A Festival as a Calm Haven

My name is Ingrid Verduyckt. I am a researcher and professor in speech-language sciences. I am also a big sister.

To explain what this festival means to me, I must first tell you about a storm.

The world of language was, at first, a refuge for me.

For as long as I can remember, words have grown like magic beans in my head, overflowing. I quickly developed the ability to line them up, like an acrobat’s game in which I was the expert—a magnificent Jenga tower that never collapsed.

By my side was my beloved older brother, to whom words were missing. At least the audible and intelligible ones. I knew that deep inside him, shapeless perhaps, they tumbled over one another. So I became a bridge, a Babel bird, the interface between him and others. Between others and him.

I was ten when our family moved from Belgium to Sweden. Suddenly, I was cast into an ocean I no longer knew how to navigate. My boat of speech was taking on water, I was gasping for air. The realization that belonging was contingent on one’s ability to communicate tightened around my throat when I longed to scream. Mastering this new code became a matter of social survival, not only for me but also for my brother.

I was a bridge, but also a shield, with powers of protection and connection proportional to my ability to conform to communication expectations. Even as my little boat slowly rebuilt itself, I quickly realized that simply staying afloat was not enough to be welcomed. One’s vessel had to have the right shape, glide at the expected pace across the waves.

A multitude of tacit expectations rose up as barriers to acceptance.

Later, through my studies, I sought tools to support others navigating communication challenges. I found in speech-language therapy a discipline that aligned with many of my values, yet whose tools mainly aimed to repair and adapt the individual, paying little attention to changing the world around them: perceptions, preconceptions, habits, the unspoken. In my role as a researcher, I have the opportunity to imagine, develop and study new clinical practices, and above all, the privilege of supporting young scholars. The Voice and Media Festival was born within my lab, through the doctoral work of Geneviève Lamoureux, whom I am fortunate to co-supervise with my colleague Lucie Ménard.

This festival explores a world where communication diversity is welcomed and celebrated.

For me, it represents an island I wish I could have moored to when I was tossed on the waves. A safe harbor I now wish for those who are drifting. A glimpse of another possible world, where communication is not judged by the number of bits per second. This festival is a calm haven, a suspension in time and space.

I warmly invite you to come marvel with us at the generative beauty of our desire to communicate.

Enjoy the festival!

Associate Professor in speech-language therapy at the Université de Montréal, Ingrid Verduyckt, Ph.D. (she/her), leads the Laboratoire d’Innovations en orthophonie (Innovations in Speech-Language Therapy Lab), a research space focused on the social participation of people living with communication differences. A researcher at the CRIR and co-chair of the organization Vocavie, she is committed to interdisciplinary and inclusive approaches where the voices of those directly concerned are central.

Cover photo: taken at a pop-up exhibition by SPACE at the Whitney Museum (New York, 2024), showing the Stuttering Pride Flag © 2022 Conor Foran (license CC BY-NC-SA 4.0), hosted by Dysfluent and designed by Take Courage.