Indigenous Thinkers

Communications Technologies and the Impacts on Indigenous Languages and Cultural Identity in the Americas”

February 14-16, 2007
University of Florida
Gainesville, Florida

http://www.latam.ufl.edu/news/Newsconf%2007.html

Description

The mission of this conference is to examine from multidisciplinary perspectives how communications technologies have affected indigenous language and cultural identity in the Americas, with a focus on cultural continuity in a changing world. Since the middle of the 20th Century, indigenous communities throughout the Americas have gained considerable demographic, political and cultural presence in their respective national arenas. From the Zapatista movements in Mexico, the civil war, peace accords and Rigoberta Menchu’s Nobel Prize in Guatemala, to the toppling of presidents in Ecuador and Bolivia and Evo Morales’s presidency, organized indigenous communities have become cultural and political references to understanding national and continental possibilities and problems.

Such increasing invigoration of indigenous communities has depended, to a large extent, on the conscious revitalization of their native languages, their traditional cultures, and the skillful and widespread use of communications technologies (from sound recordings and video taping to electronic mail and the Internet). This conference will focus on the impact and potential of global technologies of communication on Indigenous languages, cultures and identities in the Americas. We hope that this approach will bring together a variety of participants from diverse disciplines and cultures.

Format
In addition to plenary addresses and individual papers, the 56th Conference will host up to nine roundtables designed to encourage interaction between conference participants working in and outside of academia.