Apr. 22 – An appointment to reflect on the Italian language in the world, to analyze the Italian language of today and the challenges posed by globalization and the media, to understand how Italian bridges different languages and cultures. This is the program of a two-day study event held in Basel, Switzerland, sponsored by the Italian Embassy in Bern and the Italian Cultural Institute in Zurich, scheduled for May 9 and 10 at Basel University. The international conference “Italian at the border: Switzerland and its linguistic challenges in the era of globalization” was organized with the support of Asri (the Swiss Association for Cultural and Economic relations with Italy), Coscienza svizzera, Comunità Radiotelevisiva Italofona, Radiotelevisione svizzera, and Forum per l’italiano in Svizzera. According to the IIC Zurich website, the conference will address the theme of Italian as a national and official language in multilingual Switzerland in the context of globalization. In particular, the conference will reflect on the role of Italian as one of the Confederation’s languages, and its challenges vis-à-vis the other official languages and English. It will focus on multilingualism as a communicative and intellectual opportunity in a world of global linguistic diversity, as well as the role of the Italian language in the world of electronic media. The conference is also linked to the photo exhibition “Portraits of Italian language writers in the photographs of Giovanni Giovannetti,” hosted at the University of Basel May 6-22.
