Keynote Speakers

Roundtable Discussion

In light of the latest political developments in Eastern Europe, we elected high-quality education as the main theme that will be discussed during the symposium sessions (you can find additional information at https://sdgs.un.org/goals/goal4; https://www.undp.org/content/undp/en/home/sustainable-development-goals/goal-4-quality-education.html).

The aim of this session is to investigate the potential social and cultural impact of the 4^th U.N. goal through the lens of artistic work and its role as a promoter of human rights. After the riots that took place last autumn in Byelorussia, Andrej Kurejčik wrote the play "Обиженные. Беларусь(сия)" ("Insulted. Belarus"), a theatre piece that sheds light on the cruel events that actually occurred.

In order to provide an overview of these facts and reflect upon the role that art and theatre can play in education and in resonating the atrocities that still occur around the world, the symposium will offer an opportunity for dialogue between and with the following academic figures:

• Giulia Dossi, a Harvard PhD Candidate who translated Kurejčik’s theatre piece (https://slavic.fas.harvard.edu/people/giulia-dossi);

• Matteo Spiazzi, a theatre director, actor, and pedagogue whose works are often realized and performed in Eastern Europe (https://www.matteospiazzi.com/);

• Amerigo Zanetti, project manager, Italian teacher and educator. He has been a lecturer at various universities located in Eastern Europe (www.linkedin.com/in/amerigo-zanetti);

• Isolde Quadranti, EDC coordinator - Department of Law, University of Verona. She also coordinates the projects Scholars at Risk and Manifesto for Inclusive University at the University of Verona.

You can read more about these political events at:

https://www.eastjournal.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Insultati.-Bielorussia.pdf (Italian)

Keynote speakers (traditional presentation)

• Prof. Reto Sorg

Topic of the talk: Prof. Sorg will introduce the figure and work of Robert Walser as an author who deals with marginal literary topics, themes and genres. The talk will also focus on Thomas Hirschhorn's installation „Robert Walser-Sculpture“ (summer 2019) in Biel, Switzerland, which was dedicated to the Swiss author under the slogan „Be an outsider! Be a Hero! Be Robert Walser!“.

Short biography

Reto Sorg is Professor of Contemporary German Literature at the University of Lausanne and the director of the Robert Walser Center in Bern (Switzerland). He has published numerous contributions on the works of Robert Walser, Carl Einstein, modernism, literature theory and Swiss literature.

His most recent works include the publication of the new edition of Robert Walser's complete works for the publisher Suhrkamp (Berner Ausgabe) and the editing, in collaboration with the Swiss artist Thomas Hirschhorn, of the Robert Walser anthology "A Slap in the Face and other Matters".

• Dr. Joachim Kokkelmans

Topic of the talk: “When your words are from the minority but your tongue is from the majority”. Changes in the sibilant inventories of Veneto and Trentino minority languages

Minority languages face many challenges, for example that of making it economically attractive to learn a language spoken in limited geographic areas and limited contexts (Grin 2016; Ideas for Europe 2017; O’Brien 2019). One of these challenges is to, at the same time, avoid letting the syntax, semantics, lexicon, phonology etc. of the dominant language pervade through the minority language, thereby losing its original constructions and forms; and at the same time to avoid the other extreme, namely pointlessly ‘hunting’ away any foreignism or loanword by means of overzealous linguistic purism (O’Brien 2019: 30). While speakers are typically conscious of using e.g. a word, a phoneme or a syntactic construction from the dominant language in the minority language, it is more difficult to notice subtle and gradual phonetic phenomena revealing a shift towards the pronunciation of the dominant language.

The present contribution illustrates this with phonetic data from minority languages in Northeastern Italy, collected for the AThEME project (2019). The sample contains Germanic (Zimbar, Bersntolerisch, Plodn, Tirolerisch) and Romance (Ladin) minority languages, as well as Trentino and Veneto dialects. In particular, a shift in the place of articulation of sibilants towards those of dominant varieties is observed.

An acoustic and statistical analysis in Praat (Boersma & Weeninck 2019) reveals that in minority languages with the three-way sibilant contrast, palatoalveolar sibilants are shifted to retracted alveolars, a change mentioned by Rowley (2017: 88f.) about Bersntolerisch. This also occurs in some Ladin varieties and in the speech of some Tyrolean-Trentino bilinguals from the border town of Salurn/Salorno.

This shows that speakers might consciously avoid the use of e.g. loanwords from the dominant language, yet subtle gradual phonetic phenomena like this one can operate across generations to push minority languages a little closer to the dominant varieties.

Short biography

Born in bilingual Brussels, Joachim Kokkelmans obtained his Master’s degree in German and Scandinavian languages and literatures at Ghent University, and is currently a postdoctoral researcher at the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano. He is not only fervently passionate about sibilants in particular (you can guess what the topic of his Ph.D. dissertation at UniVR is), but also focuses more generally on e.g. Germanic-Romance language contact, phonetics and phonology, historical linguistics and regional variation. He furthermore enjoys computer programming in Praat (Boersma & Weeninck 2021) and secretly dreams of connecting Linguistics and academia with blockchains/cryptocurrencies (after Bitcoin, Chomskcoin?).

References

AThEME = Advancing the European Multilingual Experience (2019). Project financed in the 7^th EU framework program, grant number 613465.

Boersma, Paul & David Weeninck (2019): Praat: doing phonetics by computer. Version 6.0.54.

Grin, François (2016): “Challenges of Minority Languages”. In: Ginsburgh, Victor and Shlomo Weber, The Palgrave Handbook of Economics and Language. London: Palgrave McMillan, pp. 616–658.

Ideas for Europe (2017): “Current challenges for minority languages in today’s diverse societies”. Online article, consulted on 13.05.2021.

O’Brien, Coleen Alena (2019): “The Challenges of Kamsá Language Revitalization in Colombia”. In: Sherris, Ari and Susan D. Penfield, Rejecting the Marginalized Status of Minority Languages. Bristol, Blue Ridge Summit: Multilingual Matters, pp. 17–31.

Rowley, Anthony R. (2017): Liacht as de sproch: Grammatica della lingua mòchena/Grammatik des Deutsch-Fersentalerischen. 2^nd edition. Palai en Bersntol: Bersntoler Kulturinstitut.

• Prof. Maurizio Bettiga (owner of EviKrets Biobased Processes Consultants)

Topic of the talk: "Biotechnology as a tool for sustainable development: on sustainability, responsibility and just transitions"

Biotechnology has led to a number of innovations that have improved the quality of human life, health, have mitigated the environmental impact of certain activities or have remediated the environmental damage caused by others. The current times are pandemics and transition times. No need to explain the implications of the former, while the latter is the great transition from a linear, fossil based economy to a circular, biobased one. Biotechnology promises to impact both, providing ground breaking solutions.

As high tech solutions, biotechnological innovations come at a significant cost, both in terms of development and use. As disrupting technologies, biotechnological innovations have the potential of altering existing situations in dramatic way. In one case they can support the most vulnerable societies and humans, in the other they can potentially harm them.

During my talk I will reflect on potential of biotechnological innovations as facilitators for a sustainable development, as well as on the responsibility that comes together with the potential for a vast impact.

Short biography

Maurizio Bettiga was born in Lecco, Italy, in 1978. After earning a MSc and a PhD, both in Industrial Biotechnology, from University of Milan-Bicocca (Milan, Italy) he moved to Lund, Sweden, in 2006, where he worked first as Marie Curie post doctoral researcher, then as senior researcher at the Department of Applied Microbiology of Lund University. His research focussed on metabolic engineering of brewer’s yeast for the production of second-generation bioethanol. Maurizio moved to Gothenburg, where he took a faculty position as Assistant professor at Chalmers University of Technology, in 2010, where he is now a senior researcher at the division of Industrial Biotechnology, department of Biology and Biological Engineering. He acquired the Swedish and Italian habilitation to University professorship in 2015 and 2017, respectively.

Maurizio’s academic research focusses on renewable biofuels and biorefinery, with emphasis on the study of the mechanisms underlying robustness of industrial micro organisms and in particular the tolerance of S. cerevisiae to fermentation inhibitors in lignocellulose hydrolysate. Furthermore, Maurizio is founder and owner of “EviKrets Biobased Processes Consultants”, a network of consultants on bio-based production, Chief Innovation Officer of the Italian company Italbiotec Srl and co-coordinator of the “Bioeconomy Pilot” action of the Vanguard Initiative for Smart Specialisation. His industrial activities also include the use of municipal, agricultural and industrial bio-waste as raw material for bio-based processes, biomethane production and the implementation of new biomass bioconversion technologies, contributing to integrate industrial, economically sustainable activities into the carbon, nitrogen and phosphorous cycles. Maurizio has been organising and teaching a number of courses in Europe, Latin America on genetic engineering of industrial microorganism, microbial physiology, bio-based production and valorisation of research.

Maurizio is pro bono scientific and technical advisor of charity initiatives promoting the sustainable development in semi-arid areas in South America and Africa and he is the founder and President of the art Foundation dedicated to the Italian sculptress Lydia Silvestri.