Endangered Languages Week 2008

Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project
School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), Russell Square, London
30th April to 8th May 2008
Through films, displays, discussions and workshops Endangered Languages
Week 2008 presents what is being done to document, archive and support
endangered languages at SOAS and around the world. There are
approximately 7,000 languages spoken today and half of them are under
threat from larger languages.
The theme is "What can WE do?", exploring how researchers, students,
language community members and members of the public can work together
to address the challenges of global language and cultural loss.
Activities include:

n	The UK premiere of the acclaimed new film The Linguists shown at
the 2008 Sundance Film Festival
n	Meet an Endangered Language where you can come face-to-face with
an endangered language, learn about where it is spoken and why it is
threatened, experience its culture, and pick up some basic words and
phrases.
n	Open Day when we open the doors of the Endangered Languages
Archive and you can meet researchers, see displays of staff and student
work, and experience the latest digital technologies used to record,
archive and support endangered languages
n	A debate on how to encourage personal action in support of
language diversity: What is Your Language Footprint?
n	A full day workshop on Engagement and Activism in Endangered
Languages Research
n	A specialist workshop on Geographical Information Systems for
Linguists
n	A day of international films on endangered languages with work
from Australia, Denmark, Taiwan and UK
n	Seminars on moral and ethical issues in language fieldwork

Speakers include SOAS staff and Dr Lise Dobrin (USA), Prof Maurizio
Gnerre (Italy), Dr David Harrison (USA), Dr Cecelia Ode (Netherlands),
Dr Nicholas Ostler (UK), Prof Peter Sutton (Australia) and Dr Ljuba
Veselinova (Sweden).

A full programme of events follows - most are free of charge and open to
anyone who is interested in endangered languages. For further details
visit our website at www.hrelp.org

Acknowledgements: Our thanks to Ironbound Films, Final Cut Films, Dr Kim
McKenzie, Dr Yih-Ren Lin, OBE TV, Open Air Radio SOAS, and the Subject
Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies

The Area Studies Network list is run by the Subject Centre for Languages, Linguistics and Area Studies, www.llas.ac.uk. LLAS is now a Subject Centre of the Higher Education Academy, www.heacademy.ac.uk