Language sanctuaries: why language is integral to the arts of integration

The webinar is a joint event with the UNESCO Chair in Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts at Glasgow University, hosted by the University of Sanctuary at the University of East Anglia on ‘Language sanctuaries: why language is integral to the arts of integration’.

In this webinar, Alison Phipps with Gameli Tordzro, Naa Densua Tordzro, Tawona Sitholé, Giovanna Fassetta and Sahar Alshobaki present the work of the UNESCO Chair for Refugee Integration through Languages and the Arts, with a particular focus on the ways in which language may offer sanctuary. This includes an examination of different policies that focus on integration through language acquisition; a critical assessment of the pitfalls in focusing on language acquisition as a technological or technocratic 'fix' to the tasks accompanying integration; a discussion of the ways in which a monolingual perspective dominates and shapes understandings of the language acquisition; and a consideration of shifting policy landscapes. In the presentation, Alison with colleagues will draw on insights from their work in Gaza, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Aoteaora, Scotland and in refugee communities which take a sanctuary view of language.

The webinar includes poetry, story, dance and song together with more traditional academic presentation.
You can find further information on the Manifesto and links to the book and to reviews here in a thread: https://twitter.com/alison_phipps/status/1172721175950188544?s=20
You can watch Tawona’s poem: https://vimeo.com/98254165
You can also enroll for the MOOC Multilingual Learning for a Globalised World: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/multilingual

References

Nussbaum, M. (2011) Creating Capabilities. The Human Development Approach. Harvard University Press

Gramling, D. (2016). The Invention of Monolingualism. New York and London: Bloomsbury.

Mbembé, J.-A. (2000). De la postcolonie: essai sur l'imagination politique dans l'Afrique contemporaine: KARTHALA Editions.

Mbembe, J.-A., & Meintjes, L. (2003). Necropolitics. Public culture, 15(1), 11-40.

Phipps, A. (2017). Why Cultural Work with Refugees? Brussels: European Union Retrieved from http://www.europarl.europa.eu/RegData/etudes/IDAN/2017/602004/IPOL_IDA(2017)602004_EN.pdf

Phipps, A. (2018). Language Plenty, Refugees and the Post-Brexit World: New Practices from Scotland. In M. Kelly (Ed.), Languages after Brexit: How the UK Speaks to the World. London: Plagrave Macmillan.

Phipps, A. (2019). Decolonising Multilingualism: Struggles to Decreate. Bristol: Multilingual Matters.

Phipps, A. S., Tawona. (2018). The Warriors who do not Fight. Glasgow: Wild Goose Publications.

Scarry, E. (2011). Thinking in an Emergency. New York: W.W Norton & Company.

Tawil-Souri, H. and Matar, D. (2016) Gaza as Metaphor. Hurst & Co Publishers Tordzro, G. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/8941/1/2017Tordzrophd.pdf

(Phipps, 2017; A. Phipps, 2018; Phipps, 2019; A. S. Phipps, Tawona, 2018)

(Mbembé, 2000; Mbembe & Meintjes, 2003; Scarry, 2011)

(Gramling, 2016)