2-4 October, 2024
University of Belgrade, Faculty of Philology
Studentski trg 3, Belgrade
Invited speakers
Giustina Selvelli is an anthropologist and writer, currently a EUTOPIA-SIF Marie Sklodowska Curie Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Sociology, University of Ljubljana. She worked at the Department of Linguistics and Comparative Cultural Studies, Ca’ Foscari University of Venice, at the Department of Cultural Analysis, Alpen-Adria University of Klagenfurt, and the Department of Cultural History, the University of Nova Gorica. She is also a militant ethnographer, active journalist, traveller and writer specialized in the area of Southeast Europe.
Giustina Selvelli’s research interests include anthropological linguistics, sociolinguistics, cultural history, ecolinguistics, Balkan studies and ethnolinguistic minorities. She currently focuses on the struggles of ethnic minority activists for the preservation of their ecocultural heritage against human-induced environmental destruction in the border regions of Eastern Europe.
Giustina’s most recent publications are: The Alphabet of Discord: The Ideologization of Writing Systems on the Balkans since the Breakup of Multiethnic Empires (Ibidem, 2021), Language Attitudes, Collective Memory and (Trans)National Identity Construction Among the Armenian Diaspora in Bulgaria (Peter Lang, 2024) and Capire il confine. Gorizia e Nova Gorica: lo sguardo di un’antropologa indaga la frontiera (BEE, 2024).
In her keynote lecture, Giustina Selvelli will talk about “Endangered languages and environmental degradation among minority communities in Europe: an ecological perspective”.
Tomasz Wicherkiewicz is a linguist, university professor and the head of the Department of Language Policy & Minority Studies at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. He studied in the Netherlands and Germany and worked with minority communities and academia in Europe, Asia, and North America. He was a visiting professor at the University of Hokkaido in Sapporo, Japan, a fellow researcher in the Smithsonian Institution program Recovering Voices in Washington, DC, a visiting researcher at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, NC and the University of Texas in Austin, TX.
Tomasz Wicherkiewicz specializes in sociolinguistics, language policy and planning, as well as minority studies, with a special interest in endangered, minority and minoritized, contested, underresourced and underresearched languages, language revitalization and documentation, minority language rights protection and research.
In his keynote lecture, Tomasz Wicherkiewicz will focus on “Europe’s Endangered, Regional, Collateral, Contested Languages vs. Communities and Linguists Entangled in Revitalisations, Regionalisations, Ausbaisations, etc.”.
Yaron Matras is one of the most prominent English-language Romani linguists. He was professor of linguistics at the University of Manchester until 2020 and has since held honorary and visiting appointments at the Aston Institute for Forensic Linguistics, the University of Hamburg, the University of Haifa, Humboldt University Berlin and the Hanse Wissenschaftskolleg Institute for Advanced Study. He also previously held numerous guest appointments including at La Trobe University (Melbourne), the Sorbonne (Paris), Cambridge University, University of Konstanz and Nanyang Technical University (Singapore)
Yaron Matras has contributed to a range of sub-fields in linguistics, including contact linguistics, language typology, documentation of endangered languages, dialectology, discourse pragmatics, language policy and planning, urban multilingualism and forensic linguistics. He has also greatly contributed to research in the broader field of Romani studies in the areas of migration studies, cultural studies, and political participation.
He is the author of several pioneering studies, including a book on Romani: A Linguistic Introduction (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and on Romani in Britain: The afterlife of a language (Edinburgh University Press, 2010. His most recent publication is Speech and the city. Multilingualism, decoloniality and the civic university (Cambridge University Press, 2024).
In his keynote lecture, Yaron Matras will talk about “What is multilingualism? A critical reflection on pluralism, disadvantaged languages and social justice”.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE PARTICIPANTS
Dear participants of the “Vulnerable and Endangered Languages in Europe” (VELE2024) Conference, welcome to Belgrade!
Arriving in Belgrade
If you are traveling from abroad, we recommend flying into Belgrade. Comprehensive information about the Nikola Tesla airport can be found at this link.
Upon arrival at the Belgrade airport, we advise you to pick up a taxi voucher (immediately after the customs) for a fixed price to the center of the city (3.000 RSD/ 30 euros) and board one of the taxis waiting in front of international arrivals, which accepts vouchers. Alternatively, you can book a taxi to your accommodation in advance. We strongly advise against using the services of taxi drivers at the airport on the spot, as this may be very expensive. Information about reliable taxi services is provided below.
You can also take shutter bus A1 to Slavija square (400 RSD/ 4 euros, payable only to the bus driver) or bus 72 to Zeleni Venac (50 RSD/ 0.5 euros, payable through the Beograd Plus app).
Getting Around Belgrade
Public Transportation
Belgrade’s public transportation system, although it does not include a metro, offers buses, trams, and trolleys that can take you to any part of the city. Detailed information about the public transport system in Belgrade is available through the following apps:
Additionally, Google Maps and the Moovit app provide excellent information on public transport routes and schedules in Belgrade.
Taxi Services
Here are the contact numbers for some reliable taxi services in Belgrade:
For your convenience, you might want to purchase a prepaid SIM card. You can inquire about where to buy one upon arrival at the airport, or you can purchase a SIM card at any newsstand.
There are also several apps available for ordering a taxi.
Conference Venue
The conference will be held at the Faculty of Philology, University of Belgrade.
Address: Studentski trg (Student Square) 3
Registration: Participant registration will take place in the Main Hall of the Faculty of Philology. You will arrive in this hall immediately upon entering the building.
Opening Ceremony: The opening ceremony will be held in Auditorium 11, located on the ground floor to the right.
Conference Sessions: All conference sessions will be held in the Conference Room, located on the first floor. You can reach the conference room by using the stairs on the left side of the main hall.
Money Exchange
The currency used in Serbia is the Serbian dinar (RSD). The exchange rate is approximately 1 euro to 116.5 RSD. You can find money exchange offices throughout the city. Some of the closest to the Faculty of Philology are in the following streets:
Some of them can be found on Google Maps:
Additionally, you can pay by card almost everywhere in the city, including in taxis.
Should you need additional information, before coming to Belgrade or while in the city, please contact Anđela Redžić: andjela.redzic@gmail.com
© VLingS, Vulnerable Languages and Linguistic Varieties in Serbia
Website designed by Maja Vučković
