Multilingualism in the New and Old World

The SocioLab endeavor of constantly readjusting to its surroundings not only includes integrating cutting-edge technology in research but also new initiatives in teaching, and cooperation. With the support of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and its IVAC program, in 2020 the Lab became one in 61 innovative projects that made it into the International Virtual Academic Collaboration (IVAC) funding. Zooming in, this means, one in 13 University of Cologne Virtual Exchange Projects of the EduVEnture Cologne (IVAC). Check below how the Lab goes EduVEnture by tackling multilingualism in the New and Old Worlds alongside the New York University.

"Multilingualism in the Old and New Worlds" is an ambitious, research-based teaching project that uses digital and virtual methods and combines them with concrete sociolinguistic field research. Developed by Prof. Dr. Aria Adli, from UzK, and Prof. Dr. Gregory Guy, from New York University, and on the basis of their last year's project, this venture is projected to test an initially "local" method onto global, intercontinental issues. 

The focus is on "Languages in Latin America", in which autochthonous and Afro-Latin American minorities in the New World are looked at and compared with the multilingualism and diversity of varieties in Europe (especially on the Iberian Peninsula), as well as to observe how they are historically related.The innovative didactical aspect will be the virtual field trip students will be able to do throughout the course to several of these New World speaking communities. In each location and with the help of a previously built network of local consultants, authentic interviews are performed in the living environments of the speakers in their native languages. The virtual field trip begins in São Paulo (Afro-brazilian Portuguese), and runs through in the south-brazilian Rio Grande do Sul (Riograndensen Hunsrückisch & Brazilian Portuguese), the peruvian capital of Lima (Chanka Quechua & Spanish), the northwest of Colombia (Embera Chami & Spanish), the Yucatán region in Mexico (Yucatan Maya & Spanish), and will end in the caribbean Havana (Afro-Cuban Spanish). The interviews with the speakers will be transcribed, translated, and archived in a sustainable format in the SAMD Database, whose bases were laid out in the first funding period. The students will carry out small-group projects and term papers with this empirical data.