Stanford International Euskara Day conference - sets stage for further collaboration

Stanford University celebrated the United Nations Year of the Languages 2008 and the International Day of Euskara with a successful conference on December 3 on the university’s campus. Hosted by the currently named Spanish and Portuguese Department, the Language Center, and the Cenarrusa Foundation for Basque Culture the conference highlighted six speakers and the presentation of a book published in English with ten articles detailing the current data and situation of Euskara in Euskal Herria and in the Basque diaspora.

Attended by approximately fifty professors and Stanford University students, presenters included Drs. Xabier Irujo, Iñigo Urrutia, Juan Cobarrubias, Gloria Totoricagüena and retired Canadian Supreme Court Justice Michel Bastarache.  Professor Joan Ramon Resina, Chair of the Iberian Studies Center and of the Spanish and Portuguese Studies Department opened the event with thanks to the conference organizer, Dr. Gloria Totoricagüena, to all of the attendees ,  and gave a special welcome to Mr. Alvaro Amann who was attending on behalf of the Office of the Presidency of the Basque Government.  Mr. Josemari Velez de Mendizabal, General Manager of Eusko Ikaskuntza began the conference in Euskara explaining the history of the International Day of Euskara, established by Eusko Ikaskuntza in 1948.

Conference activities were also attended by the Provost John Etchemendy and his wife Nancy, and by Dr. Elizabeth Bernhardt, Director of the Language Center and Dr. Eva Prionas, Coordinator of the Special Language Program, and Dr. Michael Predmore of the Spanish and Portuguese Department, and Jonrie Etchemendy Dávila, of the Stanford Office of Development.  A closing dinner included speeches from Provost Etchemendy, Professor Resina and Professor Bernhardt congratulating all involved in the planning and execution of the successful conference and publication and looking forward to continued collaborations in the future!

The Legal Status of the Basque Language Today: One Language, Three Administrations, Seven Different Geographies and a Diaspora. Edited by Gloria Totoricagüena and Iñigo Urrutia. Donostia-San Sebastián: Eusko Ikaskuntza. 2008.