The Department of English and Modern Languages at South Carolina State University will host an academic conference on Friday, October 10, 2014 titled “South Carolina’s Language and Cultures: Identifying, Documenting, and Interpreting.” The keynote speaker is Dr. Stephen Criswell, Associate Professor of English and Native American Studies and Director of the Native American Studies Center a the University of South Carolina – Lancaster. SC Humanities supported this project with a Mini Grant in July 2014.
The conference will celebrate South Carolina’s rich linguistic and cultural past and present. Sessions will focus on southern regional cultures, African-American cultures, Native-American languages and cultures, the Gullah language, theories of Creole origins, non-standard dialects, dialects in education, culture in education, Southern literature, Somali Bantu communities, and Hispanic communities.
“South Carolina’s Language and Cultures: Identifying, Documenting, and Interpreting” will take place on the campus of South Carolina State University in the Engineering and Science Complex Auditorium. The conference will open at 9:00 a.m., and the keynote address will be delivered by Dr. Criswell at 9:30 a.m. All sessions are free of charge.
The conference is part of a larger web-based project that serves as a repository for research and documentation on South Carolina’s languages and cultures, the South Carolina Project on Language and Culture. Papers from the conference will enlarge the database of the website.
For a complete schedule of events and conference updates, please visit http://www.scsu.edu/scplc or contact Dr. Salone at ssalone@scsu.edu.
The mission of SC Humanities is to enrich the cultural and intellectual lives of all South Carolinians. SC Humanities programs and initiatives are balanced, reflecting sensitivity to the diversity of ideas, encourage open dialogue, demonstrate integrity, and are ethical in operations.
