Languages, Place, and Power: Exploring Multilingualism and Language Learning on Indigenous Land

Settlers on Indigenous land are not just English-speaking or French-speaking. The hundreds of languages we learn, use, and teach at UBC add up to a complex picture of what we might call settler multilingualism. What do different models of multilingualism and monolingualism currently promoted today tell us about how we acknowledge, or undermine, Indigenous sovereignty? What does it mean to learn or teach a colonial language on Indigenous land? More fundamentally, how do existing approaches to language teaching and learning relate, or fail to relate, to land, place, and local commitment? What tools can we develop to nurture that relation in our classes, curricula, and communities, from now to 2050? What contributions can language teachers make to a broader decolonial project?

Facilitator:

• David Gramling, Professor and Head, Department of Central, Eastern, and Northern European Studies

This event will be hosted in-person.