The 20th edition of the International Conference on Minority Languages (ICML) saw it leave Europe for the first time, held at the Universidad Externado de Colombia in Bogotá between June 24th and 27th, under the Chairship of PLURILINGMEDIA’s Working Group 1 Vice-Leader, Enrique Uribe-Jongbloed. As the leading conference in its field, it is a desirable event for any researcher working on regional or minority languages and thus there were many PLURILINGMEDIA members in attendance.
Due to this prominence, the ICML was identified as a priority for PLURILINGMEDIA grants and we were able to fund 6 members to attend: Laure Rutagengwa, Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones, Karolina Lendák-Kabók, Maddi Dorronsoro Olamusu, Craig Willis and Sebastian Müller (name order follows left to right in the photo below).
The presentations given by the grantees were as follows:
- Laure Rutagengwa: ‘Creole Languages as Cultural Bridges: Preserving African Heritage in Afro-Latin Communities through Haitian Creole and Palenquero’.
- Elin Haf Gruffydd Jones: ‘Empowering Minoritized Languages Across the Three Constituencies of Media Production’.
- Karolina Lendák-Kabók: ‘Educational Choices in Intermarriages’.
- Maddi Dorronsoro Olamusu: ‘From academia, through media, and back to the community: the development of the concept of ‘breathing spaces’ in the Basque Country’.
- Craig Willis: ‘Audiences of Welsh language public service media: consumption habits of non-speakers and learners’.
- Sebastian Müller: ‘Dinámicas sociolingüísticas de lenguas minoritarias en entornos digitales: Representación de translanguaging, identidad y cultura bajo el hashtag #papiamentu en TikTok’.
The full program of the conference is available here.
In addition to this, Working Group 1 Leader, Karolina, was able to spend an extended time in Bogotá through a Short-Term Scientific Mission (STSM), hosted by her Vice-Leader and the ICML Chair, Enrique. This helped her get a more in depth understanding of relevant indigenous media contexts in Colombia and also gave the two Leaders time to work on Working Group 1 related plans.
As well as the grantees, several other PLURILINGMEDIA members presented at the ICML. This included Grant Awarding Coordinator Noémi Nagy, Website Development Coordinator Jakob Volgger, and of course Working Group 1 Vice-Leader, Enrique. Accordingly, the Core Group members present took advantage of this opportunity and held a meeting during the conference (open to all members, with around 20 persons attending), plus were also given the platform to introduce the Action during the conference closing ceremony. Finally, we filmed a few videos for the PLURILINGMEDIA social media accounts, including with UN Special rapporteur on minority issues, Nicolas Levrat. These can be viewed on our Instagram channel.
Overall, it was a fantastic experience for those in
attendance and we are already looking forward to the 21st edition in
2027, with the announcement that it will be held in Bozen/Bolzano/Bulsan through Eurac
Research – the home institute of Jakob Volgger as well as several other
PLURILINGMEDIA Working Group members.
