Linguistic colloquium on new varieties in the Americas

On December 16th, Postcolonial Language Studies organized a linguistic colloquium with focus on new varieties in the Americas. These are varieties born out of the contact situations of colonial, indigenous, and African languages, such as for example the Afro-Hispanic varieties spoken in Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador. In the colloquium, we had presentations by local and international scholars about degrees of contact and restructuring in these cases. Many thanks to all the participants!

Programm:
Linguistisches Kolloquium: New Varieties in the Americas
Freitag, 16. Dezember 2016
Gästehaus der Universität Bremen
Auf dem Teerhof 58
Kontakt: Danae Perez Email: danae.perez@es.uzh.ch, Eeva Sippola Email: sippola@uni-bremen.de

09:00 - 09: 15 Eeva Sippola (Universität Bremen)
Begrüßung und Einführung

09:15 - 10:00 Maria Mazzoli (Universität Bremen)
Michif - a mixed language as a new variety

10:00 - 10:45 Sandro Sessarego (University of Texas at Austin und Universität Freiburg FRIAS)
A new look at the Spanish creole debate: The Legal Hypothesis of Creole Genesis

10:45 - 11:00 Kaffeepause

11:00 - 11:45 Laura Álvarez (Stockholms Universitet)
Cupópia: the Afro-Brazilian speech of Cafundó

11:45 - 12:30 Ana Paulla Braga Mattos (Aarhus Universitet)
The speech variety of Kalunga: an Afro-Brazilian community in Goiás

12:30 - 14:00 Mittagspause

14:00 - 14:45 Albert Wall (Universität Zürich)
What's new about Differential Object Marking in new varieties of Spanish and Portuguese?

14:45 - 15:30 Danae Perez (Universität Bremen und Universität Zürich)
Old and new language varieties in the Central Andes

15:30 - 15:45 Kaffeepause

15:45 - 16:30 Maja Robbers (Universität Bremen)
Contact-induced change in young people's Totonac

16:30 - 17:15 Ana Kondic (MPI SHH Jena)
Spanish influences on Huastec

 Sandro Sessarego, Laura Álvarez

 Albert Wall, Danae Perez

photo on the right: (from left to right) Eeva Sippola, Albert Wall, Ana Paulla Braga Mattos, Maja Robbers, Sandro Sessarego, Maria Mazzoli, Danae Perez, Laura Álvarez

Joanna Chojnicka on ethics in science

On December 15th, Joanna Chojnicka (Postcolonial Language Studies) and Denise Müller-Dum (Institute of Environmental Physics at the University of Bremen) are giving a talk entitled "Ethics and Science - a Transdisciplinary Discussion". The talk takes place within the BYIC (Bremen Young Investigators' Circle) Brown Bag lunch program.

Here's the abstract of the talk:

We would like to invite you to discuss scientific practice and ethical challenges with us. We will introduce the topic with a brief presentation covering the following fundamental and basic questions: What is science? What kinds of values are there in science? What is ethics, and ethics in science in particular? We will also give a short overview of the topics that ethics in science is concerned with beyond good scientific practice.

After that, we will have ample time for discussion. What is your view on ethics in science?  What constitutes good research? What kinds of responsibilities do we bear as researchers?

We are especially interested in discussing researchers’ underlying values that are rarely taken up, that go unnoticed in the business-as-usual of the academic world. In the rush for more challenging, more innovative, more ground-breaking scientific discoveries, do we ever pause to wonder: (Why) do we need to know everything? And are there things that should not be studied? For example, some people think research on climate engineering, deep sea mining or research for military purposes should not be conducted. And similarly: When we speak about animal testing or embryonic stem cell research, this raises the question how we conduct our research and where we draw the line between acceptable and unacceptable means.

You are invited to share your own beliefs and experiences, as well as questions or doubts that you may have encountered in your work. We are looking forward to an exciting, active discussion!

Denise and Joanna