Dear colleagues,
Dear friends,

I am pleased to invite you to the defense of my doctoral dissertation:

Title
"Mark My Words! On the Automated Prediction of Lexical Difficulty for Foreign Language Readers"
Board of Examiners
Chair
  • Prof. Dr. Magali Paquot, UCLouvain
Supervisors
  • Prof. Dr. Cédrick Fairon, UCLouvain
  • Prof. Dr. Piet Desmet, KU Leuven
  • Prof. Dr. Thomas François, UCLouvain
Jury Members
  • Prof. Dr. Núria Gala, Aix-Marseille Université
  • Prof. Dr. Detmar Meurers, Universität Tübingen
  • Prof. Dr. Maribel Montero Perez, UGent

which I will present in view of obtaining the joint degree of Docteur en langues, lettres et traductologie (from UCLouvain) and Doctor in de Taalkunde (from KU Leuven).

The public defense will be held in English and will take place at the Auditorium du Monceau (Louvain-la-Neuve) on Friday, June 25, 2021, from 2 pm to 5 pm (CEST). The defense will start with a 20-min presentation of the thesis, followed by a Q&A session with the board of examiners. Afterward (ca. 4 pm), the meeting will be interrupted for the examiners’ deliberation. The session will be resumed with the proclamation of the jury’s decision. The meeting will end with a speech by my supervisors and me. In light of the current COVID-19 pandemic, on-site attendance will be restricted to the examination committee, close family, and myself.

Unfortunately, this means that you won’t be able to attend the meeting and reception in person. Still, it would be a great pleasure if you could join online. You can join my Gather.town graduation space before, during, and after the defense. The defense itself will be streamed via Microsoft Teams. Right after this Teams call ends, I will be happy to meet with you at Gather.town for a short reception with all virtual participants.

If you wish to attend the online public defense, please confirm your virtual attendance via this Google Form by Friday, June 18. I will then add you to the guest list and send you further practical information.

Attached you will find the poster of the invitation to the public defense at UCLouvain.

I am looking forward to virtually meeting with you on June 25 and wish you all the best in these difficult and unforeseen times.