29.5048, Calls: Anthro Ling, Applied Ling, Gen Ling, Lang Doc, Socioling/United Kingdom

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-29-5048. Wed Dec 19 2018. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 29.5048, Calls: Anthro Ling, Applied Ling, Gen Ling, Lang Doc, Socioling/United Kingdom

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Date: Wed, 19 Dec 2018 00:21:57
From: Colin Reilly [c.reilly.1 at research.gla.ac.uk]
Subject: BAAL Language in Africa SIG Annual Conference 2019

 
Full Title: BAAL Language in Africa SIG Annual Conference 2019 

Date: 10-May-2019 - 10-May-2019
Location: University of Portsmouth, United Kingdom 
Contact Person: Colin Reilly
Meeting Email: c.reilly.1 at research.gla.ac.uk
Web Site: https://liasig.wordpress.com/annual-conference-2019/ 

Linguistic Field(s): Anthropological Linguistics; Applied Linguistics; General Linguistics; Language Documentation; Sociolinguistics 

Call Deadline: 15-Feb-2019 

Meeting Description:

Language and decolonisation in 21st century Africa

The 2019 LiA meeting aims to bring together researchers to present and discuss
current research on the role of language – at the levels of policy, planning,
education, social practice and literature – in the long and complex process of
cultural decolonisation in the African continent.

Given that “Colonialism altered entire peoples’ mentalities [and] alien
cultural values became internalised [...] into native consciousness” (Leow,
2016, p. 245), and that “intellectual and scientific dependency in Africa is
virtually inseparable from linguistic dependency” (Mazrui, 2002, p. 276), the
language question was central in newly independent African countries in the
1950s, 1960s and 1970s. This is the core argument in Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s
notion of “decolonising the mind” (1986). However, “While non-Western
communities were busy working on one project (decolonisation), the carpet has
been pulled from under their feet by another project (globalisation). It is as
if one historical process got subsumed by another before the first process was
complete” (Canagarajah, 2005, pp. 195-6). This made the task of promoting
local languages as symbols of national identity and unity in Africa
particularly difficult, as the important roles played by languages such as
English or French was impossible to ignore. In addition, the languages of the
former colonisers were often the only ones that would be equidistant from all
ethnic and cultural groups within any given country, and so, paradoxically,
they were also often viewed as more neutral than any other local language. 

So the primary objective of the meeting is to explore what current research
has to say on how languages in Africa are faring in the 21st century within
the ongoing process of cultural decolonisation, as it is pulled by the
competing forces of national identity, social equality, ethnic neutrality and
globalisation. Topics for papers could consider (among other things):

- What are the latest policy developments with regard to the tensions between
former imperial languages and local languages in different African countries?
- What are the issues and challenges in the adoption of local or global
languages in education and academic research?
- How do different languages co-exist in daily social practices, including
digital communication? 
- How are languages used at work?
- How has the debate evolved for the creation of literature, songs and films?

Registration: Please register by April 22 2019 so that we can make a final
order for catering for the day. This is included in the attendance fee. We
particularly welcome postgraduate students.  

Attendance Fee:
- BAAL members £27 (non-members £37)
- BAAL student members £20 (other students £22)

Registration forms are available from the LIASIG website:
http://liasig.wordpress.com 
Enquiries to: Colin Reilly, c.reilly.1 at research.gla.ac.uk


Call for Papers:

Abstracts of up to 250 words for 20 minute presentations are now invited, to
be sent to Goodith White, Convenor, at: anne.goodithwhite at ucd.ie, cc
c.reilly.1 at research.gla.ac.uk no later than February 15 2019. We also invite
proposals for posters. As in previous years, it may be possible for a small
number of people to deliver their papers via Skype from Africa.




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LINGUIST List: Vol-29-5048	
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