This year, the joint annual conference of LSSA, SAALA and SAALT took place at the University of the Western Cape and a total of 175 delegates registered.
“We wish to congratulate the conference organizing committee under the guidance of Professor Charlyn Dyers (photo left), Department of Linguistics host department and Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research (CMDR) on a well-organised and informative conference. Your hard work was greatly appreciated”, says Prof. Rinelle Evans, newly elected SAALT chairperson.
This year, the joint annual conference of LSSA, SAALA and SAALT took place at the University of the Western Cape and a total of 175 delegates registered.
“We wish to congratulate the conference organizing committee under the guidance of Professor Charlyn Dyers (photo left), Department of Linguistics host department and Centre for Multilingualism and Diversities Research (CMDR) on a well-organised and informative conference. Your hard work was greatly appreciated”, says Prof. Rinelle Evans, newly elected SAALT chairperson.
The theme of the conference was Language and Linguistics in the Global South: Posing the challenge. Within the current context of demands for radical changes to academic content and access at our universities, delegates responded in their abstract submissions to issues of decoloniality and southern theory in linguistic research and teaching.
Registration took place on 4 July, followed by a welcoming cocktail during which the VC of UWC, Prof Tyrone Pretorius, addressed the delegates. Keynote, panel and individual presentations ran in seven parallel sessions between 5-7 July.
Keynote addresses were delivered by the following scholars:
- Prof Kathleen Heugh, University of Southern Australia: Southern Multilingualisms.
- Prof Bassey Antia, University of the Western Cape: Bringing the African multilingual heritage into contexts of learner assessment: rationales from terminology for a plea to diversify the languages of South Africa’s ‘matric’ exams.
- Prof Perpetua Goncalves, Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique: Research on contact-based varieties of European languages: What can we learn from New African Portugueses?
- Prof Ana Deumert, University of Cape Town: Southern Exposure – Rethinking Linguistics.
The above is an extract adapted from the official conference report prepared by Prof. Charlyn Dyers – Conference convenor
Rinelle Evans
Chairperson: SAALT