IV Meeting of Lecturers & Language Assistants at Tabakalera

On Wednesday 21 July, twenty-two Basque language and culture lecturers from 36 universities in 19 countries gathered in Tabakalera’s Room Z to take stock of the year and reflect on challenges for the future. Also attending the IV Meeting of Lecturers & Language Assistants were Basque Minister for Culture and Language Policy, Bingen Zupiria, Etxepare Basque Institute Director, Irene Larraza, Head of Promotion and Dissemination of the Basque Language, Garbiñe Iztueta, and Lorea Hernández, lectureship network technician.

The annual meeting was first held in 2018. This year various talks and group dynamics focused on the difficulties encountered and solutions provided this past academic year, as well as the challenges envisaged for the coming years.

Basque Minister for Culture and Language Policy and the Director of Etxepare opened the event by welcoming all the participants and thanked them for their impeccable work during this difficult year.

After sharing last year´s experiences, Garbiñe Iztueta took the floor to recap this year and go over the main areas of work for the coming year. She noted, among other things, that five new lecturers will begin working in various Chair programmes in the coming academic year and that new agreements are being negotiated with universities in the United States and Wales. The Bikaintasuna Euskal Ikasketetan summer programme and the Euskara Munduan programme were also discussed.

Lorea Hernández, technical expert for the Institute’s lectureship and language assistant programme, then led the group dynamics sessions with participants aimed at sharing experiences and discussing challenges for the coming year.  The last to take the floor were the lecturers themselves, who had the chance to ask questions and make suggestions.

After lunch, the group had the opportunity to take part in a dance workshop given by Sabin Bikandi from AIKO Dantza Taldea, which put a finishing touch on the day.