Experimental phonetics on display: Heritage, science, and memory at the University of Coimbra Faculty of Letters

Abstract

In 2025, the PHONLAB R&D project team will create a permanent exhibition at the University of Coimbra dedicated to the phonetician Armando de Lacerda (1902-1984) and the Experimental Phonetics Laboratory of the Faculty of Letters (1936-1979). The exhibition is the result of a joint effort by the Institute of Contemporary History, the Foundation for Science and Technology, the Rectory of the University of Coimbra, the Science Museum of the University of Coimbra, and the Faculty of Letters of Coimbra. This paper reports on the curatorial process and the scientific content that will be on display, organised into the following four sections: 1) Lacerda's pioneering work, 2) the work of the Coimbra phonetics laboratory, 3) the laboratory's collaborators, and 4) the creation of a sound archive of Portuguese regional varieties. The realisation of the exhibition presupposes a profound change in how the University of Coimbra perceives and promotes itself, as well as its scientific spaces and personnel. Due to open in November 2025 in the space formerly occupied by the phonetics laboratory at the Faculty of Letters — in a corridor to be named the Armando de Lacerda Wing — the exhibition will be permanent and bilingual, and will be open to the public free of charge. It is hoped that it will promote public interest in the history of experimental phonetics.