and Laura Imhoff, LinPin took place for the first time on 26 September 2023 at the University of Duisburg-Essen. The aim of LinPin (Linguistics Ph.D. Students in NRW) is to exchange ideas about doctoral projects and experiences on the path to a doctorate in linguistics. The one-day event enabled the 30 participants from all over NRW to present and discuss their own linguistic dissertation projects in poster presentations and to find out who is currently doing a doctorate in NRW, how and on which research topics in linguistics. For example, Johanna Mechler and Anne-Marie Moelders presented their LaVaLi findings: Johanna reported on findings on a perception experiment in which she compared US and UK listeners’ evaluative responses to Tyneside voices and Anne presented her findings from a production study on quotation.
An opening speech by Prof. Isabelle Buchstaller, Director of the Sociolinguistics Lab, focusing on the importance of networking was followed by an interactive exchange phase among the PhD students themselves. Then, the speakers Christina Ringel and JProf. Andreas Weilinghoff shared their successful doctoral paths with the participants, particularly how to deal with different kinds of challenges that PhD students face.
Due to the success and great interest in the event, a selection process is now being developed to plan at which university LinPin will take place next – so the start has been made to establish LinPin as an annual event at various universities in NRW.
