LanDpost - Languaging and Diversity in the age of post-colonial glocal-medialization

The LanDpost, "Languaging and Diversity in the age of post-colonial Glocal-medialization" international conference aims to address issues of how identification processes impinge upon and shape, both historically and in present times, understandings of

(i) human communication and sociolinguistic issues,

(ii) personhood and identity, and

(iii) intellectual, symbolic and material tools.

The digital and medial lives of children, young people and adults in different geopolitical spaces and the disparity of experiences within these spaces and their communities calls for systematically revisiting some central areas in the human and natural sciences generally, and the language and cultural sciences more specifically. The recent popular and academic interest in these digital and medial shifts (in Europe particularly) suggest a marginalization vis-à-vis the diversity and plurality of the Global South. This international conference aims to address such issues by eliciting participation and bringing together empirically framed analysis from sociolinguistic, discourse analytical, sociocultural theoretical perspectives on the one hand, and post-colonial framings on the other.

LanDpost builds upon the traditions of dialoguing that have been independently built up at the CCD research group at Örebro University, Sweden and at the Department of Linguistics at Aligarh Muslim University, India. This bilateral Swedish-Indian international conference builds upon collaboration between senior members from the two environments since early 2010. This collaboration has recently resulted in a joint publication titled Alternative Voices: (Re)searching Language, Culture and Identity... published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing, England.

Together with colleagues from the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, India, the CCD research group at Örebro University, Sweden and the Department of Linguistics at Aligarh Muslim University, India, invite participation at an international multidisciplinary conference 15-17 October 2014 in Mysore, India. LanDpost explicitly aims to provide a forum for both senior and junior scholars from different national contexts who come together from a range of academic domains and disciplines. The work elicited will focus issues related to identification processes and representations of communication and identity from interactional and sociohistorical perspectives.

Ways in which human beings in general and institutions including (social) media in particular conceptualize language and identity in the current age of globalization and digitalization has a fundamental bearing on not just issues of equity and democracy, but also on shifts in power relations between the Global North and the Global South. Recognizing the complexities that mark human collectives across time and space and the increasing pace of change and diversification that interfaces at global, national and local levels, LanDpost has the following explicit aims:

1. Bring together alternative voices from the Global North and South in order to enable empirically informed discussions that represent different domains/disciplines with the aim of renewing understandings of communication and diversity across time and space.

2. Provide a platform for discussing methodological and conceptual questions of relevance for postcolonial theorizing in the light of (i) empirical explorations, and (ii) local, regional and global changes, diversification and mobility across time and space.

3. Develop long term multidisciplinary and multisite research, including bilateral research applications.

Conference theme keywords:

Communication (including literacy/numeracy, bi/multilingualism/dialectalism), learning, intersectionality, identity/diversity, globalization, medialization, digitalization, empirical analysis, social interaction, sociohistorical analysis, mobility, representations

Scientific and administrative organizers:

CCD (Communication, Culture & Diversity) research group, School HumES, Örebro University, Sweden
Central Institute of Indian Languages, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, Mysore
Department of Linguistics, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India
Centre for Applied Linguistics and Translation Studies, Hyderabad University, India

Conference chairs:

Sangeeta Bagga-Gupta, Örebro Sweden
Awadhesh K. Mishra, Mysore, India
S. Imtiaz Hasnain, Aligarh, India
Panchanan Mohanty, Hyderabad, India

Organization committee:

Jenny Rosén, Giulia Messina Dahlberg, Kicki Ekberg, Örebro, Sweden
S. Zainuddin, Asim Siddiqui, Mohd. Sajjad, Aftab Alam, Aligarh, India
L. Ramamoorthy, K. Srinivasacharya, Mysore, India

Important information

Program Pdf, 72.3 kB. (Last updated 2014-10-10)

LanDpost is a peer-reviewed conference and while there is no registration fees, participants who are not from the research groups and institutes organizing the event, will have the possibility to register for a meals package during the conference at the time of the online registration and pay for the same when they arrive for the conference in Mysore. We estimate the conference meal package (2 refreshments daily, 1 lunch daily and 2 dinners during the conference) to come to roughly 300 Swedish kronors or 3000 Indian rupees. Please note that payments need to be made in Mysore and in Indian rupees.