Welcome to SNL 2025
Welcome to Gallaudet University and the 2025 meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language! We are excited to have the opportunity to gather in person to talk about science and build ties within our international SNL community. Our annual meeting gives us a chance to affirm our shared values for scientific research, critical thinking, and inclusivity that have guided us since our founding. We are also keenly aware of the many people in our language community who are not able to attend SNL in person, and continue to work on improving global access. As with prior years, following the conference, recordings of all talks will be made available on our website to any SNL member.
We also continue our member initiated virtual activities. So far, we have held 21 of these events, with a total of 189 attendees. We encourage you to consider organizing one of these events, and to attend others. They provide a unique way to connect to others in the field and continue our interactions beyond our annual meeting.
Gallaudet University is a fitting location for our society to convene, with a history rooted in language and inclusivity. In 1856, Amos Kendall, a postmaster general during two presidential administrations, donated two acres of his estate in northeast Washington, D.C. to establish a school and housing for 12 deaf and six blind students. He further persuaded the US Congress to provide funding. Edward Miner Gallaudet, the son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet, founder of the first school for deaf students in the United States, became the new school's superintendent. Today, Gallaudet University has over 1300 students and is a worldwide hub for Deaf culture, Deaf identity, and the advancement of Deaf and hard-of-hearing people globally. Gallaudet is a leader in sign language linguistics, deaf studies, accessibility, and the neurobiology of signed languages, and we are thrilled to be here.
We could not put on this conference without a cast of helping characters. Lorna Quandt, our local organizer, was instrumental in coordinating the logistics of the meeting. The Program Committee—Katrien Segaert (Chair), Valentina Borghesani, Francesca Branzi, Beth Jeffries, Simona Mancini, William Matchin, Lorna Quandt, Xin Sun, and myself—worked hard all year to deliver an outstanding scientific program and a smooth conference. And a special thanks to our team at Meeting Perfect—Shauney Wilson, Lynn Flannery, Shawna Lampkin, Kerry Miller, and Jeff Wilson—for their work with society logistics, including making sure all the many details are taken care of. We are grateful to everyone who helped make SNL 2025 a reality.
Finally, we are grateful to the many sponsors whose contributions help to support our meeting. These include the US National Institutes of Health; MIT Press; the University of Birmingham; Frontiers in Language Sciences; the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Evolving Language; and Rogue Research. Our main awards are sponsored by Brain and Language (Early Career Award and Dissertation Award) and Language, Cognition, and Neuroscience (Distinguished Career Award).
This year we are also particularly thankful for a host of new travel award sponsors who have helped facilitate trainee attendance at the meeting. These include the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, The Department of Chinese and Bilingual Studies (CBS) at The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, and several anonymous donors who supported The Murray Grossman Travel Award, the Sheila E. Blumstein Travel Award, the Peter Hagoort Travel award, and SNL Community Travel awards.
Wishing you a wonderful time at the conference, and don't forget to use the tag #SNL2025 on social media!!
Jonathan Peelle
Chair, Society for the Neurobiology of Language
