[A12n-forum] FW: Call for Abstracts: FEL XI - Working Together for Endangered Languages: Kuala Lumpur, Oct 2007

["Don Osborn" <dzo@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

FYI. (Fwd from lgpolicy-list)

________________________________


The Eleventh Conference of the Foundation for Endangered Languages: Kuala 
Lumpur, Malaysia
Working Together for Endangered Languages: Research Challenges and Social 
Impacts
University of Malaya
Kuala Lumpur
Malaysia
Dates: 26-28 October 2007 

Call for Abstracts: FEL XI

•        What can researchers do to ensure collaboration with members of the 
language community? What should the researcher do to find a way into the 
community through proper and accepted channels? What benefits can a language 
community expect from such collaboration?
•        What are the boundaries that the researcher should not cross in order 
to protect the rights and privacy of the subjects and to safeguard 
collaborative ties between community and researcher? What are the limits of 
researchers’ duties to the language community, and vice versa?
•        What is ‘best practice’ for researchers in order to be accepted and 
trusted as in-group members of the community? Does this require the linguist to 
reduce his/her role as an expert, in order to build trust and collaboration 
with the community? Can cultural immersion act as a collaborative means in data 
collection, creating the notion that the researcher is part of the community’s 
in-group? Are there any advantages in maintaining distance between researcher 
and community?
•        What options do researchers have if they encounter non-collaborative 
behaviour from their target subjects? 
•        Can support for maintenance of an endangered language actually be 
socially counter-productive, when the shift away from an endangered language is 
seen as progress in economic and social mobility? In such conditions, can the 
community be made aware of the importance of language maintenance? How can the 
researcher convince the community of the negative impact of language loss on 
their culture and history and, conversely, of the benefits of recovery, 
preservation, promotion? 
•        How can language documentation work, and its fruits, be integrated 
into community activities and community development? In what other ways can 
linguistic research benefit language maintenance and revitalization?
•        How can the researcher guard against personally causing damage to 
existing social and political structures? In particular, how can the researcher 
avoid disturbing established social relations and organization by seemingly 
conferring favours on specific members of the community?
•        How can the researcher ensure that s/he is not unwittingly the agent 
of globalisation within the community and thereby the cause of further 
socio-economic and cultural disruption? 

Abstracts should make reference to actual language situations , and ideally 
should draw on personal experience. The aim of the conference is to pool 
experience, to discuss and to learn from it, not to theorize in the abstract 
about inter-cultural relations.

Abstract and Paper Submission Protocols

In order to present a paper at the Conference, writers must submit in advance 
an abstract of not more than 500 words before 15 May 2007. After this deadline, 
abstracts will not be accepted. Abstracts submitted, which should be in 
English, must include the following details:
•        Title of the paper
•        Name of the author(s), organisation to which he/she belongs to
•        Postal address of the first author 
•        Telephone number (and fax number if any)
•        Email address(es)
•        Abstract text (not more than 500 words)

The abstracts should be sent via e-mail to waninda2001@xxxxxxxxx and  
fel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx with the subject of the e-mail stating: “FEL Abstract: 
<last name of author(s)>: <title of paper>”  Abstracts will acknowledged on 
receipt. 

The name of the first author will be used in all correspondence. Writers will 
be informed once their abstracts have been accepted and they will be required 
to submit their full papers for publication in the proceedings before 1 
September 2007 together with their registration fee. Failure to do so will 
result in the disqualification of the writers to present their papers. Once 
accepted, full papers can be submitted in English or Malay. Each standard 
presentation at the Conference will last twenty minutes, with a further ten 
minutes for discussion and questions and answers. Plenary lectures will last 
forty-five minutes each; these are awarded by invitation only. 

Important Dates
•        Abstract arrival deadlines – 15 May 2007 
•        Committee's decision: 15 June 2007
•        In case of acceptance, the full paper should be sent by 1 September 
2007. (Further details on the format of text will be specified to the authors)
•        Conference dates: 26-28 October 2007 

The site for the 2007 conference of the Foundation of Endangered Languages, 
hosted jointly this year with SKET, University of Malaya, will be Kuala Lumpur, 
Malaysia. 

University of Malaya is the oldest university in Malaysia, and SKET, i.e. the 
Section for Co-Curricular Activities, Elective Courses by Other Faculties and 
TITAS, is responsible for the teaching of 80 co-curricular courses, and the 
compulsory course “Ethnic Relations.” (For more information, visit 
http://www.um.edu.my).

The Foundation for Endangered Languages is a non-profit organization, 
registered as Charity 1070616 in England and Wales, founded in 1996. It exists 
to support, enable and assist the documentation, protection and promotion of 
endangered languages. It awards small grants (of the order of US$ 1,000) for 
all kinds of projects that fall within this remit, and also publishes a 
newsletter, OGMIOS. It hosts an annual conference, with Proceedings that are 
available as published volumes. (For more information, visit 
http://www.ogmios.org).

Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the largest city of Malaysia. It is an enclave 
within the state of Selangor, on the central west coast of Peninsular Malaysia. 
Amongst some of the famous landmarks that the city houses are the Petronas Twin 
Towers, Menara Kuala Lumpur, Tugu Negara, the National Palace and most 
recently, the ‘Eye of Malaysia’ Ferris wheel. Kuala Lumpur enjoys a year-round 
equatorial climate which is warm and sunny. Rainfall is especially plentiful, 
during the southwest monsoon from April to September.