Maddi Dorronsoro Olamusu featured as keynote speaker at the NPLD Annual Conference

The European Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity (NPLD) held its Annual Conference on 9 May in Iruña-Pamplona, in collaboration with Euskarabidea-Government of Navarre. This year’s event, titled ‘Sustainable Development of High Vitality Areas for Minority Language’, focused on regions with a high concentration of minority language speakers and how they can serve as examples for both linguistic and territorial development.

The conference brought together practitioners, policymakers and researchers from across Europe, and our researcher Maddi Dorronsoro Olamusu was invited as the keynote speaker of the conference.

Under the title ‘Minority Languages and High-vitality areas: from definitions to everyday experiences’, Maddi provided a theoretical framework for understanding these particular sociolinguistic areas. She drew on examples from various minority language contexts to illustrate the key characteristics, significance, and challenges of these settings. Drawing on her research on the Basque arnasguneak, Maddi also added a human perspective to the discussion by highlighting the perspectives and attitudes of minority language speakers living in these areas.  

Following Maddi’s keynote, a series of case studies from across Europe offered insights from specific minority language contexts. Contributions came from representatives of the Udalerri Euskaldunen Mankomunitatea (UEMA), the Ladin Cultural Institute Majon de Fascegn, the Welsh Government and the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, the townhalls of Leitza and Arantza (Navarre), and the Government of Ireland –all contributing to a dynamic exchange of ideas, experiences and strategies for language revitalisation.

Programme