Congratulations to Chiara Marchetiello, PhD candidate, Department of Linguistics, School of Linguistic, Speech, and Communication Sciences, on being awarded the A.J. Leventhal Scholarship in 2026. Chiara reports here on her A.J. Leventhal Scholarship funded research trip to participate to the 59th Conference Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea (SLE), hosted this year by the University of Osnabrück, Germany, 26th to 29th August 2026.
Image: Chiara Marchetiello presenting at the SLE Conference, August 2026.
Thanks to the A. J. Leventhal Scholarship, I had the wonderful opportunity to participate to the 59th Conference Meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea (SLE), hosted this year by the University of Osnabrück, Germany, 26th—29th August.
The SLE is the largest society of Europe with over 1,000 active members from around the world. As such, its annual meeting represents one of the largest and most prestigious forum for researchers working in all areas of theoretical linguistics. This year, my application was accepted for an oral presentation of a paper entitled: ‘I don’t know, therefore I don’t gesture: A formal account of the multimodal expression of epistemicity in Neapolitan’, which is derived from my doctoral research.
During the conference, I had the opportunity to present my work in front of major scholars in the field and to receive insightful questions during the Q&A session. This feedback has been immensely helpful as I work on the final chapter of my PhD thesis. As a final PhD student, I was also very happy to receive positive feedback on my presentation style and to talk about my research and potential future career paths with well-established scholars in the field, including researchers who may potentially be my external examiners in the future.
Thus, this award allowed me to make valuable connections within my field, to disseminate my research findings to an international academic audience expert in my subject, and to receive feedback and advice that are essential for me as I enter the final months of my PhD Programme.
While there, I attended a two-days’ workshop on epistemicity in minoritised spoken languages which provided me with valuable insights that are directly relevant to my research on gesture and epistemic knowledge, not only from a theoretical perspective but also in terms of data collection, fieldwork practices, and research integrity. More broadly, attending this conference helped me to stay up to date with recent developments in my field and to connect with other researchers I didn’t know before who face similar challenges to what I currently encounter in my own research.
My attendance to SLE Annual Meeting has therefore been essential for completing my study here at Trinity. It enabled me to access new recent developments in the study of epistemicity and multimodal communication, while also expositing me to approaches from different linguistic traditions and perspectives. This was particularly valuable because it allowed me to consider my research topic, which is interdisciplinary at its heart, from perspectives that I may not otherwise have encountered.
Finally, the conference provided an important opportunity to discuss potential future directions for my academic careers. None of these opportunities would have been possible without the financial support provided by the A. J. Leventhal Scholarship, for which I am truly grateful.
Image: Exterior St Peter's Cathedral Osnabrück, Germany.
Image: Interior St Peter's Cathedral Osnabrück, Germany.
Images courtesy of Chiara Marchetiello.
A.J. Leventhal Scholarship
The A.J. Leventhal Scholarship, funded by private donation and by the T.C.D. Trust, was created to enable graduates of Irish universities who are pursuing postgraduate studies in Trinity College, Dublin in modern languages or modern literature to further their studies in Europe. It is an annual scholarship, and applications are invited from registered postgraduate students in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences who are pursuing research in modern languages or modern literature. Final year undergraduate students who expect to graduate this year and to register for a research degree in modern languages or modern literature may also apply. Further details are available from the Faculty Office by emailing artshss@tcd.ie.