PhD candidate at the University of Tartu Adele Vaks attended MEDAL’s ‘New Challenges, Novel Approaches’ conference. Here is what she had to say about it!
The MEDAL final conference last October in Tartu was a nice full circle moment for me. When MEDAL kicked off in 2023, I was in the second year of my PhD program, just starting out with data collection and analysis. Now, at the concluding conference, I am wrapping up my thesis. This offered a perfect opportunity to reflect back on the journey I’ve been on these past few years.
Computational analysis does not feel like a completely foreign language anymore.
First, my methodological literacy has grown immensely. The keynotes and presentations at the conference included an impressive variety of different methodologies, from highly specific experiments to large-scale questionnaire data, from qualitative error analysis to complex computational models. Back when I started my PhD program, quantitative data analysis was one of the scariest new things to learn. Now — after several data analysis courses at the University of Tartu, all MEDAL workshops I could possibly fit into my calendar, and trying out new methods by participating in a MEDAL research project — computational analysis does not feel like a completely foreign language anymore. Even when listening to presentations completely different from the methodologies I’m used to, I felt like a part of the conversation; able to understand and ask questions.
I was quite starstruck when Caroline Rowland stopped by my poster.
Second, the research and mentorship opportunities I have found through MEDAL have been some of the most valuable I could have imagined. In the first MEDAL summer school in 2023, I was a nervous second-year student, putting together a poster to present some of the most preliminary analyses of my data. Being in the field of child language research, I was quite starstruck when Caroline Rowland stopped by my poster. Now, at the final conference, I was presenting a study where I am one of Caroline’s co-authors! MEDAL’s commitment to early career researcher empowerment was truly made tangible throughout the consultations, summer schools and research projects. The greats in their fields turned out to be real people, open and welcoming, willing to share their know-how and demystify the research process.
Finally, it was heartwarming to see so many familiar faces from the summer schools and conferences I’ve travelled to with MEDAL funding. While working with some of the greatest names in linguistic research has been incredible, getting to know other PhD students and ECRs has been just as important. Sharing our experiences across countries, research fields and universities has been a great encouragement while exploring the (not always well-mapped) world of academia. The final conference offered both new acquaintances and happy reunions with people I have gotten to know during my PhD journey and who have made the road a little easier to walk. Who knows what research journeys we might embark on together one day… But for now: thank you for the road walked together, MEDAL!
