Talks

Links to talks on the topic of joint speech. These academic talks were delivered to diverse audiences, including psychologists, neuroscientists, computer scientists, and philosophers.

From Language to Languaging: Bringing chant and gesture into the picture

This is a talk to the Hong Kong hub of the International SOciety for Gesture Studies, given in Spring 2021. It seeks to present joint speech as an important part of the long history of the development of languaging and the human social world.

From Language to Languaging

A talk given to the Institute of Psychology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. This is a high-level talk that argues that the conventional notion of language as described in formal linguistics cannot account for the radical development of our species. A broader notion of languaging is required, and Joint Speech is offered as one important activity that thereby comes into view.

and the same theme delivered in July 2020 within the Abralin series of linguistics talks:

Voice and Gaze Considered Together in Languaging

An invited talk to a conference on The Inhuman Gaze held in Paris, June 2018. In which I argue that language conceived of as the passing of encoded messages does not begin to explain the radical transformation of our species from ape to human.

Can I get an amen? Joint speech, dialogical sense-making, and Logos

A keynote address to the Language and Enaction conference held in Claremont Ferrand in June 2016. Here I introduce the topic of joint speech, and I elaborate upon the call-and-response structures found in practices of prayer and protest. The “Amen” of the title refers to the role that a statement of general assent (amen, but also “right on!) plays in allowing many individuals to participate in the voicing of complex and highly nuanced texts. The talk is about 34 minutes long.

The subject of joint speech

A 20 minute (roughly) talk and ensuing online discussion with Matthew Egbert and Marek McGann (and Erik Rietveld in absentia). Part of the ENSO seminar series. This talk was on May 19th, 2016.

We speak, therefore we are . . .

A short (13 min) TEDx talk in which I introduce my topic of Joint Speech, and ask why is there so little scientific study of this remarkable behaviour?

Joint Speech, and why it merits study

A longer talk (an hour or so) given to an audience of psychologists, that tries to point to the reasons to study joint speech, and some of the things to be found there.

Prayer and Protest: Voices Reconsidered

An introduction to the rich phenomenon of joint speech, where many people say the same thing at the same time. In this talk, I try to justify my interest in prayer, chant, and such to a crowd of computer scientists. Talk given to the Complex and Adaptive Systems Laboratory, University College Dublin, in February, 2014.