The Race, Indigeneity and Sexuality Studies Initiative (RIGS) & the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities are proud to present a conversation on language endangerment in Belize with Dr. Jennifer Gomez Menjivar

What is the relationship between land rights and language rights? What do sovereignty and autonomy have to do with language maintenance in indigenous communities? Dr. Gómez Menjívar draws on her research in Belizean Mopan and Garifuna communities to examine the relationship between endangered indigenous languages and the ancestral lands that nourish them. While analyses of language endangerment often focus on the diminishing use of a local language as a result of a European language’s growing use without attending to economic factors or policy, Gómez Menjívar grounds her analysis on the impact of tourist economies on the erosion of language islands in Belize.

LIGHT REFRESHMENTS WILL BE SERVED