Portuguese Studies Day in Aachen
Conference on Portuguese language and culture at RWTH
The RWTH Aachen Institute of Romance Studies is organizing the 11th Portuguese Studies Day from September 16 to 19, 2015, on behalf of the Deutschen Lusitanistikverband. The conference on Portuguese philology is being held under the motto "Upheavals and Departures - Portuguese-speaking World in Movement." More than 250 participants will meet at the conference at RWTH, which is directed by Professor Anne Benegat-Neuschäfer. Professor Henrique Barroso, Universidade do Minho, Portugal, Professorin Ana Mafalda Leite, Universidade de Lisboa, Lisabon, and Professor Luiz Costa Lima, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, will give the academic plenary talks. A large number of the presenters come from Portuguese-speaking countries, "old" and "new" worlds will come together in Aachen.
Brazilian and European Portuguese is spoken by around 220 million native speakers around the world. Brazil is a country of focus for RWTH Aachen's international partnerships. The conference is of particular importance to the University and city. The talks will cover topics in language and literature and culture. A particular focus of Portuguese studies in Aachen is on translation science and new fields such as Afro-Portuguese studies and the reprocessing of Portugal's military dictatorship and colonial wars. Pedagogy and teaching Portuguese as a foreign language are also topics included in the event. The "Nachwuchstreffen Lusitanistik" will take place before the conference. For the first time there will be a round table discussion with the ambassadors of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries or CPLP on the topic "Value and Use of Portuguese – worldwide," moderated by the former dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Professor Helmut Siepmann.
The cultural framework program encompasses glamourous evening events: pianist Roswith Aulenkamp and bariton Theo Hoffmeyer will be giving a concert in the Klangbrücke, followed by a reading of the Brazilian author Milton Hatoum. Lord Mayor Marcel Philipp will award the Georg Rudolf Lind Funding Prize in the Coronation Hall. Literary star translator Michael Kegler will speak, and the Aulenkamp/Hoffmeyer duo will perform. Three exhibitions accompany the conference: "O valor da língua portuguesa" provides arguments for learning Portuguese, "Portugiesische Spuren in Oman“ illustrates RWTH Aachen's interdisciplinary work, and a hommage to the German Portuguese philologist Dieter Woll (1933-2012) honors a pioneer of the discipline.
The German Research Foundation, RWTH Faculty of Arts and Humanities, the IC, and the CPLP are supporters of the conference.
Additional information is available on the conference website www.lusitanistentag2015.rwth-aachen.de.