International Literacy Day is September 8, 2009. In Paris, Dr. Lalage Bown, who spent more than 30 years working in Adult Education at Universities in Zambia and Nigeria will give an International Literacy Day Lecture on ‘Literacy and Empowerment’ at UNESCO headquarters in Paris on September 8.

Celebrate International Literacy Day
International Literacy Day is September 8, 2009. In Paris, Dr. Lalage
Bown, who spent more than 30 years working in Adult Education at
Universities in Zambia and Nigeria will give an International Literacy
Day Lecture on ‘Literacy and Empowerment’ at UNESCO headquarters in
Paris on September 8.

16 to 18 October 2009 with the
THEME:  Facing the literacy challenge: foundations for literacy and beyond.
VENUE: Wits School of Education, Parktown, Johannesburg.

Much concern has been voiced about literacy recently from a number of experts working in the field of literacy. The poor results from national and international evaluations have shown that literacy learning and teaching faces huge challenges. Literacy in the informal sector faces similar challenges. South Africa is placed in a position where the literacy needs of adults, displaced communities, young children, and working professionals need to be met, but met in ways that fit particular needs and diverse contexts. It is with this in mind that RASA’s 2009 conference focuses on some of the literacy challenges as a way of bringing them to light and thinking about solutions as we move forward.

The conference will be organized according to the following strands:  Adult/family/community literacy; Assessment Practices; Emergent and early literacy; Primary School literacy; Secondary School literacy; Tertiary Literacy; Literacy and Numeracy across the curriculum; Multilingualism; Critical Literacies; Digital Literacies and New Technologies; Leadership/professional development.

RASA is pleased to announce that Professor Michelle Commeyras from the University of Georgia will be our keynote speaker.

• Please send your abstract in a Word document of not more than 200 words.
  
• State your title, presenter(s) name(s) and the relevant strand.
  
• State what type of equipment you would need for your presentation.
  
• Presentations can take the form of Individual papers (30 minutes, 20 minutes speaking time 10 minutes question time), Colloquia (2 hours, 3-5 speakers), Workshops (1 hour).
  
• Please state which form your presentation will take.
  
• The closing date for abstracts is: 31 July 2009.

Please email this information to shalati.mabunda@wits.ac.za

A conference presented jointly by the Association of University English Teachers of Southern Africa (AUETSA), the South African Association for Commonwealth Language and Literature Studies (SAACLALS), the South African Society for General Literary studies (SAVAL), the 4th Conference on South African Children’s and Youth Literature and the South African Association for Language Teaching (SAALT),
Hosted by the The School of Languages and the Research Unit: Languages and literature in the South African context (8-11 July 2009),
Venue: North-West University (Potchefstroom Campus), Potchefstroom, South Africa.
Final deadline for abstracts: 31 May 2009. Dialogue between the imagined worlds of languages, texts, authors and cultures is an important force in language and literature. The aim of this conference is to provide a forum for stimulating and enhancing such dialogue in the field of literary and linguistic discourse. Dialogue here means to enter into conversation with, to create community and new meaning, but also to contest (to discuss critically) or to dialogise (to expose to different points of view, to relativise). The field can broadly be organized as conversations (or breaks in the conversations) between five “scapes” that characterize the postmodern, global “landscape”, according to Arjun Appadurai, “Disjuncture and Difference in the Global Cultural Economy” (Modernity at Large – Cultural Dimensions of Globalization.) These “scapes” are ideoscapes, technoscapes, ethnoscapes, mediascapes, financescapes and (can one add) landscapes.
Learn more: http://www.puk.ac.za/fakulteite/lettere/skt/worldsindialogue/index_e.html

Foundation for Endangered Languages in association with the Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan and The Institute of Humanities, Khorog will be hosting a conference on Endangered Languages and History at the Institute of Humanities, Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, Khorog, Tajikistan (24-26 September, 2009). Endangered languages are often the remnants of old nations and civilizations. Many of these languages have been widely used in vast territories for centuries before giving way to more powerful and influential languages over a period of time for various social, economic, literary, political, and natural reasons. It is often precisely in the endangered languages of minorities and indigenous peoples that scholars seek answers to the historical developments of nations, their values and ethics, agricultural activities, habitat, way of life, migration patterns, arts and crafts, religious traditions, archaeological findings, etc. Endangered languages can serve to legitimise the sovereignty of the dominant nations, or to reaffirm their identity and authority over the territory, often at the expense of other languages. In the process, the endangered languages themselves may be strengthened or weakened as the past of the nation becomes a bone of contention. History also has value in the life of a community and can foster and promote a sense of identity among its members, thus perhaps playing a crucial role in the preservation or revitalisation of the endangered languages.

To learn more or to view the call for abstracts, please visit http://www.ogmios.org/home.htm.