Endangered Languages Week
Benjami Tekon Santo Island Ranvetlm Village Language: North Ambrym Photographer: (Student) Michael Franjieh
Every year the Hans Rausing Endangered Languages Project presents a major outreach event -Endangered Languages Week- to raise awareness about endangered languages and cultures. This year's theme is Language, Performance, Culture.
The theme for the Endangered Languages Week 2012 is Language, Performance, Culture. Our aim is to continue showing the significance of their language to the people who speak it. We will feature the work of artists and of fieldworkers who have documented performances such as poetry, sand art, paintings, songs, and dances. We will have music performances from the Sherpa, Maori or Kurdish communities in London, the students of the department of music at SOAS will also participate. We have teamed with the RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Films and will screen some fascinating films from their collection; we will also hold a workshop on sign languages sign language documentation and how linguists can approach this area. The events this year will centre around an Exhibition that will run from 3-11 May . This exhibition will be interactive, with talks from fieldworkers, demonstrations from students (software, palatography etc), film showings, debates and more.
Our special events include an evening of dance and discussions with Jose Navarro who performs the 'scissors dance', a seminar given by Frances Kofod, we will have a special evening of poetry on language endangerment with Bob Holman from New York, and question and answer sessions with the makers of some of the films we will be showing.
As you see we have a fantastic array of activities. We very much look forward to this year's Endangered Languages Week.
Admission
Events are free of charge and open to anyone who is interested in endangered languages. Please note that due to limited space some events may require registration.
Enquiries
Centres & Programmes Office
- centres@soas.ac.uk
- +44 (0)20 7898 4892/3
