Dear Members of the Academic Community,

We, the organizing committee of "Rethinking Bilingualism: Applied Approaches," have been disheartened by recent events and the current climate at UCLA, which has been marked by intense discord, uncertainty, violence, and an increased police presence on campus. Since the first day in planning our upcoming workshop, our goal has always been to foster community and collaboration. Thus, current conditions have understandably made it challenging to concentrate on academic pursuits and increased our concerns over the well-being of our students. While we do not expect a compromise in safety at our current site at the time of event, we will be transitioning our workshop at the end of the month, planned for Saturday, May 25th, to a hybrid format to exercise caution and ensure accessibility and the safety of all workshop participants, especially the well-being our students.

This approach will allow participants to either attend in person, if it is safe and feasible to do so, or join online. Given the unpredictability of the current situation, we are prepared to pivot to an online-only event should the need arise. We hope that hosting our workshop in this format will allow for it to be safe space for scholars, students, educators, and community members to come together and connect in this time of great uncertainty. We remain committed to both the safety of our speakers and attendees and our goal to foster community and collaboration, and we will make all necessary accommodations and modifications to our event to make it as accessible as possible to those that wish to attend in whatever format they choose to.

We kindly ask all prospective attendees to RSVP by Friday, 17th at 12pm, indicating whether you would be interested in attending the workshop in person, should circumstances permit, or if you prefer to participate online. You may withdraw or edit your RSVP at any time.

With care,

Daria, Giusi, and Jennifer