Fair and inclusive

For gender research in Jena, it is not only the exchange between researchers at the university that is important, but also international networking. From 17 to 21 August, Prof. Dr Melanie Weirich, Professor of Speech Studies and Phonetics in Jena, and doctoral student Inke Henneberger, also from Speech Studies and Phonetics, therefore took part in this year's Interspeech in Rotterdam to present current findings from gender-related phonetic research in Jena.

Interspeech is an annual, internationally renowned conference with around 2000 scientists from all over the world whose research interests lie at the interface of language and technology. The motto of this year's conference was "Fair and Inclusive Speech Science and Technology", with the organisers placing a special focus on the diversity of individuals and languages as the basis for gaining scientific knowledge.

In this context, Melanie Weirich gave a presentation on current findings on the influence of hormones on the voice, which she is investigating in a research project together with Prof Dr Adrian Simpson at the Institute of German Linguistics. Specifically, it was about the connection between sex hormones, cycle phases, age and fundamental frequency in the voice of women. The contribution was part of a lecture session on "Diversity: Age, Sex, Gender, Ethnicity, and More". In addition, Melanie Weirich presented the results of two listening experiments on the gender-specific perception of s-sounds from the children's voice project by her colleague Dr Riccarda Funk in a poster session.