Decolonising Language Studies Symposium

The Decolonising Language Studies Symposium responded to current calls about decolonising the curriculum by opening a transdisciplinary dialogue across linguistics, anthropology, literature, and cultural studies as well as the critical study of discourse, memory, and multilingualism. On the first occasion of a planned series of discussions, we explored the ways in which sociolinguistic ethnographic methods can contribute to re-grounding the study of language(s) conceptually in a way which renders the critical study of language to be an ancilla of critical area studies. By engaging in this discussion, the participants in the symposium wanted to demonstrate how language pedagogical practices informed by participatory ethnographic approaches and the study of minoritized languages contribute to our understanding of various forms of colonialisation, and in what ways community-based, participatory ethnographic re-thinking of the study of languages can boost the relevance of language studies for research in the humanities, social- and political sciences.

We heard the keynote presentation by Ben Rampton (King’s College London) on Sociolinguistics, linguistic citizenship and language education in the UK context. Second keynote address, ‘Centering communities: perspectives from emerging sign language research’, was given by Andrew Nevins and Diane Stoinaov (UCL, Psychology and Language Sciences) who presented their research conducted in a community in north-western Brasil. Aine Mcalister (UCL Institute of Education) presented about the applicability of autoethnographic poetic inquiry in her work with refugees and asylum seekers seeking access to higher education. The keynote addresses were followed by students’ presentations on their own engagement with members of diasporic communities in London who are speakers of languages they study at UCL. They presented not only the data they gathered through their interviews but also reflected on the differences between community-based learning and classroom teaching and learning practices. Invited discussants from UCL SSEES, Dr Uilleam Blacker (Associate Professor in Ukrainian and East European Culture), Dr Michal Murawski (Associate Professor in Anthropology), Dr Peter Zusi (Associate Professor of Czech and Comparative Literature), rounded the symposium off by reflecting on the tensions between decolonisation and institutionalisation, with their respective agendas that are often at odds with each other, and how these tensions can be resolved by the sustained engagement with the question of how well the multiplicity of voices is represented in decisions regarding educational and knowledge practices.

The symposium was very well attended (40 people in audience in person and the same number online) and judging by the reactions there is a huge enthusiasm and appetite for change. One of the colleagues in the audience wrote to us and said:

… thank you for organising the most interesting and extremely useful symposium which covered so much ground on decolonisation and beyond. This was an important event which made us all think outside the box and develop something new for the benefit of all our students across the School and possibly the Faculty. Secondly, […], I am very pleased to say how I enjoyed the event and a variety of topics covered in the fields of pedagogy, language teaching, and even sign interpreting. However, I could see a common theme: that it is vital to support and develop a variety of approaches and methods in everything we do. This struck me as the way forward in our decolonisation agenda. [Alex Kruglov, Associate Professor (Teaching) in Russian Language

Organisers: Dr Jelena Ćalić (UCL SSEES and SELCS, Associate Professor in Serbo-Croatian (BCMS) and Applied Linguistics); Dr Eszter Tarsoly (UCL SSEES, Associate Professor in Hungarian and Applied Linguistics) on behalf of the PROLang (Policy, Research, and Outreach for Language-based area studies) Research Group

For a recording of the entire event, visit the SSEES YouTube Channel here