[EDLING:1860] CFP: International Conference on Minority Languages XI

[Francis M Hult]

> CALL FOR PAPERS
> 
> The Research Institute for Linguistics of the Hungarian Academy of 
> Sciences (HAS), the Research Institute for Ethnic and National Minority 
> Studies HAS, and the Faculty of Political and Legal Sciences of the 
> University of Pécs are pleased to announce the 11th International 
> Conference on Minority Languages (ICML 11), to be held on 5-6 July 2007 in 
> Pécs, Hungary. 
> 
> For .pdf and .doc version of this letter see the links below:
> http://www.nytud.hu/icml11/ICML_call_for_papers.pdf
> http://www.nytud.hu/icml11/ICML_call_for_papers.doc
> 
> Conference theme
> Multilingualism, citizenship and the future of minority languages - 
> Ideologies and practices of linguistic difference in Europe. 
> It is the historical strength of the concept "nation" that makes us aware 
> of the contrast between the reality of minorities delineated by state 
> borders and the ideal of a supra-national entity in which the word 
> "minority" only has a numerical reference. The aim of the conference is to 
> provide a frame for mutual transfer of knowledge between research 
> communities about the current situation of linguistic minorities in Europe 
> - a geographical unit in temporal transition between a past of nation 
> states and a future of the enlarged European Union. The conference will 
> bring together researchers working on linguistic minorities, different 
> aspects of bi- and multilingualism, bilingual education, ideologies of 
> language, language and identity construction, language policy, and 
> especially on maintenance and revitalization of minority languages in the 
> new Europe, as well as researchers with sociolinguistic, anthropological, 
> historical, political, legal, economic and social approaches.
> 
> Background and goals
> Numerous minority communities around the world and even in Europe are 
> continuously under economic, social, ideological, political, cultural, 
> religious, military etc. pressure to integrate into the dominant society 
> which often involves the loss of their native languages and often their 
> ethnic identities. However, preserving one's native language is not only a 
> fundamental linguistic human right, but, simultaneously, is necessary to 
> perceive and negotiate one's cultural identity and is a key to 
> understanding and appreciating the history, knowledge, ideas, and values 
> of the community. Questions about the legal protection of regional and 
> minority languages have regularly appeared on the European agenda: for 
> many years various political and civic actions have centered upon the 
> legal regulations applying to minorities. Nevertheless, despite the 
> eventual positive legal developments administrative and political barriers 
> in everyday practice often render the public use of minority languages 
> difficult. Furthermore, the accession of the new Central and Eastern 
> European Member States opened up new prospects, at the same time creating 
> new problems for the enlarged EU with regard to protection and maintenance 
> of minority languages. The communist regimes and their collapse in the 
> late 1980s created rather unique political and linguistic arrangements in 
> the East-Central-Eastern European region. Impacts of the European 
> enlargement, new social-economic order in East-Central and Eastern Europe 
> that are restructuring the former relationships at regional and at 
> European level, together with economic, technological and cultural forces 
> of globalization have created a need for a re-evaluation of the 
> theoretical questions and research methodologies that guide investigations 
> of minority languages and their communities. 
> 
> Main themes for paper and poster presentations:
> - Bilingualism and education
> - Models of language learning in education
> - Minority languages and the "new economy" (country studies, analysis of 
>   the administration of the European Union)
> - Negotiation of identities in a new European context: national, regional 
>   and transnational perspectives
> - Language policies, language planning and linguistic human rights within 
>   national and international legal frameworks
> - The challenges of comparative analysis of minority languages
> - Patterns of language shift and maintenance 
> - Minority languages, the media and the Internet
> - Minority languages and corpus linguistics
> - The Roma minority and their languages in Europe
> - Linguistic minorities in the enlarged EU
> 
> Proposed themes for colloquia include (but are not limited to):
> - Linguistic imperialism and bilingualism of minorities in Europe
> - Migration and bilingualism
> - European Union: Old and New - Common and specific linguistic 
>   arrangements in old and new Member States
> - Areas of citizenship, human rights, equality, and the 
>   trans-national/international nature of the Deaf community
> - The EU and the protection of linguistic minorities
> 
> Location of the conference
> This is the first time an ICML conference is held in an East-Central 
> European country after the Eastern Enlargement of the European Union. The 
> conference in Pécs, Hungary, will be the first ICML conference in the 
> region. A historical town, Pécs is located in the South-West of Hungary 
> and has won to be the cultural capital of Europe in 2010. Due to its 
> geographical location and cultural position, Pécs is an ideal bridge to 
> neighboring non-EU member countries. Pécs is a bridge between the cultures 
> of the Balkan and that of Western Europe and is a multicultural town 
> itself with its nine minority local governments. In February 1994, the 
> Gandhi Secondary School opened in Pécs. The school is not exclusively for 
> Roma - one fifth of its students are Hungarian - nor is it formally an 
> ethnic Roma school, but it does focus on Roma cultural issues and teaches 
> both the Romani and Boyash languages. The town hosted the first national 
> Roma festival in 2005.
> 
> CALL FOR PROPOSALS
> Proposals regarding original, previously unpublished research on minority 
> languages are invited in three formats: colloquia, individual papers, and 
> posters. Proposals should fall broadly within the conference theme.
> 
> Proposals for colloquia
> Colloquia are collections of paper presentations which relate to a 
> narrowly defined topic of interest, and are offered in a 3-hour time 
> block. Proposals for colloquia are limited to 700 words, and should 
> include brief summaries of each of the papers to be included, along with 
> paper titles and individual authors' names. Sufficient detail should be 
> provided to allow peer reviewers to judge the scientific merit of the 
> proposal. The person submitting a proposal for a colloquium is responsible 
> for securing the permission and cooperation of all participants before the 
> proposal is submitted. A chair for the session must also be identified. 
> Although the proposals should be submitted in English, the language of the 
> colloquia themselves may be chosen freely. 
> 
> The submission deadline for proposals for colloquia is September 30, 2006. 
> Submissions should be sent to  icml11prop at nytud.hu  mailto:icml11prop at nytud.hu
> 
> Proposals for individual papers or posters
> Please, submit by e-mail a one-page 450-word abstract of your paper or 
> poster. Include your name, affiliation, address, phone and e-mail address 
> at the end of your abstract. The abstract should include enough detail to 
> allow reviewers to judge the scientific merits of the proposal. All 
> abstracts will be reviewed anonymously by the members of the Academic 
> Committee of ICML 11. We kindly ask you to attach to your abstract a short 
> presentation of your professional activities (in third person singular 
> form) - in maximally 150 words. All abstracts will be reviewed anonymously 
> by the members of the Academic Committee of ICML 11. 
> We will accept for presentation by each author: (a) a maximum of 1 first 
> authored paper/poster, and (b) a maximum of 2 papers/posters in any 
> authorship status. At the time of submission you will be asked whether you 
> would like your abstract to be considered for a poster, a paper, or both.
> Oral papers will be allotted 30 minutes, allowing 20 minutes for 
> presentation and 10 minutes for questions. Posters will be on display for 
> a full day with two attended sessions during the day. The official 
> language of the conference is English. 
> 
> The submission deadline for proposals for individual papers and posters is October 30, 2006. 
> Submissions should be sent to icml11prop at nytud.hu mailto:icml11prop at nytud.hu
> 
> Acknowledgment of receipt of the abstract will be sent by email as soon as 
> possible after receipt. You will receive notification of acceptance no 
> later than March 15, 2007.
> 
> ORGANIZER INSTITUTIONS
>  Research Institute for Linguistics, Hungarian Academy of Sciences 
> (http://www.nytud.hu)
>  Research Institute for Ethnic and National Minority Studies, Hungarian 
> Academy of Sciences (http://www.mtaki.hu)
>  Faculty of Political and Legal Sciences, University of Pécs 
> (http://www.law.pte.hu)
> 
> ACADEMIC COMMITTEE
> Dr. Csilla Bartha (Chair) - Eötvös Loránd University and Research 
> Institute for Linguistics, HAS
> Professor Susan Gal - University of Chicago
> Professor Dr. Durk Gorter - Fryske Akademy and Universiteit van Amsterdam
> Professor Charlotte Hoffmann - University of Salford
> Professor Marilyn Martin-Jones - University of Wales (Aberystwyth)
> Dr. Anna Borbély - Research Institute for Linguistics, HAS
> Professor Miklós Kontra - University of Szeged and Research Institute for 
> Linguistics, HAS
> Professor István Lanstyák - Comenius University, Bratislava
> 
> ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
> Dr. Csilla Bartha - Eötvös Loránd University and Research Institute for 
> Linguistics, HAS
> Dr. László Szarka - Director of Research Institute for National and Ethnic 
> Minority Studies, HAS
> Professor István Kenesei - Director of Research Institute for Linguistics, 
> HAS
> Professor Erzsébet Szalay Sándor - Dean of the Faculty of Political and 
> Legal Sciences, University of Pécs
> Dr. Kinga Mandel - Research Institute for National and Ethnic Minority 
> Studies, HAS (mandel at mtaki.hu)
> Dr. Balázs Vizi - Research Institute for National and Ethnic Minority 
> Studies, HAS (vizi at mtaki.hu)
> Dr. Anna Borbély - Research Institute for Linguistics, HAS
> Judit Kuti - Research Institute for Linguistics, HAS (kutij at nytud.hu)
> Brigitta Szabó - Faculty of Political and Legal Sciences, University of 
> Pécs (brigitta at ajk.pte.hu)
> 
> FURTHER INFORMATION
> Further details regarding ICML 11 will be available at the conference 
> website, http://www.nytud.hu/icml11 . Please visit the website 
> periodically for regular updates.