| Date | 16 January 2025 |
| Time | 9:00 - 18:30 |
| Location | University of Copenhagen, Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies |
| Organizers | Han Lamers (University of Oslo); Magnus Pharao Hansen (University of Copenhagen); Marie-Laurence Haack (University of Picardy Jules Verne); Bettina Reitz-Joosse (University of Groningen) |
Working across scholarly fields, disciplines, and various national and historical contexts, this workshop explores how languages regarded as ‘ancient’ and ‘historical’ gain significance within the ideologies and practices of modern political movements. Whether ‘dead’ or coexisting with ‘living’ languages, they are often linked to ideologically significant pasts, symbolic identities, and authoritative historical literatures. A key element of the politicization of such languages is the ideological construction of linguistic and historical ‘antiquity’ as a particular kind of politicized temporality. This one-day workshop features nine case studies that investigate how different languages have served ideological or political purposes in the modern era, and address how their ideological dimensions have been scrutinized, overlooked, or forgotten in their respective fields of scholarship.
Interested in participating? Due to limited places, registration is required. To register, please contact Bil Johan Simon Olsson via bjolsson@student.ifikk.uio.no before 10 January 2025. The event will not be livestreamed or recorded.
09:00 Welcome and introduction
09:20 Silje EINARSEN (MF vitenskapelig høyskole, Oslo), ‘Speaking in the ‘Language of the Gods’: Sanskrit Usage and Mythmaking in Narendra Modi’s Speeches’
10:05 Felix SIEGMUND (Ruhr-Universität Bochum), ‘The (On-going) Construction of a Korean Classical Language’
10:50 Coffee break (15 min.)
11:05 Sven OSTERKAMP (Ruhr-Universität Bochum), ‘(Neo-)Classical Poetry During the Time of the Japanese Empire (1868-1947)’
11:50 Marie-Laurence HAACK (Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens), ‘The Fascist Battle for Etruscan’
12:35 Lunch break (60 min.)
13:35 Irene ZWIEP (University of Amsterdam), ‘Hebrew Architecture: The Territorialization of the Hebrew Language, 1889-Present’
14:20 Han LAMERS (University of Oslo) & Bettina REITZ-JOOSSE (University of Groningen), ‘Uses of Latin in Contemporary Political Discourse’
15:05 Coffee break (15 min.)
15:20 Johanna LAAKSO (University of Vienna), ‘The Hungarian Language and Its Imagined Antiquity’
16:05 Eva MILLER (University College London), ‘Universal Languages: Anthropology and the Search for the Origins of Symbolic Communication’
17:20 Magnus PHARAO HANSEN (University of Copenhagen), ‘Nahuatl and the Far Right’
18:05 Plenary discussion (ca. 30 min.)
Department of Cross-Cultural and Regional Studies (University of Copenhagen)
This workshop is organized by the research initiative Language Myths: Towards a Global Approach to the Politicization of Ancient Languages (University of Oslo, University of Copenhagen, and University of Picardy Jules Verne), financed by the Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme and the Centre Universitaire de Norvège à Paris, in collaboration with the research projects New Signs of Antiquity (University of Oslo), funded by the Research Council of Norway, and Anchoring the Fascist Revolution (University of Groningen), supported by OIKOS, the National Research School in Classical Studies in the Netherlands (Gravitation Grant research agenda Anchoring Innovation).