FW: Call for Abstracts: FEL XI - Working Together for Endangered Languages: Kuala Lumpur, Oct 2007

[Don Osborn]

FYI. (Fwd from lgpolicy-list)

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The Eleventh Conference of the Foundation for Endangered Languages: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Working Together for Endangered Languages: Research Challenges and Social Impacts
University of Malaya
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
Dates: 26-28 October 2007 

Call for Abstracts: FEL XI

•        What can researchers do to ensure collaboration with members of the language community? What should the researcher do to find a way into the community through proper and accepted channels? What benefits can a language community expect from such collaboration?
•        What are the boundaries that the researcher should not cross in order to protect the rights and privacy of the subjects and to safeguard collaborative ties between community and researcher? What are the limits of researchers’ duties to the language community, and vice versa?
•        What is ‘best practice’ for researchers in order to be accepted and trusted as in-group members of the community? Does this require the linguist to reduce his/her role as an expert, in order to build trust and collaboration with the community? Can cultural immersion act as a collaborative means in data collection, creating the notion that the researcher is part of the community’s in-group? Are there any advantages in maintaining distance between researcher and community?
•        What options do researchers have if they encounter non-collaborative behaviour from their target subjects? 
•        Can support for maintenance of an endangered language actually be socially counter-productive, when the shift away from an endangered language is seen as progress in economic and social mobility? In such conditions, can the community be made aware of the importance of language maintenance? How can the researcher convince the community of the negative impact of language loss on their culture and history and, conversely, of the benefits of recovery, preservation, promotion? 
•        How can language documentation work, and its fruits, be integrated into community activities and community development? In what other ways can linguistic research benefit language maintenance and revitalization?
•        How can the researcher guard against personally causing damage to existing social and political structures? In particular, how can the researcher avoid disturbing established social relations and organization by seemingly conferring favours on specific members of the community?
•        How can the researcher ensure that s/he is not unwittingly the agent of globalisation within the community and thereby the cause of further socio-economic and cultural disruption? 

Abstracts should make reference to actual language situations , and ideally should draw on personal experience. The aim of the conference is to pool experience, to discuss and to learn from it, not to theorize in the abstract about inter-cultural relations.

Abstract and Paper Submission Protocols

In order to present a paper at the Conference, writers must submit in advance an abstract of not more than 500 words before 15 May 2007. After this deadline, abstracts will not be accepted. Abstracts submitted, which should be in English, must include the following details:
•        Title of the paper
•        Name of the author(s), organisation to which he/she belongs to
•        Postal address of the first author 
•        Telephone number (and fax number if any)
•        Email address(es)
•        Abstract text (not more than 500 words)

The abstracts should be sent via e-mail to waninda2001 at um.edu.my and  fel at chibcha.demon.co.uk with the subject of the e-mail stating: “FEL Abstract: <last name of author(s)>: <title of paper>”  Abstracts will acknowledged on receipt. 

The name of the first author will be used in all correspondence. Writers will be informed once their abstracts have been accepted and they will be required to submit their full papers for publication in the proceedings before 1 September 2007 together with their registration fee. Failure to do so will result in the disqualification of the writers to present their papers. Once accepted, full papers can be submitted in English or Malay. Each standard presentation at the Conference will last twenty minutes, with a further ten minutes for discussion and questions and answers. Plenary lectures will last forty-five minutes each; these are awarded by invitation only. 

Important Dates
•        Abstract arrival deadlines – 15 May 2007 
•        Committee's decision: 15 June 2007
•        In case of acceptance, the full paper should be sent by 1 September 2007. (Further details on the format of text will be specified to the authors)
•        Conference dates: 26-28 October 2007 

The site for the 2007 conference of the Foundation of Endangered Languages, hosted jointly this year with SKET, University of Malaya, will be Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. 

University of Malaya is the oldest university in Malaysia, and SKET, i.e. the Section for Co-Curricular Activities, Elective Courses by Other Faculties and TITAS, is responsible for the teaching of 80 co-curricular courses, and the compulsory course “Ethnic Relations.” (For more information, visit http://www.um.edu.my).

The Foundation for Endangered Languages is a non-profit organization, registered as Charity 1070616 in England and Wales, founded in 1996. It exists to support, enable and assist the documentation, protection and promotion of endangered languages. It awards small grants (of the order of US$ 1,000) for all kinds of projects that fall within this remit, and also publishes a newsletter, OGMIOS. It hosts an annual conference, with Proceedings that are available as published volumes. (For more information, visit http://www.ogmios.org).

Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the largest city of Malaysia. It is an enclave within the state of Selangor, on the central west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. Amongst some of the famous landmarks that the city houses are the Petronas Twin Towers, Menara Kuala Lumpur, Tugu Negara, the National Palace and most recently, the ‘Eye of Malaysia’ Ferris wheel. Kuala Lumpur enjoys a year-round equatorial climate which is warm and sunny. Rainfall is especially plentiful, during the southwest monsoon from April to September.