Conference: "Protecting Identity and Diversity: Language and Cultural Rights"

Event Date: 

Thursday, February 23, 2012 - 8:30am

Event Location: 

  • McCune Room
  • HSSB

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 (IHC - McCune Room) 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 - University of Iceland, Claudia Parodi - UCLA) and  internationally renowned jurists (Fernand De Varennes - Linguapax Laureate, Iñigo Urrutia - University of the Basque Country, and Pierre Foucher - University of Ottawa). This event is sponsored by the IHC, the Barandiaran Chair of Basque Studies, the Etxepare Institute, the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, the Department of Linguistics, and LAIS.'