Elbira Zipitria Chair: Miren Azkarate

Philologist Miren Azkarate is this year’s visiting researcher at McGill University’s Elbira Zipitria Chair promoted by the Etxepare Basque Institute. Azkarate will spend two weeks on her research program in Montréal, Canada.

Azkarate will give several lectures and classes at McGill University as part of the Chair programme. 

• 21 September. Presentation of the Chair. Presentation to members of the McGill Faculty of Education of the Department of Integrated Studies in Education (DISE), in room 233 of the Faculty of Education building.
• 22 September. Keynote lecture, 11:30 (UCT -4): ´The role of universities and cities in the promotion, learning and use of languages in a minority context. The examples of Basque in Donostia-San Sebastian and French in Montreal´.
• 27 September. Presentation in French via Zoom at the Université de Moncton as part of Professor Isabelle LeBlanc´s course on language policies and linguistic minorities.
• 29 September. Presentation in French to the Cercle de sociolinguistique du Québec via Zoom: the process of normalisation of the Basque language.
  The process of standardisation of Basque and the current situation: the relationship between the standard variety and the dialectal and local varieties.
• 2 October. Meeting with Professor Yvette Mollen at the University of Montreal, a specialist in the teaching and promotion of the Innu language.
• 2 October. Presentation: ´Language planning in the Basque Country: the challenge of moving from knowledge to use´.
• 4 October. Talk: ´Language planning in the Public Administration of the Basque Country: the challenge of making Basque a working language´.

The Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Engineering at McGill University have been working with the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Montréal (CIRM) since 2022 to promote the Basque language in education and society, placing innovative cultural movements at the centre. The Elbira Zipitria Chair was created in 2022. In the Chair’s inaugural colloquium, Idoia Fernández, Miren Azkarate and Pablo Suberbiola spoke about Basque culture and cultural innovation.