23 Feb Protecting Identity and Diversity: Language and Cultural Rights
Thursday-Friday, February 23-24
McCune Conferenc Room, 6020 HSSB
Alumni Hall, Mosher Alumni Center
Every year UNESCO observes the International Mother Language Day on February 21st, in remembrance of the students that died in Dhaka (Bangladesh) during the Bengali Language Movement protests in 1952. UCSB’s Spanish and Portuguese Department commemorates this day with a yearly conference. This year it will take place on Thursday, February 23rd (McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB) and Friday, February 24th (Alumni Hall, Mosher Alumni Center), from 8:30 to 3:00 on both days. The conference aims to promote multilingualism, awareness of the plight of language minorities, tolerance towards different cultures, and the preservation of linguistic diversity. The focus of the conference this year is on “Protecting Identity and Diversity: Language and Cultural Rights” from a linguistic, as well as a legal perspective. The 2012 conference also marks UCSB’s official launch of the Consortium on Training in Language Documentation and Conservation (www.ctldc.org). Among the many important participants, it will feature prominent linguists (Kristján Árnason from University of Iceland, Claudia Parodi and UCLA) and internationally renowned jurists (Fernand De Varennes – Linguapax Laureate, and Pierre Foucher, University of Ottawa).
This event is sponsored by the Barandiaran Chair of Basque Studies, the Etxepare Institute, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Department of Linguistics, LAIS, and the IHC.