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Call for Papers "Multilingualism, Citizenship and the Future of Minority Languages" 11th International Conference on Minority Languages (ICML 11) Research Institute for Linguistics and Research Institute for Ethnic and National Minority Studies, Hungarian Academy of Sciences (HAS) Faculty of Political and Legal Sciences, University of Pécs Pécs (Hungary) 5-6 July 2007 __________________________________________________ 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. 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: [email protected] 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 Conference website: Further details regarding ICML 11 will be available at the conference website: http://www.nytud.hu/icml11 __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: http://interphil.polylog.org Intercultural Philosophy Calendar: http://cal.polylog.org
