Seven university chairs connect Basque perspectives with global debates

Seven Basque Studies chairs within Etxepare Euskal Institutua’s university network will carry out a significant part of their academic activity this autumn at universities in the United States, Canada, Argentina and France. Institutions including CUNY, the University of Chicago, the University of Nevada, Reno, UMass Amherst, McGill University and the Universidad Nacional de San Martín (UNSAM) will host lectures, seminars and research meetings featuring writers, researchers and specialists from a range of disciplines.

The activities will address topics such as multilingualism, migration, identity, memory, power relations, literary creation and social innovation. Through these chairs, perspectives and experiences linked to the Basque context are brought into dialogue with international academic debates and other university communities.

The Bernardo Atxaga Chair at the City University of New York (CUNY) will host Oihana Leonet, lecturer and researcher at the University of the Basque Country (EHU), from 5 to 9 October. Her seminars will examine contemporary multilingualism from sociolinguistic and educational perspectives, taking the experience of the Basque language as a starting point to reflect on identity, inequality, linguistic justice and new speakers in dialogue with Latin American realities.

At the University of Chicago, writer Eider Rodriguez will lead the programme A History of Violence: A Journey through Basque Culture as part of the Koldo Mitxelena Chair. The seminars will explore the relationship between the body, language and violence, cinematic and literary stereotypes associated with the Basque conflict, and the limits of language in representing certain experiences.

The William A. Douglass Chair at the University of Massachusetts Amherst will welcome writer Kirmen Uribe on 28 and 29 October. Under the title Writing Across Borders, the programme will include a screening of Karmele, directed by Asier Altuna and based on Uribe’s novel Elkarrekin esnatzeko ordua (The Hour of Waking Together), as well as an academic discussion on contemporary writing, archives and fiction, and a public lecture on the relationship between the Basque language, memory and literature.

The Jon Bilbao Chair at the University of Nevada, Reno is hosting linguist Ander Beristain until 11 October. His research focuses on the acquisition, development and intergenerational transmission of the Basque language within the Basque diaspora in the United States.

In Montreal, the Elbira Zipitria Chair at McGill University will focus on social innovation, with the participation of Gorka Espiau, director of the Agirre Lehendakaria Center. His stay will provide an opportunity to share experience in designing digital infrastructures to address complex social challenges, learn from initiatives developed in Quebec and explore potential collaboration between the two territories.

In Buenos Aires, the Amale Artetxe Chair at Universidad Nacional de San Martín (UNSAM) will host historian Susana Truchuelo from 4 to 10 November. Her academic activity will examine governance, the articulation of power and political participation in the Basque territories during the 16th and 17th centuries, connecting the Basque case with historical research on Iberian and American societies.

A further milestone will follow on 22 October, when the Etxepare Basque Institute and Sorbonne Université inaugurate the new Esther Ferrer Chair in Paris. The chair will promote research and reflection on the Basque language and culture, establishing connections with art, thought and experimentation.

The Etxepare Basque Institute currently has 12 university chairs.