Queer and Trans Speech Science and Technology

at Interspeech 2025, 17-21 August, Rotterdam

Trans and queer people have often been excluded from the very spaces that perform research or provide services for them (Zimman 2021, Huff 2022).

At Interspeech 2024, the special session on Speech and Gender saw much discussion around trans and queer speech, and we aim to expand on those conversations and perspectives with this special session.

By incorporating a broad range of perspectives across formal and informal communities interested in trans and queer voice, we aim to provide a space to build community and provide a foundation for future trans- and queer-driven research on trans and queer speech science and technology.

WHEN?

WHERE?

Rotterdam Ahoy Convention Centre

Ahoyweg 10

3084 BA Rotterdam

ROOM: Dock 1A - 2nd Floor

WHy is this important?

Following the successful first Special Session on Gender, Speech Technology and Speech Sciences at Interspeech 2024, and, in particular the clear interest in topics related to LGBTQ+ speakers and their use of voice technology (4 of 10 papers), we propose a Special Session dedicated to Queer and Trans Speech Science and Technology at Interspeech 2025.

To our knowledge, this is the first session specifically about trans speech science and technology not just at Interspeech but at any major language technology conference
Interspeech attendees would benefit greatly from the insights and perspectives of trans and queer people (as developers and users of speech technologies) and contribute significantly towards queer and trans research and development on speech and voice
Links to an existing practice of voice training which is often supported by speech technologies
Links to a growing field in linguistics which investigates speech and other linguistic practices beyond the gender binary
As a 2024 study shows, research at Interspeech tends to focus on binary gender (Sanchez, Ross & Markl, 2024)

Topics

If you would like to submit research to this session, below are topics that the session aims to incorporate.

Trans and Queer Linguistics
Trans and Queer Speech processing
Empirical investigations of algorithmic bias
Ethics of Queer and Trans Research
Datasets of Queer and Trans Voices
Ensuring Privacy for Trans and Queer Speakers
Applications related to Trans and Queer Voice Training and Modification

The special session will consist of a talk by Hanneke Bax, a speech therapist and voice trainer with experience working with the queer community, followed by oral presentations of accepted papers (1.5 hours).

If you would like more information, please contact Cliodhna Hughes , Francisca Pessanha, Juliana Francis or Robin Netzorg.

Hanneke Bax

Bestemming Bereikt Logopedie and Codarts University of the Arts, department of Music Theatre

Hanneke Bax is a voice-specialized speech therapist and voice trainer. Since 2009, she has run her own private practice (Bestemming Bereikt Logopedie) and teaches speech, vocal training and artistic research at the Music Theatre department of Codarts University of the Arts in Rotterdam. She also provides voice workshops and professional development courses.

Hanneke studied speech therapy in Eindhoven after a preparatory program in theatre. Her work combines clinical expertise with a dedication for vocal expression. From 2016 to 2024, she collaborated with ENT phoniatrician Prof. Hans Mahieu at Ruysdael Clinics. Between 2020 and 2022, she co-hosted the podcast Zeg, a podcast about the way we sound and why.

Presented Research:

(Click on the titles to access the papers)

15h00 - 15h15: Web-Based Application for Real-Time Biofeedback of Vocal Resonance in Gender-Affirming Voice Training: Design and Usability Evaluation
Tara McAllister, Collin Eagen, Yi Shan, Peter Traver, Daphna Harel, Tae Hong Park, Vesna Novak

15h15 - 15h30: On the Production and Perception of a Single Speaker's Gender
Robin Netzorg, Naomi Carvalho, Andrea Guzman, Lydia Wang, Juliana Francis, Klo Vivienne Garoute, Keith Johnson, Gopala Anumanchipalli

15h30 - 15h45: Conveying Gender Through Speech: Insights from Trans Men
Alice Ross, Cliodhna Hughes, Eddie L. Ungless, Catherine Lai

15h45 - 16h00: Queer Waves: A German Speech Dataset Capturing Gender and Sexual Diversity from Podcasts and YouTube
Ingo Siegert, Jan Marquenie, Sven Grawunder

16h00 - 16h15: Reddit FlairShare: A Human-Annotated Dataset of Gender-Progressive Online Discourse
Carlos Hartmann

16h15 -16h30: Voices of `cyborg awesomeness': Posthuman embodiment of nonbinary gender expression in AI speech technologies
Maxwell Hope, Éva Székely

ORGANIZERS:

ROBIN netzorg

University of California, Berkeley (USA)

Robin is a EECS PhD candidate advised by Gopala Anumanchipalli and Bin Yu at the University of California, Berkeley. With particular interest in building technology for gender-affirming voice training, Robin specializes in modeling speaker perception and identity alongside community members and leaders. Outside of academic work, Robin co-leads two trans affinity and support groups at her university, Queers in Computer Science and Engineering (QICSE) and T-Cal.

juliana francis

KTH Stockholm (Sweden)
Juliana is a PhD Student in the Speech, Music, and Hearing (TMH) department at KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden. Her research interest is on building tools and technology to enhance communication of individuals, with a current focus on both methods for individuals to perform gender-affirming voice training, as well as improving the speed and naturalness of communication for individuals who use Augmented and Alternative Communication Devices. Juliana is also a current editor for the ISCA LGBTQI* webpage.

nina markl

University of Essex (UK)

Nina is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Analytics and Data Science and the Department of Language and Linguistics at the University of Essex. She works at the intersection of sociolinguistics, speech technologies and AI ethics, and is particularly interested in language variation and change and the impact of speech technologies on marginalised speech communities. She has previously co-organised the 2024 Special Session on Gender, Speech Technology and Speech Science, and is a member of the ISCA Diversity Committee and LGBTQI+ group.

Francisca pessanha

Utrecht University (NL)

Francisca is a PhD candidate in the Human-Centered Computing group at the Department of Information and Computing Sciences at Utrecht University. Their research focuses on non-verbal signals in oral history archives and explores new ways of interacting with these stories to bring them to a broader public. In addition to their research, Francisca is an active member of the Diversity and Inclusion Committee and the Queer Network at their university and a member of the Interspeech 2025 Diversity Committee (LGBTQI+ group).

cliodhna hughes

University of Edinburgh & University of Sheffield (UK)

Cliodhna is a research assistant in phonetics at the University of Edinburgh and is nearing completion of an MPhil in speech and language technologies at the University of Sheffield. She is interested in the voice from all perspectives, having worked on projects on articulatory and acoustic phonetics, sociophonetics, speech perception, and singing voice technologies. Her recent work includes an investigation of the effects of facial feminisation surgery on the voice, and a study on style shift by trans men.

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