by Graham Turner On a most extraordinary afternoon last week (17th September 2015, a date to be remembered), it seemed that half of Heriot-Watt’s Department of Languages & Intercultural Studies re-located to the Scottish Parliament for a few hours. Why? It was the Stage 3 (final) reading in the chamber of the British Sign Language […]
Tag: culture
Mental health interpreting – considering some of the challenges
By Yvonne Waddell Work in mental health settings is often unique from other settings the community interpreter works in. When we consider that language is the principal investigative and therapeutic tool in psychiatry, (Farooq & Fear 104: 2003) the interpreting process will have a direct impact on the way that therapeutic tool is applied. As […]
Passing as deaf or hearing: choosing cross-cultural identities
by Noel O’Connell On 15th June 2015, media reports raised questions about Rachel Dolezal’s background. A scholar of race and African-American culture and daughter of white parents, Dolezal had identified as Black. Stories of black people “passing” as white or white people as black have been a fascination for researchers and historians for many years. Racial […]
Les publics multilingues
by Katerina Strani This post was originally published in the CREM research blog Publics en Question. For a similar (but not identical) English version, please visit this page. Il a longtemps été prouvé que notre langage a un impact sur la façon dont nous pensons et, finalement, la façon dont nous soutenons nos arguments (Whorf, […]
Roots and Routes of Germans in Contemporary Britain
by Ullrich Kockel In socio-cultural research, there has been a long-running argument pitching “roots” against “routes” as the source of identity. At a time when identities appear to become ever more detached from territorial connections, it makes sense to define cultural belonging in terms of the intensity of communication within one’s social field, even though […]
Reporting from "Can Scotland Play a Leading Role in Defining Heritage?"
by Emma Hill What is Scotland’s relationship with the UNESCO Charter for the Safeguarding Intangible Cultural Heritage? What should it be? How can ‘Intangible Cultural Heritage’ be defined? Should it be defined at all? Can ‘heritage’ be split into ‘tangible’ and ‘intangible’ features? Should it be split? Who defines a ‘heritage’ project? What does ‘community’ […]
Future directions for Scotland’s culture
by Cristina Clopot Last Sunday was a day of passionate discussions at the Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh. What’s next for Scotland’s culture? This was the central question posed by a group of cultural activists in an event organized under the umbrella of the festival TradFest. The event, coordinated by cultural activist Mairi McFadyen, with the […]
In a nutshell
by Katerina Strani Last week’s post was about the language of reason in multilingual / multicultural societies. If you’re looking for something more succinct on this topic, check out the following video. Comments are welcome (yes, I will stick to my day job).
The Language of Reason
by Katerina Strani A café. Once a dedicated space where people gathered to discuss culture and politics. A space of arguing, debating, learning. A space where public opinion was formed and authority was challenged, contested, or at least influenced. A public sphere: a communicative space where people gathered to talk about public matters – politics. Their […]
Looking for participants for anti-racism and anti-discrimination research project
A few months ago we posted some information on a new research project in LINCS on how racist hate crimes are communicatively constructed. The project is called RADAR – Regulating AntiDiscrimination and AntiRacism – JUST/2013/FRAC/AG/6271. It brings together 9 partners from 6 countries and it is funded by the European Commission Directorate General for Justice. The overall aim […]