Interdisciplinary Workshop: Language and Trauma

Date: 10-Sep-2025 - 24-Sep-2025
Location: South Africa, Poland and online, Poland
Meeting URL: https://heteroglossia.net/Language-and-Trauma.142.0.html

Linguistic Field(s): Applied Linguistics; Discourse Analysis; Sociolinguistics

Following the very successful Interdisciplinary Workshop on Language and Trauma in March 2023 and 2024, we would like to follow-up the conversation with you! In order to accommodate researchers from different regions, we opted for joint, yet geographically dispersed workshops – and we are looking forward to receiving your ideas for contributions. Potential topics include:
- Conceptualizing trauma in a multilingual perspective
- Linguistic violence: Language (or its absence) in the making of trauma
- Impacts of trauma on linguistic repertoires, language use and language learning
- Putting traumatic memories into words – shared narratives, metaphors, poetics and performance
- Heritage languages and healing from trauma
and finally Trauma in language research: Epistemological, methodological and ethical questions

Organisation and Venue
We are organizing two on-site events, each with a particular focus. You are welcome to attend one or both in person or online.
10/11th of September 2025:
Multilingualism and trauma (focus on post-colonial contexts)
University of Stellenbosch, South Africa
and/or
23/24th of September 2025:
Grassroots multilingualism, trauma and healing. Revitalization and minoritized experiences.

Participants in the second workshop are invited to stay on 25-27 September 25. for workshops of the project FOSTERLANG (Fostering Linguistic Capital: A Roadmap for Reversing the Diversity Crisis and Activating Societal Benefits in Europe, https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/how-to-participate/org-details/991015633/project/101178387/program/43108390/details) and community-driven cultural activities.

Participation
Send your expression of interest until the 30th of January 2025 to [email protected]
We will arrange the program of the sessions according to interest, so please include
(1) which workshop you would like to attend (on-site/on-line),
(2) a tentative title if you would like to present your work.
There is no participation fee, registration (per workshop) is required and travel and accommodation have to be covered individually. Practical information on the venues will be provided.
Conveners and Contacts
Judith Purkarthofer, Marcelyn Oostendorp and Brigitta Busch
[email protected], [email protected] and [email protected]

Information on the earlier Workshops in 2023 and 2024: https://heteroglossia.net/Language-and-Trauma.142.0.html
Virtual Book table: https://heteroglossia.net/Resources-and-virtual-book-table.150.0.html