6. Tuesday, January 16: "Decolonizing Dialogue: Language activism"

Panel discussion on the role of language activism in the decolonial movement. (moderated by Lüba Zakharova)

Sargylana Kondakova (co-organizer of the Free Yakutia Foundation and decolonial activist), Marsel Ganeyev (independent linguistic queer activist and researcher), and Valera Ilinov (language and decolonial activist, editor of Komi Daily) will discuss how learning your native language could be a practice oriented to increase the freedom of indigenous peoples and regional communities, promote the empowering of self-identity by challenging the concept of the power matrix of colonial languages. Is language activism a tool of solidarity and resistance against the imperialist erasure of self-identity? What is our personal connection to language? These are the questions we will be discussing.