The University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh (ULAB) is going to hold a three-day International Conference on “Entangled Englishes in Translocal Spaces” from September 2-4, 2021. The conference has been organized by the Center for Language Studies (CLS) and the Department of English and Humanities.
Honorable Minister, Ministry of Education, Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, Dr. Dipu Moni, MP, will attend the conference as the Chief Guest. Chairman of the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh (UGC), Professor Dr. Kazi Shahidullah, and Kazi Nabil Ahmed, MP, Member, Board of Trustees, ULAB, will be present as the Special Guests.
The Keynote Speaker of the conference is renowned sociolinguist, Professor Alastair Pennycook, Professor Emeritus at the University of Technology Sydney and Research Professor at the MultiLing Centre at the University of Oslo.
Plenary speakers include Dr. Shyam Sharma, Assistant Professor of English, Stony Brook University, New York, USA; Dr. Sender Dovchin, Senior Research Fellow, School of Education, Curtin University, Australia; Dr. Azfar Hussain, Associate Professor, Grand Valley State University, Michigan, USA; Prof. Salimullah Khan, ULAB; and Prof. Shamsad Mortuza, Vice-Chancellor (Acting), ULAB.
Roundtable discussions featuring renowned academics and experts from Bangladesh and abroad will be held on “English Studies in the age of World Englishes and World Literature,” “Creating humane leaders for English language education in Bangladesh and Beyond: Challenges and future directions” and “Entangled Englishes: Implications for Language-in-Education Policy and Practice.”
A panel discussion will be held on “The politics of injustice in translingualism: Linguistic racism” while a special poetry session will feature Dr. Ahmar Mahboob from the University of Sydney, Australia.
This interdisciplinary Conference will showcase papers, panels, and posters on Englishes and their roles in society with reference to sociology, history, political science, anthropology, education, culture and media studies, critical geography, and linguistics and literature. The Conference will also attempt to configure and contest the hegemonic status of English in various domains of life. It will initiate a discursive platform to explore possible ways of “de-elitization” of Englishes for the sustainable development of human resources. Scholars, researchers and professionals are expected to advance and interchange ideas about critical language awareness for social justice and equality.