Focus- Intra-European colonial histories/linguistic nationalism, the Nordic colonial legacies and the Sámi/de-centering dominant narratives of North-South polarity. Further to explore points of convergence between the North-South, South- South, paving way for transversal exchanges.

Framing Question– To what extent can multilingual interactions in the Nordic regions disrupt linguistic hierarchies rooted in colonial legacies and reshape dominant language ideologies? How do these disruptions inter-act with the multilingual societies elsewhere such as South Asia, South Africa, Chile and Colombia,  and processes of vernacularisation set in motion with respect to colonisation in some cases. 

Rationale 

Colonial languages carry colonial legacies and can perpetuate an imperialistic and neoliberal worldview. Languages can be disembodied from place and commodified as mere “resources”, important only for economic “value” rather than cultural importance, in a global, neoliberal framework. Privileging dominant colonial knowledge, languages, and neoliberal valorizations of diversity is colonial-lingualism- a practice that upholds colonial legacies, imperial mindsets, and inequitable practices (Meighan 2023). For instance, in Sweden, the opportunities  to develop language competence and literacy often overlook the socio-economic and political challenges faced by multilingual communities. Beyond Swedish, the country is home to both minority and immigrant languages that embody its linguistic diversity. In Greenland, the systemic procedures of Danification post World War II have marginalised indigenous linguistic-cultural  paradigms. In order to resist these colonial entanglements, the contemporary government has affirmed its commitment to “strengthen Greenlandic language teaching and to work towards replacing Danish with English as the first foreign language in the national education framework” (Jacobsen 2023, 30). Alternatively, in South Africa and Colombia, despite the government’s support for indigenous languages and cultures, the language policies  tend to promote assimilation, falling short of addressing the power relations embedded in the use of English, Afrikaans, and Spanish respectively (Guzula 2022, Gutierrez and Epinayu 2024). Similarly in  Chile, the struggle lies in fostering linguacultural awareness so as to resist the  (re)introduction of colonial epistemologies and practices. This involves recognising Indigenous languages and knowledges—such as Mapuzugún—not as peripheral to national identity, but as central to contesting the epistemic erasures produced by coloniality. In comparison, in nations  like India, where English has been absorbed as a new vernacular, the question of language remains fraught with layers of privilege and contested politics of participation. The recent debates around the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 also exemplify this tension. 

Thus, it is important  to problematise and challenge the dominant epistemic paradigm prevalent in the global north and the postcolonial nations of the global south which has systemically promoted assimilationist narratives vis-a-vis colonial cultures and language ideologies. These linguistic policies often propound a one-nation-one language paradigm whereby indigenous, regional and non standard contexts of a diverse linguistic habitus get marginalised. More to the point, the attempt to decolonise the colonial language paradigm often leads to the creation of certain dominant vernaculars that become instruments of territorial and political alignment, subsuming local speech forms in the process. 

Considering this, the symposium aims to explore the applicability of decolonial thought to Nordic indigenous contexts, enriching and nuancing these perspectives through the voices of Sámi, Greenlandic Inuit,  other indigenous communities, and heritage language speakers. It also invokes indigenous articulations of everyday language forms in erstwhile colonies like India, South Africa and Colombia to develop a comparative insight on colonial and decolonial thought through language. A central aspect of social justice and equitability is language and how individuals choose to use their multilingual competencies. Languages, particularly heritage languages, mediate culture, habits and knowledge. The marginalisation of heritage language could imply a partial loss of knowledge, history and culture at the same time as a dominant language gains a public platform. Attending to epistemic justice necessitates decolonising and democratising knowledge – dislodging it from its current singular rendition in favour of plural, situated knowledge(s). Such a shift resists epistemic hegemony, wherein one regime of knowing arrogates authority over others, and instead foregrounds epistemic plurality as a condition of justice (Tlostanova et al 2019). This is particularly relevant when one needs to hear those who are unheard- those who are spoken about but not spoken to. We welcome expressions of interest in areas related to  indigeneity, social (injustice), and linguicide from the perspectives of decolonial and epistemic justice (but not limited to): 

1. Languages as sites of identity and knowledge making.
2. Reading literature as decolonising languages.
3. Democratising English as a vernacular language. 
4. Indigenous languages and their pluriversal contexts. 
5. Multiliteracies and Translanguaging as instruments of decolonial resistance. 

Presenters are welcome to experiment with the format of the presentation, in terms of paper presentation and/ or creative responses in terms of performative, academic, and pedagogical responses to linguistic pluralism in a decolonial context. 

The standard participation fee is 75 EUR per participant with institutional funding, and 50 EUR without institutional funding. If you are based outside Europe and therefore may not be able to travel to Denmark, you are welcome to present online. Online participants are asked to pay the NSU membership fee of 30 Euros. 

                                                                                      Works Cited 

Gutiérrez, Claudia Patricia and  Estefanía Frías Epinayú. “ Coloniality in language and education policies and the sustenance of Indigenous languages in the Global South: The case of the Wayuu people in Colombia.  Journal of Curriculum and Pedagogy, vol. 21, no. 3, pp. 273-290, DOI: 10.1080/15505170.2024.2373132

Guzula, Xolisa. “De/coloniality in South African Language in Education Policy: Resisting Marginalisation of African Language Speaking Children.” Decoloniality, Language and Literacy:   Conversation with Teacher Educators, edited by Carolyn McKinney and Pam Christie, Bristol, Blue Ridge Summit: Multilingual Matters, 2022, pp. 23-45. 

Harder, Hans, Nishat Zaidi and Torsten Tschacher. The Vernacular: Three Essays on an Ambivalent Concept and its Uses in South Asia. Routledge, 2024. 

Jacobsen, Ushma Chauhan. “The Entanglements of English in Contemporary Greenland.” Études Inuit Studies, vol. 47, no. 1/2, 2023, pp. 19–40. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/27345296. Accessed 12 Sept. 2025.

Meighan, J. Paul. “ Colonialingualism: Colonial legacies, imperial mindsets, and inequitable practices in English language education.” Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education, vol 17, no. 2, 2023, pp.146-155

Tlostanova, Madina., Thapar-Björkert, Suruchi., & Knobblock, Ina. “ Do we need decolonial feminism in Sweden?.” NORA-Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, vol. 27, no. 4, 2019. pp.  290-295.

Zaidi, Nishat and Hans Harder. Language Ideologies and the Vernacular in Colonial and Postcolonial South Asia. Routledge, 2024.