Τhis year’s ECSPM symposium celebrated 10 years of development, expansion and enlargement as an organisation independent from the DG Education and Culture of the European Commission, which initially launched it.
Entitled “Actions for social justice in multilingual societies” (concept note here), the symposium was hosted by the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid (UAM) on May 15th and 16th 2025, and co-organised by the university’s MIRCo Research Centre. It took place at La Cristalera UAM centre and gave participants a unique opportunity to be altogether for a full two days to discuss issues of mutual concern and develop collaborations.
The symposium featured lectures, panel, and roundtable discussions addressing critical issues related to linguistic justice in social and educational contexts but also projects that the ECSPM is involved with. A link to a page with abstracts and bionotes is the bottom of this page.
Where available, PPTs can be accessed below (click on title of talk).
Welcome to the 2025 Symposium – Bessie Dendrinos, ECSPM President
Keynotes
– Challenges and theoretical and methodological proposals for a sociolinguistics committed to social justice – Luisa Martín Rojo, MIRCo Director, UAM
– Theoretical and methodological proposals: epistemic and conscientization communities – Maite Puigdevall Serralvo, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya
Panel: Equiling: the role of language in the construction of contemporary inequalities
– Changing the sociolinguistic order: the experience of young Basque speakers in Bilbao – Estibaliz Amorrortu, University of Deusto
– Exploring youth agency and linguistic citizenship in participatory research – Gabriela Prego, University of Santiago de Compostela
– Bonding across linguistic inequalities: The experience of “Vincles” – Joan Pujolar, Universidad Oberta de Catalunya
Coordinator: Jos Swanenberg, Tilburg University
Panel: Action research for social justice in education
– To be uploaded, presentation by Ben Rampton, King’s College London
– Language, education and forced migration in the Nordic context: Mobilizing educators – Christina Hedman, Stockholm University
– Participating to transform: the collective production of an intercultural bilingual education projet in chaco (Argentina) – Virginia Unamuno,
– Challenging linguistic inequalities: agency, conscientization, interaction and habitus – Miren Otxotorena-Aranguren, UAM
Coordinator: Júlia Llompart, UAM
Keynote and presentation
– La legislación como (in)acción: relevancia y límites de la Carta Europea para las Lenguas Regionales o Minoritarias
Fernando Ramallo Fernández, Universidade de Vigo
– Case Finland – Anna Jungner-Nordgren, Senior Advisor in International and Nordic Affairs at the Swedish Assembly of Finland, Folktinget and member of the board of NPLD
Keynote and presentation
– Language policy, social justice and multilingualism in Canada: Calls for inclusion and linguistic de-hierarchization in education and society – Nikolay Slavkov, University of Ottawa
– to be uploaded, presentation by Shelley Taylor, the University of Western Ontario
Recap and discussion by Clara Molina, UAM
Keynote
To be uploaded: Language, anticipation, and the (un)making of futures: The university as a terrain of struggle – Miguel Pérez-Milans, University College London
Discussant: Eva Codó Olsina, UAM, Co-Editor-in-Chief of Multilingua
Panel: European University Alliances – Multilingual policies for research, academic collaboration and communication of research results
– Irini Tsamadou-Jacoberger – Language practice in EPICUR – University of Strasbourg, member of the EPICUR University Alliance,
– Maria Luisa Pérez Cañado – Towards a plurilingual and intercultural European University – University of Jaén, member of the NEOLAIA University Alliance
– Ulrike Jessner-Schmid, University of Innsbruck, member of the Aurora University Alliance
– Bernadette O’Rourke, University of Glasgow, member of the CIVIS University Alliance
Leader: Theodoros Marinis, University of Konstanz, member of the EUniWell University Alliance
Panel: The CoARA Multilingualism WG for linguistic justice in research and publishing
– The CoARA multilingualism WG for linguistic justice in reearch and publishing – Janne Pölönen, Chair of CoARA Multilingualism WG and Josep M. Cots, Universitat de Lleida
Q&A led by: Rafaella Lenoir, CoARA coordinator at UAM
Presentation of the Declaration for Multilingualism and future actions
Guðrún Gísladóttir, ECSPM General Secretary
Roundtable: The impact of language politics and policies on translation, interpretation, and cross-linguistic practices
– Some reflections on the role of translation... – Loredana Polezzi, Stony Brook, N.Y.
– Presentation by Péter Szabó, Interpreter at the European Parliament
– Multilingualism in asylum procedures: The case of Greece. The project, political challenges and opportunities (missed?) for a more inclusive society – Effie Fragkou, NKUA
– to be uploaded, presentation by Maria Roccaforte, Sapienza University of Rome
Discussion led by: Héctor Grad, UAM
Roundtable: Implementing and ERASMUS+ Teacher Academy project
– ERASMUS+ Teacher academies and multilingualism: Impact and sustainablility – Evdokia Karavas NKUA
– to be uploaded, presenation by Monica Barni, Sapienza University of Rome and Silvia Minardi, President of LEND, Italian professional association for language teacher training
– to be uploaded, presentation by Andrea Young and Hélène Le Levier, University of Strasbourg
– Facilitating multilingualism through digital and AI technologies in a Teacher Academy – Bessie Mitsikopoulou, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA)
– to be uploaded, presenation by Agnieszka Gadomska, SWPS University, Warsaw
– In the kitchen … of European transnational projects – Sílvia Melo-Pfeifer, University of Hamburg
– to be uploaded, presenation by Gunhild T. Alstad and Marte Nordanger, University of Inland Norway
Coordinator: Andrea Young, University of Strasbourg
Recap and discussion led by: Linda Fisher, University of Cambridge