The first event in our Activism in Progress series, organised by the LAGB sub-committee for linguistics and racial justice, will take place on Wednesday 25 September at 1pm (UTC+1), on Zoom. The details and joining link are below. Please share this with colleagues and students as it will be an exciting seminar, and feel free to share it on social media as well. The event is open to all.

Events in this series will be recorded and hosted online afterwards with the agreement of the presenter.

If you would like to nominate yourself or someone else to present in the series, the online form is here: https://forms.gle/ToHSsTdAc8zWPmcS8

Information:

Denise Amankwah (University of Essex)

Title: Empowering educators to be activists for African languages at a multilingual London school

Abstract: Previous research has shown that even in highly multilingual schools, African languages often remain at a hidden or invisible level (Amankwah & Howard, 2024; Liggins, 2022). I will present plans of my action-based project which involves collaboratively working with educators based at a school with a high percentage of pupils of African descent. The aim of the project is to dismantle remnants of colonial language ideologies and to raise the profile of African languages for staff, pupils and their families. I am hoping to gain feedback on my research plan.

Bio: Denise is completing her PhD in Applied Linguistics at the University of Essex. Her research interests include heritage language maintenance and colonial language ideologies. She has recently published a paper based on her Masters dissertation named: "English on a pedestal": the language attitudes and practices of African migrant bilingual parents and early years professionals in the UK.

1pm, Wed 25 September

Zoom registration link:

https://essex-university.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_PrbdApVgTAmxT7qW2ujK7w#/registration

Best wishes,

Laura