Call for participation in the International Conference “Sustainable Multilingualism 2025”
The Institute of Foreign Languages of Vytautas Magnus University and the Language Teachers’ Association of Lithuania are pleased to invite you to the 8th International Scientific Conference “Sustainable Multilingualism 2025”, which will be held in Kaunas, Lithuania, on 29–31 May 2025. Abstract submission is open until 17 February 2025.
The aim of the Conference is to bring together language policymakers, researchers in language and multilingual competences, teachers, students, and all those who are interested in multilingualism to share their experiences and insights.
The first two days of the Conference will focus on research topics related to multilingualism in society (implementation of language policy, preservation of languages, enforcement of linguistic rights, etc.); language teaching/learning and the development of multilingual and intercultural competence; multilingualism and professional practice; the development of the teacher’s multilingual competence; and the contemporary Lithuanian language, which is the basis of our multilingual
competence. On the third day, the Conference participants will be invited to explore Lithuania and its cultural heritage on a guided excursion in Dzūkija.
The keynote speakers of the Conference, world-renowned scholars, will present their latest research on the challenges faced in language teaching/learning and translation and on the future of a multilingual world. This year’s Conference programme includes four keynote speeches that will be given by the following speakers:
· Dr. Karina Firkavičiūtė, who is the Head of the Lithuanian Karaim Association of Culture, a civil servant of the EU Research Executive Agency, an associate professor of Humanities, a musicologist, a member of the Lithuanian Composers’ Union, and a holder of a Master’s degree in Interdisciplinary European Studies.
· Dr. Jūratė Ruzaitė, who is a Professor at the Department of Foreign Languages, Literary and Translation Studies at Vytautas Magnus University. She has rich experience in (inter)national research projects, including a national project “Semantika-2” (2018–2019), which developed software for automatic detection of offensive online comments in Lithuanian. Her research interests include sociolinguistics, pragmatics, discourse analysis, language and ideology, hate speech, propaganda and disinformation.
· Johan Sandberg McGuinneis, who is a South Saami and Scottish Gaelic poet, traditional yoik singer, writer, literary scholar and language activist, the president of Tjállegoahte, the Saami Writers’ Centre in Sweden, and the Regional Representative for Sápmi in the Swedish Writers’ Union.
· Dr. John W. Schwieter, who is a Professor of Psychology, Linguistics, and Spanish at Wilfrid Laurier University and adjunct professor of Linguistics at McMaster University, both in Canada. Dr. Schwieter’s research interests include cognitive and neuroscientific approaches to multilingualism and language acquisition; translation, interpreting, and cognition; and second language teaching and learning. He has published more than 100 journal articles and book chapters and is the author or editor of 23 books.
Abstract submission and registration for the Conference “Sustainable Multilingualism 2025” are open until 17 February.
Abstracts may be submitted in English, Spanish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, French, German and Ukrainian.
We kindly invite you to register, share your research or simply join us to listen to the papers and converse in a foreign language with the Conference guests, which will help you improve your multilingual competence. Abstract submission and registration are available on the Conference website.
