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The Etxepare Institute will launch six Assistantships and two Chairs in NY and Chicago in 2011-2012

05/16/2011

From left to right, Georg Kaiser, of the University of Konstanz; Mari Jose Olaziregi, Etxepare’s Director of the Promotion and Diffusion of the Basque Language, and Aizpea Goenaga Director of the Etxepare Basque Institute.
From left to right, Georg Kaiser, of the University of Konstanz; Mari Jose Olaziregi, Etxepare’s Director of the Promotion and Diffusion of the Basque Language, and Aizpea Goenaga Director of the Etxepare Basque Institute.

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Aizpea Goenaga, director of the Etxepare Institute [dedicated to promote Basque art and culture outside the Basque Country], announced the opening of an assistantship in Basque Language and Culture at the University of Konstanz in Germany, as well as the creation of three more assistantships for the 2011-12 school year at Stanford, Liverpool and Poznan to be added to those at the New Sorbonne in Paris, and probably another at the University of California Santa Barbara. They will also create chairs of Basque Studies at the University of Chicago and City University of New York.

Donostia-San Sebastian.  The Etxepare Basque Institute announced the creation of a new Basque Language and Culture assistantship at the University of Konstanz, Germany at a press conference this morning. Aizpea Goenaga, director, and Georg Kaiser, Professor at the University of Konstanz, signed the agreement to launch the assistantship that will begin along with the 2011-12 school year.

The assistantship will be housed within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences and linked to the linguistic and literature departments.  Its creation, along with the existing Catalan assistantship, gives rise to the Center of Iberian Languages at the university.

German Network

Goenaga highlighted that the assistantship is a “strategic priority” in the Institute’s activity, adding that in addition to “giving prestige” to the language, participating in academic life “generates interest and arouses curiosity” about the language and culture.

With this new assistantship at the University of Konstanz, Etxepare will have completed the network in Germany, where assistantships already exist at the Freie University in Berlin and the Goethe University in Frankfurt.  Activity in the Frankfurt program will expand next year with a search to fill the assistantship position, as well as creation of a fund to furnish books and other resources for the university’s Basque Library.

New Assistantships

In addition, Mari Jose Olaziregi, the Institute’s Director of Language Promotion, announced the opening of a new chair of Basque Studies at the University of Chicago, to accompany the new Bernardo Atxaga Chair at the City University of New York.  Chicago’s chair will be named after Koldo Mitxelena, linguist and promoter of the Basque language, and will allow professors and Basque experts to give classes and visit the university for a period of time. “The University of Chicago has demonstrated much interest in including Basque studies into it offerings and the center itself will co-finance the chair,” said Olaziregi to EuskalKultura.com.

The Bernardo Atxaga Chair will begin in September and will be filled by Atxaga himself. The inauguration will be celebrated with various cultural events relating to Basque literature, film and culture from September 11-18, 2011.

 

 



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