ECMI Researchers present at the 20th International Conference on Minority Languages in Bogotá

Between June 24-27, ECMI researchers Maddi Dorronsoro Olamusu and Craig Willis participated in the 20th International Conference on Minority Languages (ICML) in Bogotá, Colombia. Both Craig and Maddi received a Young Researcher and Innovator Conference Grant from the PLURILINGMEDIA COST Action.

The conference focused on five main topics: Language Sustainability and Living Heritage, Language Legislation and Regulation, Language Education and Ethnoeducation, Media in Minority/Minoritised Languages, and Language and Cosmogonies/Worldviews. This was the first edition celebrated outside Europe, so it aimed to include not only European minority languages, but also creole, indigenous and diaspora languages. The program of the conference is available here.

Both researchers presented on two occasions, which allowed them to expand on their current research projects:

• Maddi Dorronsoro Olamusu presented: ‘Language attitudes in the “breathing spaces” of Basque: what do traditional speakers say?’; and ‘From academia, through media, and back to the community: the development of the concept of ‘breathing spaces’ in the Basque Country’.
• Craig Willis presented: ‘Audiences of Welsh language public service media: consumption habits of non-speakers and learners’; and ‘Digital creators using minority/minorized languages: how is the public sector promoting them?’ (co-authored with Libe Mimenza-Castillo, University of the Basque Country).

Also, Craig chaired the panel on ‘Language sustainability and living heritage’, where Tomasz Wicherkiewicz (Adam Mickiewicz University), Elin H. G. Jones (University of Wales Trinity Saint David), and Maddi herself presented.

Participating in ICML XX allowed ECMI researchers to share their latest findings, establish new scholarly connections, and strengthen existing ones in a leading conference series that began in 1980. The ECMI itself was a partner in 2011 when the 13^th edition was held between Flensburg and Sønderborg. We are also already looking forward to the 21^st edition in 2027, with the announcement that it will be held in Bozen/Bolzano with our close institutional partner, Eurac Research.

This 20^th edition was an important conference for PLURILINGMEDIA, which funded six of its members for attendance as part of the first round of scholarships, and numerous members of the action also participated in the conference. The Core Group members present took advantage of this opportunity and held a meeting during the conference (with around 20 persons attending) and were also given the platform to introduce the Action during the conference closing ceremony.