UChicago Kinship Workshop and Summit 2026
Event description
This week-long workshop (5–9 January 2026) aims to bring together researchers working on kin concept development and kin term acquisition. The first portion of the workshop (Mon–Thurs) will include training, hands-on data preparation, and analysis time. The workshop will then conclude (Fri; 9 January 2026) with a research summit featuring presentations from scientists in the US and abroad. Our goal is to train up-and-coming researchers and further develop ties among the small but active community of researchers already working on issues of kin concept development.
Organizer: Marisa Casillas
Course email address: mcasillas@uchicago.edu
TENTATIVE summit schedule (Friday, 9 January 2026)
| Berkeley time | Chicago time | Cologne time | Canberra time++ | Speaker(s) | Title/Content |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 07:00–07:45 | 09:00–09:45 | 16:00–16:45 | 03:00–03:45 | Marisa Casillas | Opening and introductions |
| 07:45–08:15 | 09:45–10:15 | 16:45–17:15 | 03:45–04:15 | Alice Mitchell/Fiona Jordan | Adults across diverse communities accommodate to children in reference to kin. |
| 08:15–08:45 | 10:15–10:45 | 17:15–17:45 | 04:15–04:45 | Christina Steele/Ashley Thomas | The conceptual and the specific: Challenges to representing kin concepts in infancy and childhood. |
| 08:45–09:00 | 10:45–11:00 | 17:45–18:00 | 04:45–05:00 | – | Break |
| 09:00–09:30 | 11:00–11:30 | 18:00–18:30 | 05:00–05:30 | Nina Schoener | Evidence of pressures towards communicative efficiency in developing semantic systems. |
| 09:30–10:00 | 11:30–12:00 | 18:30–19:00 | 05:30–06:00 | Joseph Leisz/Dalia Querenet | Kinship in the Buckeye State: Understanding how Ohio children use kinship terms. |
| 10:00–10:30 | 12:00–12:30 | 19:00–19:30 | 06:00–06:30 | Yuchen Jin | Why is “uncle” so hard? Developmental paths in Chinese kinship term learning. |
| 10:30–11:30 | 12:30–13:30 | 19:30–20:30 | 06:30–07:30 | – | Lunch break |
| 11:30–12:00 | 13:30–14:00 | 20:30–21:00 | 07:30–08:00 | Subin Kim | Respect, distance, and socialization: The role of honorifics in Korean child-directed speech. |
| 12:00–12:30 | 14:00–14:30 | 21:00–21:30 | 08:00–08:30 | Marisa Casillas | Discussion and closing |
++ = Saturday, 10 January 2026
Registration
Registration currently open; all speakers are be automatically registered (please check your email if this is you). This workshop is free of charge, but participation is only offered by invitation. Please contact Dr. Casillas to inquire about participation if you did not receive an invitation but would like to attend (see above).
Venue
The workshop will take place over Zoom for remote participants, and in Green Hall 008 and 011 on the University of Chicago campus for in-person participants.
Travel and accommodations
Those traveling to the area may want to review the recommendations here.
Acknowledgements
This workshop is supported by:
- NSF REU grant 2146474 to Nikole Patson and Laura Wagner
- NSF CAREER grant 2238609 to Marisa Casillas
If you’re interested in learning more about our work in the chatter lab, please check us out at chatterlab.uchicago.edu. Our lab at the University of Chicago is located on the traditional homelands of the Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi nations, among others (learn more: 1, 2, 3 and 4).