Category: Events

International Day of Human Fraternity 2024

EventsInternational Day of Human Fraternity 2024, UNAOC, 5 February 2024, 11 am – 12 pm EST.

On December 21, 2020, the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/75/200, designating February 4 as the International Day of Human Fraternity, to be commemorated annually starting in 2021. The resolution encourages all Member States to actively promote a culture of peace, tolerance, inclusion, understanding, and solidarity. Celebrating human fraternity and its underlying principles — including mutual respect, cultural and religious diversity, and the promotion of intercultural and interreligious dialogue — serves as a poignant reminder of the shared values that unite us as one humanity.

Digital Language Variation in Context Lecture Series (Germany but Online)

EventsDigital Language Variation in Context (DiLCo) Lecture Series 2024, University of Hamburg, Germany (online), January to July 2024.

DiLCo, the international research network on “Digital Language Variation in Context”, presents a last season of lectures from January to July 2024. The broad range of topics ranges from hate speech detection to multilingualism in Luxembourg. Lecture attendance remains free of charge. Registration is required. All lectures are delivered on Zoom.

Writing Practices in the Multilingual Workplace (Finland but Online)

EventsWriting practices in the multilingual workplace: A case study of language brokering, by Anna Solin, University of Jyväskylä, Finland (online), 12 February 2024, 12 EET.

On Monday 12 Feb at 12:00 East European Time, Anna Solin (University of Helsinki, Finland) will give a talk titled ‘Writing practices in the multilingual workplace: A case study of language brokering’. The event will be live-streamed online with interactive Q&A after the talk. All are welcome to attend. Read the abstract and register here. Once you’re registered, you’ll be emailed the live stream info soon before the seminar.

Abstract: “In the talk, I will present a study of workplace writing, which focuses on administrative work in multilingual universities. While there is a wealth of research into institutional multilingualism, most studies on higher education have looked at teaching and research, and relatively little is known about the often invisible work of administrators. The study explores the collaborative writing practices of eight administrators who work at a Finnish university, drawing on interviews, meeting recordings and text histories. The analysis tracks the production of a genre which is central to local decision-making: the meeting agenda. Data collection took place during a period when a decision had just been made to begin publishing agendas in two languages (Finnish and English), in order to support the inclusion of international staff. The shift from monolingual to multilingual texts resulted in negotiation over both language choice and what kind of English is “appropriate” or “good enough” in meeting agendas. I will describe this negotiation from the perspective of language brokering, and particularly how different participants intervened in the writing process and the drafts being produced. The analysis focuses on questions such as who/what takes on or is given the role of broker, what kind of language features become targets of negotiation and what normative orientations are displayed in the administrators’ talk.”

Taos Institute: Dialogic & Collaborative Practices 2024

EventsDialogic and Collaborative Practices, Taos Institute, 1-3 February 2024, 11:00am-2:00pm EST each day (New York time, online).

A 3-day online seminar with Taos Institute Vice-President Sheila McNamee and Taos Institute Board Member Harlene Anderson. Certificate of participation available upon request for CEUs.

Have you ever wondered how to engage with curiosity when faced with different views, beliefs, and ideas? If so, organizers invite you to join in February for a practical seminar embracing relational, dialogic, and collaborative resources for dealing with difference.

In this online, hands-on, intensive seminar (three hours each day), Harlene and Sheila introduce and discuss constructionist theory, dialogue, and collaborative practices. Given the challenges we confront globally, discussions will center specifically on the practical implications and applications of a dialogic and collaborative stance. In addition to demonstrations, there is ample space for everyone to share, interact, collaborate and support one another as participants explore ways to bring these practices into their own projects and personal or professional contexts.

Whether you are familiar with social construction and relational practices or new to these ideas, this intimate, intensive seminar is sure to make you feel welcomed and inspired. The small-group, virtual environment offers an opportunity to be in conversation with a diverse group of individuals from around the globe, who are working or who would like to work in relational ways. Three group meetings as well as a private group discussion forum gives you a chance to forge deep connections and to practice relational approaches — resulting in a transformational experience.

AIEA Workshops on Internationalization 2024 (USA)

EventsAssociation of International Education Administrators Workshops, 23-25 January 2024 (some also available online).

Before their annual conference (the deadline for submission is unfortunately long past), the Association of International Education Administrators (AIEA) is holding a series of workshops, some of which are virtual and open to non-members, though at a cost.

Virtual workshops:

  • ​Navigating the Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (DEIB) Landscape: Strategies for Senior International Officers (SIOs)
    Tuesday, January 23; 2:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. ET
  • Becoming an SIO: What You Need to Know
    Tuesday, January 23; 10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET
  • ​Internationalization as if the Planet Mattered: Strategy and Policy that Makes Programming and Global Learning Eco-literate and Sustainable
    Thursday, January 25; 10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. ET
  • Making the Case for Internationalization
    January 25, 2024; 2:00 p.m. – 4:30 p.m. (ET)

On-site workshops will be held in Washington, DC.

2023 PLURAL+ Youth Video Festival (USA but Online)

Events2023 PLURAL+ Youth Video Festival, United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC), New York, NY, USA, 15 December 2023, 3 pm EST (but also available online).

PLURAL+ Youth Video Festival is a joint initiative of the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations (UNAOC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM) that invites the world’s youth to submit original and creative videos focusing on the themes of migration, diversity and social inclusion. By supporting the distribution of youth-produced media, PLURAL+ recognizes youth as powerful agents of positive social change in a world often characterized by intolerance, and cultural and religious divisions.

View videos from past years here, chosen by an international jury from thousands of submissions around the globe.

PLURAL+ is a youth video festival that encourages and empowers global youth to explore the issues of migration, diversity, social inclusion, and the prevention of xenophobia and to share their creative vision with the world.

Digital Tools to Support Minoritised Languages (Austria but Online)

EventsHow to Use Digital Tools to Support Minoritised Languages, RISE UP, 6 Nov 2023 08:00 – 10:00 EST (based in Vienna, Austria but the workshop is online).

The first RISE UP Workshop on digital tools to support minoritised languages will take place online on November 6th, 2023. During the two-hour workshop, different actors working with digital tools for lesser used languages (Global Rising Voices, F´ora de Mapa, Anveatsã Armãneashti) will present their work, experiences and best practices. Afterwards, workshop sessions for different topics such as digital media for minoritised languages and digital language activism will take place in breakout rooms to foster discussions and an exchange of experiences. The workshop is free.

RISE UP (HORIZON EUROPE project on Revitalising Languages and Safeguarding Cultural Diversity) aims to empower endangered language communities by building connections between relevant actors, identifying good practices and developing methods through a multi-disciplinary approach. Furthermore, RISE UP will foster the self-confidence of these communities, including learners, new speakers, people who have not yet had the chance to learn their heritage language, supporters, and more. Through the collection and analysis of context information and policies for endangered languages in Europe, the creation of a tool set for communities, the connection of relevant actors and the involvement of young people, specifically, RISE UP aims to provide support and empowerment to endangered language communities in Europe.

7th LRI Workshop: Language & Belonging (Italy)

ConferencesCFP 7th Annual Language, Region, Identity Workshop for Early Career Researchers: Language & Belonging, Academy of German-Italian Studies, Villa San Marco, Merano, Italy, 6-7 June 2024. Application deadline: 15 January 2024.

Following the successful workshops in Merano/Meran (Italy) in 2014, 2015, 2018, 2019, and in Innsbruck (Austria) in 2016, the 7th workshop for early-career researchers of the linguistic colloquium Language, Region, Identity (LRI) will be hosted again at the Villa San Marco, Merano/Meran (Italy). The workshop, jointly organised by a team from six universities and research centres in Austria, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland, aims to foster scientific exchanges within the Alpine region and beyond by offering a forum for discussing current and recently concluded projects. The workshop will feature oral presentations of 20 minutes with a subsequent discussion time of 20 min.

Each Linguistic Colloquium workshop has a specific topic of interest. The 7th edition will address the topic of language and belonging. Despite often being equated with the notions of identity and citizenship, the notion of belonging can capture various different ways in which people may belong and form emotional attachments. For several decades now, different fields of linguistic research have tackled issues in relation to belonging with different theoretical and methodological orientations. From variationist sociolinguistics, which has attempted to work out how certain linguistic features pattern around people’s belonging to certain places, social classes or genders, research on language and belonging received important contributions from orientations such as Sociolinguistic Ethnography or Discourse Analysis that have conceived of belonging as a resource that people employ strategically to construct, claim or resist forms of social inclusion or exclusion.

Organizers welcome contributions that deal with language and belonging in relation to various intertwined social categories and groups (genders, social status, (sub)cultural groups, nationalities, professional groups, etc.) and investigate:

  • how belonging is expressed, perceived, negotiated, resisted and contested,
  • how categories and groups of belonging form, change and dissolve over time and in different spaces,
  • how belonging links to authority, ownership and power,
  • how the relation between language and belonging can be conceptualised and tackled methodologically.

The workshop languages are German, Italian and English.

World Council for Intercultural & Global Competence: Assessing Intercultural Competence (USA but Online)

EventsWorld Council for Intercultural & Global Competence: Assessing Intercultural Competence Across Disciplines, 30-31 October 2023,  online.

The 2023 Annual Global Symposium will be held virtually 30 October 2023 on the topic of Assessing Intercultural Competence. The theme will be “Assessing Intercultural Competence across Disciplines” Days and times: Monday, October 30, 16:00 – 19:00 EST / Tuesday, October 31st, 5:00 – 8:00 JST. This event is being organized by the ICC Assessment Working Group of the World Council on Intercultural and Global Competence.

Intersect Virtual Conference 2023 (Canada but Online)

EventsIntersect: 2nd Annual Graduate Students Virtual Conference, Royal Roads University, Victoria, British Colombia, Canada, 26-27 October 2023.

INTERSECT is the annual virtual conference of the Master of Arts in Intercultural and International Communication (MAIIC) program at Royal Roads University, Victoria, BC, Canada. The conference brings together experts, researchers, and students from different parts of the world to explore and discuss the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in intercultural and international communication. Join and register for free to be part of this exciting conference.

The keynote speakers are:
Dr. Rogério Miguel Puga (Nova University, Lisbon, Portugal)
Dr. Merelda Fiddler-Potter (First Nations University of Canada, Saskatchewan, Canada)
Dr. Brad Anderson (Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Canada)
Ms. Delphine Schrank M.A. (Investigative Journalist and Author, Mexico City, Mexico)