Language Policy is highly political and often controversial, with official top-down policy criticized by scholars for serving dominant political interests and reproducing unequal power relations.

This one-day symposium aims to move the discussion forwards by treating Language Policy as a dynamic socio-cultural process. Accordingly, we invite papers that explore the politics of Language Policy at the local level. In particular, we welcome papers that:

• Reflect on the ways in which communities interpret, negotiate and resist official Language Policy

• Examine interactions between various policy stakeholders

• Explore how local language practices and unofficial community-level policies can further the political aims and agendas of minority communities

• Consider the role of language ideologies in determining Language Policy outcomes

The symposium encourages interdisciplinary discussion and we welcome submissions from fields such as: Linguistic Anthropology, Sociolinguistics, Education Studies, Political Science, Endangered Language Studies and Migration Studies.

Submission of abstracts

The deadline for submissions is Friday 14th July 2017, 12:00 midnight.

Presentations will last 30 minutes in total, with 20 minutes for the talk and 10 minutes for discussion. Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words, not including any references. Each author is limited to a single abstract, including co-authored submissions. Please email your submission, including your name and affiliation, to lpp@soas.ac.uk

Registration

We look forward to welcoming you to the symposium! Please follow the link on the right hand side to register for your place online.

The event is free to attend and will include tea and coffee, a light lunch and an evening drinks reception.

The keynote speaker will be Dr. Patrick Heinrich (Università Ca' Foscari Venezia, Italy).

Programme

The symposium programme can be downloaded here.

Important dates

Deadline for abstract submission: 14th July 2017
Notification of acceptance: 28th July 2017
Symposium: 22nd September 2017