Language policy, language rights, and language restorative justice

South East Asian experiences of peacebuilding and social cohesion in multiethnic settings

Lecture

Prof. Joseph Lo Bianco (University of Melbourne) discusses the experience of language, social cohesion and peace building through an applied language planning project in three conflict zones in South East Asia: Malaysia, Myanmar/Burma and Thailand.

Questions being raised include the relations between language and social conflict/cohesion in multi-ethnic states and the role and potential of facilitated dialogue in fostering collective mitigation and resolution of conflict.

It also assesses some theories of peacebuilding against the practical experience of serious erosion of relations into conflict, and conceptions of language and multilingualism in light of nation building projects in rapidly developing South East Asian contexts. 

About the lecturer

Joseph Lo Bianco is Professor of Language and Literacy Education at the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, and serves as Immediate Past President of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. Since 2011 he has served as senior research advisor for LUCIDE, a European Commission project on Languages in Urban Communities - Integration and Diversity for Europe, conducting large scale 4 year research on multilingualism at the municipal level in 12 European cities. 

Professor Lo Bianco has advised on language, culture and literacy education, and on the integration of indigenous and immigrant children into mainstream schools, reconciliation and peace through education, in many countries, including Council of Europe, Sri Lanka, Ireland, Wales and the UK, Italy, Slovenia, Canada, Vietnam, Singapore, South Africa, Thailand, Timor Leste, Papua New Guinea among others. 

Organisers

This public lecture is organised by the IS Academie Education and International Development, since 2005 funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the University of Amsterdam (UvA), developed in the context of the Governance and Inclusive Development research program at the Amsterdam Institute for Social Science Research of the UvA.  

Registration

Please register through the link below.

Published by  AISSR