Conference Report

Dr. Anik Nandi

An International Conference on “Law, Language, and Cultural Empowerment” was jointly organised by The University of Sydney and National Law University, Delhi on 20-21 July 2020. The meeting was a testing ground for new ways of pursuing research. Our global community is living through unprecedented times due to the recent pandemic, and language use is at the heart of many of the challenges we face. Moreover, the preservation of cultural and linguistic diversity in today's world is a major concern to scientists, governments, community leaders, and advocates of linguistic human rights. In addition, current developments in this area underline that there is a lack of fundamental sociolinguistic research comparing different multilingual contexts which has created a knowledge gap at a time when there is a widely acknowledged urgent need for action to articulate more strongly the importance of maintenance, and/or revitalisation of minoritized languages worldwide. This interdisciplinary conference bridges this gap to a large extent through this excellent online knowledge exchange activity.

Prof. Prasannanshu of National Law University, Delhi and Prof. Jakelin Troy of Sydney University co-organised this event, Ms. Janette Thambyrajah, a PhD student working on Literacy in Wiradjuri language organised the conference with Prof. Troy for The University of Sydney, and Prof. Prasannanshu organized it from the Indian side. In this two-day event, each day saw seven presentation, in addition to the ‘Acknowledgement of Country’ by Prof. Troy and a detailed thematic introduction to the conference by Prof. Prasannanshu. Various issues were covered concerning the linguistic minorities including the deaf, visually impaired, aboriginal, and tribal communities, notably from the following countries: Australia, India, Pakistan, and China.