MacKay Lecture Series 2015: Multilingualism Matters – Beyond Babel

Dalhousie Institute on Society and Culture logoThe annual MacKay Lecture Series at Dalhousie University features four lectures given by internationally renowned speakers, addressing subjects related to the liberal and performing arts.

For more information, visit the series website.

LECTURE I

7:00pm, Thursday, September 24th
Weldon Law Building, Room 105

Patricia Lamarre, “Parkour de ville: What the linguistic trajectories of young multilingual Montrealers tell us about Quebec post-Bill 101”

Patricia Lamarre is a professor at the University of Montreal (Faculté des sciences de l’éducation) and is director of the research group « langues, identités et relations intergroupes » of the Centre d’études ethniques des universités montréalaises (CEETUM).  Her main research area is the study of the language practices of young adults in Montreal, a city with a very high level of individual bilingual and multilingualism. Her theoretical framework is situtated within critical sociolinguistics, examining the stakes and power relations underlying language politics and language practices from an historical and materialist perspective. In addition to a number of key policy papers, her publications include works in the International Journal of the Sociology of Language, Canadian Ethnic Studies, Langue et société, Francophonies d’Amérique and Linguistic Landscapes: Multilingualism and Social Change.

LECTURE II

7:00pm, Thursday, October 22nd
Weldon Law Building, Room 105

Sherry Simon, “The Translational Life of Cities: How Language Exchange Shapes Urban Culture”

Sherry Simon is a professor in the French Department at Concordia University.  She has published widely in the areas of literary, intercultural and translation studies, most recently exploring the cultural history of linguistically divided cities, multilingual cities in situations of post-conflict and the cities of the former Habsburg empire.  Among her publications are Translating Montreal. Episodes in the Life of a Divided City (2006) and Cities in Translation: Intersections of Language and Memory. (2012), both of which have appeared in French translation.  She has edited or co-edited numerous volumes, including Translation Effects: The Shaping of Modern Canadian Culture (with K. Mezei and L. von Flotow), (2014). She is a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and a member of the Académie des lettres du Québec. She was a Killam Research Fellow (2009-11) and in 2010 received the Prix André-Laurendeau  from l’Association francophone pour le savoir (ACFAS).
LECTURE III

7:00pm, Tuesday, October 27th
Weldon Law Building, Room 105

Monica Heller, “Multilingualism in the Globalized New Economy”

Monica Heller is Professor at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education and the Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto. She is a member of the Royal Society of Canada, and currently President of the American Anthropological Association. Her work focusses on changing ideologies of language, identity and nation with an ethnographic focus on francophone Canada. Her recent publications include Paths to Postnationalism: A Critical Ethnography of Language and Identity (2011, Oxford University Press) and Language in Late Capitalism: Pride and Profit (2012, Routledge, co-edited with Alexandre Duchêne). She is co-author (with Lindsay Bell, Michelle Daveluy, Mireille McLaughlin and Hubert Noël) of Sustaining the Nation: Mobility, Labour and Identity (Oxford University Press), due out by the end of 2015.

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