Brief update, October 2024
Circle activities
We look back on an interesting and successful set of presentations during the German African Studies Conference in Bayreuth earlier this month.
We will be present at the Swiss Research Africa Days at the end of October in Bern, with a panel ‘towards sustainable language policies in Africa.’ This panel will take place on Saturday 26 October from 13:15 to 14:45 CEST. If you are interested, you can join via Zoom free of charge.
Our panel proposal for ECAS 2025 in Prague was accepted, on ‘Belonging in Africa, belonging in the world – the role of language’. The Call for Papers should be out some time in November.
More than 100 members!
Five new members have joined since last time: Chukwuemeke Buzome, Delta State University, Abraka, Nigeria; Dr Abisoye Eleshin, University of Lagos, Nigeria; Tomoe Noguchi, PhD student, Kyoto University, Japan; Dr Timothy Olaosebikan, Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Nigeria; and Omusula Omuholo (Kenya), PhD Student, University of Oregon, USA. This brings our total membership to 102! It shows the growing interest in the promotion of African languages and the need for more networking and information exchange in this area…
Our not very active WhatsApp group now has 46 members (and a nice new picture, offered by Cosmas Amenorvi). Joining is possible.
Of course, things can change – people change jobs, job titles and interests. Do let us know if this is the case. Also, if these updates are bothering more than helping you, it is equally easy to leave the Circle – just drop us a line!
Upcoming events
Circle member Nomalungelo Ngubane has alerted us to the annual conference of the African Languages Teachers Association, from Thursday 10th to Saturday 12th, April 2025. It is basically a US association, but some of you may be interested. The Call for Abstracts is still open! All info is at https://altaglobalweb.org/alta2025/ . One wonders – are there any similar associations on the African continent?
As always, if you have things or hear of things that you think might be of interest to Circle members, don’t hesitate to send a short message, either via the mail or via WhatsApp - we will be happy to share the information.
Best regards,
Bert (also on behalf of Comfort, Sarita and Taiwo).