International workshop: Language Ethics as a Field of Inquiry
The workshop “Language Ethics as a Field of Inquiry” is an innovative and a first-of-its-kind attempt to identify, conceptualise and explore the social and political ethics of human language as a distinct field of intellectual inquiry, similarly to other distinct domains of ethics such as the ethics of war, bioethics, business ethics and environmental ethics.
The workshop brings together diverse scholarly perspectives from leading experts in politics, philosophy, linguistics, history and economics, in order to explore language ethics in a strong transdisciplinary environment. It therefore sets out to identify the ways in which the intrinsic plurality and complexity of this emerging field of inquiry may be approached, defined and studied in a systematic and dedicated manner.
Convenors: Daniel Weinstock and Yael Peled
Participation and registration:
Registration is free of charge but is essential, since the number of available places is limited. To register, please send a message expressing your interest to yael.a.peled@gmail.com. For directions and map of the workshop venue see here.
November 11-12, 2011
ITHQ (3535 St. Denis), Montreal
Programme download poster here
Friday November 11
9:00 Greetings and Opening Remarks
Session I: Language Ethics – Definitions, Contexts and Approaches
- 9:30 Dan Avnon (Political Science, Hebrew University) What is (or ‘are’) Language Ethics?
- 10:15 Arash Abizadeh (Political Science, McGill) Words versus the Public Thing: Verbal Threats to the Rousseauist Republic
11:00 Break
- 11:15 Luisa Maffi (Terralingua) Earth of Languages, Languages of the Earth: Towards a Biocultural Ethics for the World’s Languages
12.00 Lunch
Session II: The Normative Theorising of Language Policy
- 13:00 Idil Boran (Philosophy, York) Language, Institutions and Political Theory
- 13:45 Jacob T. Levy (Political Science, McGill) The Language of Manners and the Manners of Language
14:30 Break
Session III: Linguistic Justice
- 15:00 Alan Patten (Political Science, Princeton) Language Preservation, Fairness and Language Rights
- 15:45 Helder de Schutter (Political and Social Theory, Leuven) Intralinguistic Justice
Saturday November 12
Session IV: Global Linguistic Justice
- 9:30 Suzanne Romaine (English, Oxford) Towards Sustainable and Equitable Human Development: Why Language Matters
- 10:15 Daniel Weinstock (Philosophy, Montreal) Is Language Death Necessarily Unjust? Three Arguments
11:00 Break
- 11:15 Tom Ricento (Education, Calgary) Language Policy, Political Theory and English as a ‘Global’ Language
12:00 Lunch
Session V: The Economics of Linguistic Diversity
- 13:00 David Robichaud (Philosophy, Ottawa) Language Rights and the Costs of Language Diversity
- 13:45 Francois Grin (Economics, Geneva) Is “Diversity” an Operational Concept for Language Policy?
14:30 Break
Session VI: Language Ethics as a Field of Inquiry
15:00 General Discussion
16:30 Conclusion