News

The field school in the Nahua-speaking community of San Miguel Xaltipan (Tlaxcala, Mexico) is organized by the Faculty of “Artes Liberales” of the University of Warsaw, in collaboration with SOAS (University of London) and Leiden University within the Engaged Humanities project (Twinning Horizon 2020).It will take place August 19-29, 2017. Enrollment is open until April 28.

The event is open for participants from the three hosting institutions and members of linguistic/ethnic minorities, and especially speakers of Nahuatl. The purpose of the school is capacity-building in close collaboration with the local community, local knowledge-holders and members of ethnic minorities. Confirmed participating experts include knowledge holders from San Miguel Xaltipan, San Francisco Tetlanohcan and San Miguel Tenango, Natalio Hernandez (Nahua poet, writer and activist), Werner Hernández (psychiatrist, activist and teacher of Pipil/Nawat in El Salvador; expert on the revitalization of Pipil/Nawat) and Adam Coon (expert in Nahua culture and literature; University of Minnesota, Morris). Participants of the field school will visit other Nahuatl-speaking communities, including San Miguel Tenango and San Francisco Tetlanohcan.

 

The thematic scope of the field school includes:

• Methods and techniques of ethnolinguistic field research, creating and processing audiovisual documentation for the purposes and benefits of local communities and language revitalization programs, language teaching and research projects
• Establishing best practices for collaboration with local communities
• Testing and implementing the engaged humanities approach, methods and theory of participatory action research
• Practical solutions for community-based language revitalization
• Methodology and curricula for teaching minority languages (with a special focus on Nahuatl)
• Transdisciplinary research in language and culture with special emphasis on traditional knowledge, indigenous methodology and community-driven research

 

Requirements for enrollment:

• A short justification/motivation for the applicant’s participation in the field school (taking into account research experience, research interest, current projects, etc.)
• Good knowledge of spoken Spanish
• Knowledge of colonial and/or modern Nahuatl (this is optional but very helpful)
• Participation in earlier ENGHUM events

 

We offer an additional language training carried out by native speakers of Mexican Spanish for the event’s participants in April (24-27) and in June (dates to be announced).

If you are interested in participation, please complete the enrollment form.