Viola Miglio Interview - Basque Studies Symposium

The University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) is holding a series of conferences on Basque Studies.  EuskoSare is very interested in learning more about the driving forces behind this scheme. Why did you choose Basque language for this year's event?

The UCSB has a long history of Basque Studies; We have an endowed chair of Basque Studies named after Barandiarán, the famous anthropologist, which was established in 1993 with the help we received from the Basque Government.  The first and only Chair was Prof. Avalle-Arce, a  famous cervantista, who retired 4 years ago - the post has remained vacant ever since.  When the cat is away the mice will play, and if the chair is vacant the interest in Basque studies dies progressively. This is where I come in; I thought it was a pity to waste away the interest our undergraduates have always shown in Basque studies.

We also teach Catalan and have a number of courses in Galician language as well as a fully-fledged Portuguese programme.

We need to convince the UCSB Administration to start the search for the Barandiarán Chair immediately as this would make it possible for us to have a complete and improved programme of Basque Studies. This shows that there is an interest in Basque language.

The conference is meant to be the first one in a series of events to be held at the UCSB and the University of Nevada in Reno, Boise State University, and California State University Bakersfield. The symposium is open to all universities that have a proven interest in Basque studies and those who have successfullly developed programmes in this discipline, as is the case with Boise State and Reno.

I want to point out that this year´s conference is not just about linguistics. It also briefly touches upon contemporary Basque literature, featuring renowned literary critics from the University of Nevada, Reno - Maria José Olaziregi and Estíbaliz Ezkerra - and a round table of contemporary women writers - Aurelia Arkotxa, Mariasun Landa and Miren Agur Meabe. The reason why I decided that the first symposium was going to be on Linguistics and Literature is that I wanted to awaken an interest in basque language amongst my colleagues and students, most of whom are linguists and literature experts.

Has UCSB conducted any symposiums with other cultures and languages?
I can not answer for UCSB, although I can tell you that there are many events devoted to various ethnic groups. We have a very productive Anthropology Department and a Linguistics Department, which specializes in the native languages of the Americas, as well as Tibetan languages and typology as a whole - Bernard Comrie is a part time faculty in this department. There is also a very strong East Asian Department featuring Chinese, Japanese, Korean languages etc. and some remarkably famous translators; To name one, John Nathan, who acts as the translator of the contemporary Japanese writer Kenzaburo Oe.  We also have experts in Arabic, Hebrew, Classic and modern languages.

The Spanish and Portuguese Department, where I have worked for the last six years , has devoted at least one symposium per year to different language and ethnic groups. These are Romance languages of the Iberian peninsula (2004), Galician language and literature (2005), Portuguese language and literature (2007), Brazilian cinema (2007), Brazilian literature (2008), and most recently Catalan language, culture and literature. The latter consisted of a week of celebrations and cultural events held last month.

As the organizers of the conference, what message and information do you wish the audience will take home?
As a linguist, I find Basque fascinating for a number of reasons: it is a language that does not belong to the Indo European language family, is full of exotic features and has great historical depth. Many of the attendees to the symposium are going to be students and I am hoping that my passion for Basque will entice them to learn the language, or at least to learn about it or be intrigued by its resilience and the culture that goes with it.

As a citizen of Iceland, I am sensitive to the struggle small nations endure in order to make their voices heard globally. Being a small nation does not imply that its literary achievements are less important than those in large countries. This is, specifically, one of the topics for discussion at the symposium on Wednesday: the struggle of writers of a minority language trying to make themselves heard and/or read. I want the audience to appreciate this and be intrigued by it enough to go and read at least one translated Basque book.

What is the desired outcome of this conference?
Rekindling the interest of students at UCSB in Basque studies, making the local public aware of the existence of Basque studies at the university and informing those who are interested in Basque studies of the existence of our services at UCSB as the main referent for their children´s education. We also want to show the university administration that there is an interest among our undergraduates for Basque Studies and we need to start shortlisting candidates for the post of Chair of the Barandiarán project.

How can EuskoSare help UCSB promote this and future conferences?
Covering our event, which you have already done, and disseminating information about UCSB Basque Studies.