Meetings & Courses Program

Crossroads of Biology

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Genetics & Neurobiology of Language
July 27 - August 3, 2026

Key Dates
Application Deadline:  April 10th, 2026
Arrival: July 27th by 6pm EST
Departure: August 3rd around 12pm EST

The course will be held at the Laboratory's Banbury Conference Center located on the north shore of Long Island. All participants stay within walking distance of the Center.  CSHL Courses are intensive, running all day and often including evenings and weekends; students are expected to attend all sessions and reside on campus for the duration of the course.

Instructors

Simon Fisher, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, The Netherlands
David Poeppel, New York University
Kate Watkins, University of Oxford, UK


See the roll of honor - who's taken the course in the past

Why are children able to acquire highly sophisticated language abilities without needing to be taught? What are the neurobiological and neurophysiological processes that underpin human speech and language, and how do they go awry in developmental and acquired disorders? Which genetic factors contribute to this remarkable suite of human skills, and are there evolutionary precursors that we can study in other species? 


This unique CSHL course, in its sixth iteration, addresses these core questions about the bases and origins of speech and language, through talks, interactive sessions, keynotes and debates, involving leading experts from a range of disciplines. It integrates the state-of-the-art from complementary perspectives, including development, cognitive models, neural basis, gene identification, functional genomics, model systems and comparative/evolutionary studies.


2026 Invited Speakers
Jennifer Below, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 
Elika Bergelson, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 
Esti Blanco-Elorrieta, New York University, New York City, NY 
Jonathan Brennan, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 
Karen Emmorey, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 
Evelina Fedorenko, MIT, Cambridge, MA 
Julia Fischer, Cognitive Ethology Laboratory, Goettingen, Germany 
Tecumseh Fitch, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria 
Adeen Flinker, NYU Langone, New York, NY 
Timothy Gentner, University of California, San Diego, San Diego, CA 
Liberty Hamilton, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 
Catherine Hobaiter, Wild Minds Lab, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, United Kingdom 
Sonja Vernes, The University of St Andrews, , United Kingdom 
Sandra Waxman, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 

The course will be held at the Laboratory's Banbury Conference Center located on the north shore of Long Island. All participants stay within walking distance of the Center, close to tennis court, pool and private beach.

Support & Stipends

This course is supported with funds generously provided by:  Nancy Lurie Marks Family Foundation

Stipends are available to offset tuition costs as follows:

       

Interdisciplinary Fellowships (transitioning from outside biology)  & Scholarships (transitioning from other biological disciplines) (Helmsley Charitable Trust)
International applicants (Howard Hughes Medical Institute)

Please indicate your eligibility for funding in your stipend request submitted when you apply to the course. Stipend requests do not affect selection decisions made by the instructors. 

Cost (including board and lodging): $3,260 USD

No fees are due until you have completed the full application process and are accepted into the course. Students accepted into the course should plan to arrive by early evening on July 27 and plan to depart after lunch on August 3.

Before applying, ensure you have 1) Personal statement/essay; 2) Letter(s) of recommendation; 3) Curriculum vitae/resume (optional); 4) Financial aid request (optional). More details


If you are not ready to fully apply but wish to express interest in applying, receive a reminder two weeks prior to the deadline, and tell us about your financial aid requirements, click below: