Nitobe Symposium

Monday 26th – Tuesday 27th July 2021

Language, Conflict, and Security

The Nitobe symposium is co-organised by Ulster University and the Centre for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems (CED) with the financial support of the Esperantic Studies Foundation (ESF).  Because of current conditions, the Symposium will run as a virtual event over two days: 26-27 July 2021.  The working languages of the event will be English and Esperanto. Simultaneous interpretation will be provided.

The 2021 Symposium will explore four principal topics of current importance to the theme:

• Language policy in Northern Ireland and implications for power-sharing in contested societies;
• Language in the context of security and conflict resolution in Europe;
• Language in humanitarian crises and pro-active peace-building in the global context.
• Promoting Linguistic Justice 

Please address correspondence to <nitobe-2021(at)sfu.ca>

Historical note: The Symposia take their name from the Japanese scholar and diplomat Nitobe Inazô who served as Under-Secretary-General of the League of Nations from 1920 to 1926. A one-page overview of Nitobe Symposia (PDF-download).

Belfast / London 12.30 (UTC+1); Paris 13.30 (UTC+2); Tokyo 20.30 (UTC+9); New York 07.30 (UTC-4); Vancouver 04.30 (UTC-7)

Please note: all times given below are local time (British Summer Time BST- Belfast / London: UTC+1)

Nitobe 2021 ~ Programme      PDF-download of the programme and presentation abstracts

MONDAY 26 JULY 2021 ~ 12.30 (Belfast / London time)

Welcome address – Professor Paul Carmichael, Associate Dean (Global Engagement) in the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Ulster University

Welcome and introduction to the day – Michele Gazzola (Ulster University)
Introduction to CED, ESF and Nitobe – Humphrey Tonkin (University of Hartford)

SECTION 1 ~ 13.00 – 15.45
Language policy in Northern Ireland and implications for power-sharing in contested societies

(1) Sarah Williams (Governance and Compliance Manager, Belfast City Council) ~ 30 mins
Belfast City Council’s Language Strategy 2018-2023 

(2) Philip McDermott (Ulster University) ~ 20 mins
Linguistic recognition and deeply divided societies: from accommodation to dialogue?

Section 1a ~ Questions and Answers ~ 15 mins

Break ~ 15 mins

(3) Janice Carruthers and Mícheál Ó Mainnín (Queen’s University, Belfast) ~ 20 mins
Language policy in Northern Ireland after ‘New Decade New Approach’.

(4) Niall Comer (Ollscoil Uladh/ Ulster University) ~ 20 mins
Preparing the path for language legislation: Conradh na Gaeilge, Ulster University and the New Decade, New Approach deal.

(5) Raffaella Folli, Juliana Gerard, Lynda Kennedy, Susan Logue and Christina Sevdali (Ulster University) ~ 20 mins
Lessons from multilingual immigrant pupils: 10 years of Ulster Centre on Multilingualism (UCoM)

Section 1b ~ Questions and Answers ~ 25 mins

SECTION 2 ~ 16.00 – 17.30
Language in humanitarian crises and pro-active peace-building in the global context

(1) Carmen Delgado Luchner (University of Fribourg) ~ 30 mins
Planning the unpredictable: the managing of language intermediaries in humanitarian organisations.

(2) Javier Alcalde (Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona; Universitat Oberta de Catalunya) ~ 20 mins
Peace and linguistic diversity. Which role for Esperanto?

Section 2 ~ Questions and Answers ~ 15 mins

Concluding remarks and wrap
END OF DAY ONE

TUESDAY 27 JULY 2021 ~ 12.30 (Belfast / London time)

Welcome and introduction to the day – Angela Tellier (University of Essex) ~ 5 mins

CED’s Academic Publications – Michele Gazzola (Ulster University) ~ 10 mins

SECTION 3 ~ 12.45 – 15.35
Language in the context of security and conflict resolution in Europe

(1) Alessandro Rotta (Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe) ~ 30 mins
Language policies as a conflict prevention tool: the experience of the High Commissioner on National Minorities.

(2) Roberta Medda-Windischer (Institute for Minority Rights, Eurac Research) and Sia Spiliopoulou Åkermark (Åland Islands Peace Institute) ~ 20 mins 
Linguistic integration indicators as a tool for linguistic justice: evaluating the implementation of Ljubljana Guidelines-based policies through indicators.

(3) Sarah McMonagle (University of Hamburg) ~ 20 mins
Language Policy in multilingual cities.

Section 3a ~ Questions and Answers ~ 25 mins

Break ~ 15 mins

(4) Sonja Novak Lukanovič (University of Ljubljana) ~ 20 mins
Is language contact in Slovenia marked by language conflict?

(5) Ljubica Djordjević (European Centre for Minority Issues) ~ 20 mins
Linguistic nationalism: legal status of languages/”languages” that emerged from the Serbo-Croatian.

Section 3b ~ Questions and Answers ~ 20 mins

SECTION 4 ~ 15.50 – 17.30
Promoting Linguistic Justice

(1) Irmgarda Kasinskaite-Buddeberg (UNESCO) ~ 30 mins
International Decade of Indigenous Languages (2022-2032) as one of the international cooperation mechanisms for the promotion of language justice.

(2) Michele Gazzola (Ulster University) and Mark Fettes (Simon Fraser University) ~ 30 mins
An index of linguistic justice as a tool for conflict pre-emption.

Section 4 ~ Questions and Answers ~ 15 mins

Concluding remarks and wrap
END OF NITOBE SYMPOSIUM

Conveners: Michele Gazzola, Angela Tellier, Mark Fettes, Humphrey Tonkin.
Interpreters: Duncan Charters and Istvan Ertl.
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Esperantic Studies Foundation.

 

Dr. Michele Gazzola
(Ulster University, lead convenor)

Dr. Mark Fettes
(Simon Fraser University)

Dr. Humphrey Tonkin
(University of Hartford).

Dr. Angela Tellier
(University of Essex).

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