CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENTS
The First North American Conference
On the Kurdish Language
The Kurdish American Education Society (KAES), a non-profit cultural
organization in Los Angles will be hosting the first North American
Conference on the Kurdish Language and Culture on November 5, 2010.
The event is co-sponsored by the UCLA G.E. von Grunebaum Center for
Near Eastern Studies (CNES). Our conference will bring to Los Angeles
Kurdish and non-Kurdish linguists, students, and scholars from different
parts of the United States, Canada, and Europe to address a wide spectrum
of topics and research on Kurdish studies.
The primary goal of the conference is to stress the need for reviewing
the existing trends, current challenges, and new linguistic and socio-linguistic
and historical studies, recognize the achievements that scholars and
practitioners have made in their respective fields of research, and
open new possibilities for raising consciousness about and change the
state of the language and its community of speakers.
Conference participants and presenters are from a wide spectrum of
disciplines, including but not limited to applied linguistics, dialectology,
lexicography, sociolinguistics, anthropology, art and language, educational
linguistics, Kurdish as a heritage language, discourse analysis, and
historical linguistics.
The Call for Papers welcomes timely submission of abstracts for papers
and posters to be presented at the event on Nov 5 in Collins Conference
room at the UCLA James West Alumni Center. Some of the emerging conference
topics include: The Influence of Kurdish on the Neo-Aramaic Language,
Kurdish language policy and planning, language and identity, challenges
of developing educational materials in Kurdish, music and cultural
rights. The Conference Committee has already received a range of topic
proposals and themes as listed below.
We urge all those interested in research about theoretical linguistics,
applied linguistics, psycholinguistics, lexicography, educational linguistics,
language minorities, heritage languages, literacy, language and literature,
language and gender to join us in co-sponsoring and contributing to
the success of this conference. We will also use the conference as
an occasion to honor and pay tribute to the memory of Dr.Vera Saeedpour
who laid the foundation for scholarly and academic work on the Kurdish
life and culture.
The deadline for abstracts is Oct. 25, 2010. All you need
is a title and a 300-word abstract for a 20-minute presentation to
be sent via email to: sharifiamir@yahoo.com
The sessions are still being organized as papers are coming in, presenters
will be notified if they will be presenting individually or in panels.
For additional information on the conference and registration, please
refer to the KAES website: www.kaes.us or
contact Amir Sharifi: Asharifi@kaes.us
List of the names of the presenters and their affiliations:
1) Dr. Yonar Sabar, scholar, specializing in Neo-Aramaic
studies, professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and
Cultures, University of California Los Angeles.
2) Dr. Jaffer Sheyholislami, Assistant Professor
at the School of Linguistics and Language Studies, Carleton University,
Ottawa, Canada. Areas of research: language and identity; language
of/in media; language policy and planning; language and power/ideology;
genre studies.
3) Mr.Christian Sinclair, Assistant Director, Center
for Middle Eastern Studies University of Arizona, PhD candidate in
Kurdish Studies at the University of Exeter, specialized in media,
language policy, and identity.
4) Ms. Shayee Khanaka, librarian for Linguistics & Middle
Eastern Studies, at UC Berkely, has an MA in Folklore and a thesis
on Kurdish Humor
5) Dr. Rashid Karadaghi, Author of the Azadi
English-Kurdish Dictionary andwriter on Kurdish affairs
6) Mr. Ali Ashuri, author, poet, and critic, specialized
in philology and Kurdish literature; he has taught at San Diego State
University
7) Mr. Muhamad Tawfiq Ali, applied linguist, translator,
critic, member of Chartered Institute of Linguistics ( MCIL)
8) Mr. Gregory Scarborough, field researcher on Kurdish
music and cultural rights, focusing on Kurdish areas in Turkey, director
of Cultural Cornerstones
9) Dr. Alexandra Jaffe, the incoming editor of Linguistic
Anthropology and formerly the editor of Language and Education, specialized
in linguistic anthropology, language ideology, bilingualism and the
status of minority languages, professor at California State University,
Long Beach
10)Mrs. Susan Barwari, Ph.D student, UCLA Department of Linguistics,
educator specializing in assessment and educational material development
in Kurmanji
11)Dr.Hashem Ahmadzadeh Kurdish scholar ,a lecturer in the Kurdish
Studies Center of the University of Exeter, specialized in language
in Kurdish novels
12) Mr. Opengin Ergin. 2nd year Ph.D. student at L’Université de Paris
-Sorbonne Nouvelle, specializing in Kurdish sociolinguistics.
13)Mr. Norman Léonard, the Director of Outreach, Language Acquisition
Resource Center, San Diego State University, President of California
Teachers Association , specialized in community based heritage language
programs and training teachers through California Foreign Language
Project.
14)Dr. Amir Hasssanpour (via Skype): scholar of Kurdish sociolinguistics
and history, professor at the Department of Near and Middle Eastern
Civilizations, University of Toronto.
15) Dr. Michel Chyet ( Via Skype), Library of Congress, author of
Kurdish Dictionary: Kurmanji-English, scholar and researcher, author
of a thorn bush sprang between them”: studies on Mem u Zin.
16) Dr. Hisyar Ozsoy, fellow at the Social and Cultural Anthropology
Department, University of Texas, Austin, specialized in research on
state formation, nationalism, neo-liberalism, multiculturalism and
transformations of Kurdish politics.
17)Dr. Salih Akin, lecturer in general linguistics at Rounen University,
France. He specializes in linguistic and sociolinguistic description
of Kurdish language, the representation of foreigners in French media,
the onomastic and languages of immigration.
18)Dr. Amir Sharifi, lecturer, Department of Linguistics, California
State university, Long Beach, applied linguist, translator, specializing
in literacy socialization. |
