Expression, Language, and Music (ELM)

Due to the present crisis, ELM* 2020 is tentatively postponed till May 12-14, 2021. We are planning on keeping substantially the same program (including venue, etc.). Let us hope we are all healthy and safe and can convene in May 2021. 

The First Biennial Conference on Expression, Language, and Music (ELM) will be hosted by the Expression, Communication, and Origins of Meaning Research Group (ECOM) at the University of Connecticut and held at The Lyceum Center in Hartford, Connecticut, May 12-14, 2021. The conference will bring together researchers from linguistics, philosophy, cognitive science, music theory, dance theory, anthropology, and neurobiology with the aim of integrating recent findings and insights from diverse perspectives concerning the significance of expression in music, dance, and language, the importance of systematic structure in these domains, and the interrelations between expressive, musical, and communicative capacities and their relevance for understanding the emergence of language (in ontogeny and phylogeny).

Our invited speakers are:

• Tecumseh Fitch (Cognitive Biology, University of Vienna)
• Kathleen Higgins (Philosophy, University of Texas, Austin)
• Ray Jackendoff (Linguistics, Tufts University)
• Jerrold Levinson (Philosophy, University of Maryland)
• Elizabeth Margulis (Music Cognition, Princeton University) 
• Isabelle Peretz (Psychology, University of Montreal)
• David Poeppel (Neuroscience, NYU)
• Ljiljana Progovac (Linguistics, Wayne State University)

We welcome abstracts on any of (but not limited to) the following topics: expression of emotions through speech, gesture, dance, and music, evolution of communication, meaning and structure in language and music, music cognition (including developmental and comparative perspectives), psychology/neuroscience of speech perception/production, philosophy of music, ‘Musical Protolanguage’. Abstracts should be accessible to an interdisciplinary audience that includes researchers who share interests with the conference themes. Preference will be given to abstracts that attempt to connect at least two of the three areas in the conference overarching themes (Expression, Language, Music).

*By coincidence, two conferences with the acronym ELM were conceived of at a similar time. If you’re looking for our friends at the other ELM, click here: Experiments in Linguistic Meaning