Research colloquia and lectures

RUMACCC has organised a variety of research colloquia and workshops dealing with multilingualism and multiculturalism, linguistic diversity and language policy in Australia and elsewhere.

Multilingualism / Pluricentricity: A Tale of Many Cities

International workshop organised by RUMACCC, held at the University of Melbourne on 24 and 25 November 2016.

The aim of the workshop was to bring together scholars who work on multilingualism and/or pluricentric languages to discuss current sociolinguistic issues and challenges in a range of specific urban contexts.

The contributions focused on locations that have to this point received little or no exposure in the sociolinguistic literature, especially in English. The result is a novel mixture of urban settings around the world, including Port-Louis (Mauritius), Norwich (UK), Dublin (Ireland), Biel/Bienne and Fribourg/Freiburg (Switzerland), Valencia (Spain), Jakarta (Indonesia), Montreal (Canada), Kotka and Mariehamn (Finland) and Melbourne.

Program and abstracts (610kb pdf)

Challenging the monolingual mindset

RUMACCC 10th anniversary Colloquium and Michael Clyne Lecture
In memory of Professor Michael Clyne
23 February 2012

The Research Unit for Multilingualism and Cross-Cultural Communication (RUMACCC) at the University of Melbourne was established by Professor Michael Clyne, one of Australia’s greatest linguists and language activists, in 2001 and reached its 10th anniversary in December 2011. To celebrate this important milestone as well as Michael’s memory a colloquium was held at the University of Melbourne, followed by the Michael Clyne Lecture, delivered by Professor Catrin Norrby from the University of Stockholm.

RUMACCC Colloquium

Michael Clyne Lecture

European and Australian perspectives on language policy: Towards greater linguistic uniformity or diversity?

Professor Tim MacNamara, presentingProfessor Sally Boyd, presentingDr Leo Kretzenbacher, Professor Sally Boyd and Dr Doris Schupbach share a laugh and a drinkDr Yvette Slaughter flanked by Professor John Hajek, Director of RUMACCC on the left and Dr Andrea Rizzi on the right)

Workshop organised by RUMACCC held at the School of Languages and Linguistics, 2 October 2008.

Professor Sally Boyd from the Department of Linguistics at the University of Gothenburg opened the workshop with a talk on language policy in Sweden and the proposed legislation to make Swedish the "principal language" of Sweden. Dr Uldis Ozolins from La Trobe University and RMIT continued the European focus with a presentation on language policy in the Baltic States.

Then the focus moved to Australia with Dr Yvette Slaughter, senior researcher at RUMACCC, who gave an overview of language policy in the Australian education sector, in particular with regard to Asian languages. Professor Tim MacNamara from the School of Languages and Linguistics, the University of Melbourne, discussed language policy from the perspective of language testing as a prerequisite for Australian citizenship.
The workshop was well attended with over 30 participants who contributed to the roundtable discussion that followed the four presentations.

Inclusion, exclusion and identity across two continents: Aspects of multilingualism and multiculturalism in Australia and Europe

Workshop organised by RUMACCC, held at the School of Languages and Linguistics, 2007

International speaker:

  • Assoc. Professor Jacomine Nortier (University of Utrecht)
    In- and exclusion, appropriation and ethnicity in a multilingual and multicultural neighborhood in Utrecht

Other speakers

  • Dr Sandra Kipp (the University of Melbourne)
    Migration, language use and identity: German in Melbourne since the Second World War
  • Dr Birgit Lang (the University of Melbourne)
    "The United Discriminations"? German-speaking refugee cabaret in Australia (1933-1973)
  • Dr Brigitte Lambert (the University of Melbourne)
    How ‘multi-kulti’ does the garden grow? The garden colony as a microcosm of integration in Germany

European Multilingualism and Multiculturalism Today

Seminar organised by RUMACCC, held at the University of Melbourne, 29 September 2006

International speakers

  • Professor Claudia Riehl (Cologne)
    German-Romance language contact and language conflict in Italy, France and Belgium
  • Professor Guus Extra (Tilburg)
    Language, migration and citizenship in Europe: A case study on testing regimes in the Netherlands

Proceedings from this seminar were published as: Warren, Jane and Benbow, Heather Merle (eds.,). Multilingual Europe: Reflections on Language and Identity. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publications, 2008. ISBN 9781847188342

As Europe continues to expand and integrate through the European Union, it faces the challenge of ever increasing multilingual and multicultural contact, within and across its borders. This volume presents recent research on European language policy, language contact and multiculturalism that explores how Europe is meeting this challenge. Inspired by intersections and conflicts in language and cultural identity in Europe, the volume transcends disciplinary boundaries by enhancing sociolinguistic research with chapters on cultural identity and language in contemporary European cinema.

The book considers the relationships between language and cultural identity in Europe at a time of increasing multicultural complexity, with contributions on Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Sweden and Ukraine, and the linguistic and imaginative spaces between and beyond. The volume highlights the ongoing significance of language and identity for an expanding Europe, and the ways in which situations of linguistic hybridity, interlocution and language contact continue to define Europe and its others.

European Multilingualism and Multiculturalism Today workshop program and abstracts (110kb pdf)