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Indigenous/minoritized languages

November 2024: Language as a Matter of Life and Death

This month’s Spotlight was contributed by Gerald Roche. He is a political anthropologist based at La Trobe University, Australia, and his work focuses on the intersections of language and power. He previously edited the Routledge Handbook of Language Revitalization, and he has recently published articles in Language in Society, State Crime Journal, and Emancipations: A…
Paul J. Meighan

Critical Sociolinguist Chair (2024-2025), TESOL International Bilingual-Multilingual Interest Section Member, Belonging, Identity, Language, and Diversity (BILD) Research Group, McGill University [email protected] I am a Scottish Gaelic critical sociolinguist. As a first-generation scholar and speaker of English, French, Italian, Spanish, and the endangered Indigenous language Scottish Gaelic, I advocate for more inclusive and equitable multilingual education,…
April 2024: Announcing the Language Rights Defenders Award

This month’s Spotlight on Language, Culture and Justice is contributed by Dr. Gerald Roche, Anthropologist and Associate Professor in the Department of Politics, Media, and Philosophy at La Trobe University. Gerald is a founding co-chair of the Global Coalition on Language Rights and has established the Coalition’s new Language Rights Defenders Award. Nominations for this…
Lissie Wahl-Kleiser

Independent Researcher Medical Anthropologist and Nationally Certified Medical Interpreter Harvard Medical School Department of Global Health Social Medicine Boston, Massachusetts [email protected] Communicative justice is at the core of my research and practice as medical interpreter in the Greater Boston area. For the last 15 years I have observed, participated and struggled against the silencing of…
Zubair Torwali

Researcher, Writer and Minority Language Activist Executive Director, Idara Baraye Taleem-o-Taraqi Swat, Pakistan [email protected] Hailing from Bahrain, Swat — the Switzerland of Pakistan — I am a researcher, author, protector of minority languages; social, cultural, civil society and human-rights activist; writer, columnist, blogger, journalist, voice of the unheard; and a powerful voice for the rights…
Laura Smith-Khan

Senior Lecturer School of Law University of New England Armidale, Australia Affiliated Member, the Centre for the Social Study of Migration and Refugees (CESSMIR), Ghent University, Belgium [email protected] Read Laura’s December 2021 and May 2020 Spotlights on Language, Culture and Justice. I am a Senior Lecturer in Law at the University of New England, Australia. From 2019 to…
Maya Angela Smith

Associate Professor of French University of Washington Seattle, Washington USA [email protected] Having received my PhD in romance languages and linguistics at the University of California, Berkeley, I investigate identity formations among marginalized groups in the African diaspora, particularly in the postcolonial francophone world. Much of my work has been focused on Senegal and its diaspora.…
Javier Moreno-Rivero

Researcher in Translation Policy Theoretical and Applied Linguistics University of Cambridge United Kingdom [email protected] I am a researcher in theoretical and applied linguistics at the University of Cambridge, focusing on translation policies of minoritized languages. I hold undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in translation (Universidad Pablo de Olavide, Universitat d’Alacant) and applied Spanish linguistics (Universidad Internacional…
Alexandra Grey

Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Research Fellow University of Technology Sydney, Faculty of Law Sydney, Australia [email protected] Read Alex’s July 2021 and May 2020 Spotlights on Language, Culture and Justice. I am a lecturer and researcher with a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Technology Sydney. I combine doctrinal law and ethnographic social sciences methods to examine how legal regimes work in…
María Luz García

Associate Professor of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminology Eastern Michigan University Ypsilanti, Michigan [email protected] I take perspectives from linguistic and cultural anthropology to consider the ways that Ixil Mayas make use of the resources of their language in constructing and reflecting social realities. In my doctoral research, I considered the expression of historical memory of the…
Katie Becker

Graduate Student Public Affairs and Law New Jersey and Connecticut, USA [email protected] Read Katie’s May 2022 Spotlight on Language, Culture and Justice. I am a joint-degree student at the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and Yale Law School. My professional background is as a Spanish-English interpreter and translator. I worked in community education and outreach…
March 2023: ‘#GLAD23 offers diverse perspectives on the importance of language rights’

This month’s Spotlight provides a brief overview of the recently concluded Global Language Advocacy Day 2023 (#GLAD23), organized by the Global Coalition for Language Rights. This year’s GLAD theme was Language Rights Save Lives. The Coalition works at the intersection of language, digital and human rights. Its aims are: · To support global efforts towards increasing access to critical…
February 2023: ‘Combating Negative Views of the Irish Language’

This month’s post comes from Alexandra Philbin, a Language Revitalization Mentor with the Endangered Languages Project (ELP). The project aims to support Indigenous, minoritized and endangered languages around the world by connecting language communities with resources, information and ideas to strengthen their languages. ELP is active on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and you can also subscribe to the project’s newsletter for more information.…
October 2022: “The Global Coalition for Language Rights”

This month’s feature is contributed by the co-chairs of the Global Coalition for Language Rights, Lucio Bagnulo, Veronica Costea, and Gerald Roche. They introduce our readers to an exciting and much needed initiative. The early period of the covid pandemic was a strange time of simultaneous isolation and connectivity, as we all bunkered down at…
November 2021: “Indigenous Languages, Environmental Knowledge and the Impacts of the Coronavirus Pandemic”

By Leigh Swigart [Photo credit PNAS] The COVID-19 era has shone a spotlight on the challenges experienced by many multilingual societies in effectively communicating critical health information, particularly to members of vulnerable and minority populations. These difficulties have been well documented, for example, in OneSmallWindow for the UK, and in a variety of settings across the globe…
October 2021: ‘Supporting two-way communication with police in Western Australia: new translation app helps to identify need for Aboriginal interpreters’

By Alex Bowen, Linguist and Trainer, Aboriginal Interpreting Western Australia; PhD Student, University of Melbourne Aboriginal Interpreting Western Australia (AIWA) recently worked with the Western Australia Police Force to develop an app which could signal a new direction in communication with Aboriginal people who are arrested. The app, which police have on their phones, delivers…
July 2021: “Language Rights in a Changing China: A National Overview and Zhuang Case Study”

A new book by Language, Culture and Justice Hub member Alexandra Grey has just been published (Contributions to the Sociology of Language #113, De Gruyter Mouton 2021). Language Rights in a Changing China is the culmination of eight years of research, including fieldwork in four provinces across the People’s Republic of China. The book examines the constitutional minority language rights…
October 2019: ‘Exploring Interpretation as a Right in the Context of Migration’

The Trump administration recently decided that providing in-court interpretation during initial-phase immigration proceedings represents an unnecessary expense in an already bogged-down system. Migrants will be shown a film explaining legal procedures in a variety of languages but will not be able to ask questions and receive more information on the spot. According to the San Francisco…