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The UGent Centre for Bantu Studies (BantUGent) stands for a transdisciplinary approach to the past and present of Bantu languages, Bantu speech communities and their (im)material worlds, both in Africa and in the diaspora.
Our research starts from the data-driven study of language and/or (im)material culture and relies on methods and theoretical insights from disciplines as diverse as linguistics, archaeology, anthropology, (art) history, botany, zoology, genetics, etc.
Within the field of Bantu linguistics, which is BantUGent’s centre of gravity, we strongly focus on historical linguistics, including language contact, and corpus linguistics and lexicography, which we strive to combine.
Our research is also integrated in several courses of the UGent BA in African Languages and Cultures and MA in African Studies, such as Introduction to African Linguistics, Language Documentation and Description in Africa, African Historical Linguistics, Bantu Corpus Linguistics and Lexicography, Comparative Bantu Grammar, and African Archaeology.
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Activities

  • Thu
    01
    Sep
    2022
    Fri
    02
    Sep
    2022

    BantUGent-ILCAA Joint Research Workshop

    Ghent University

    'The Past and Present of Bantu Languages: Integrating Micro-Typology, Historical-Comparative Linguistics and Lexicography' is a bilateral joint research program funded by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) in association with the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO). This two-day workshop aims to share the research perspectives and frameworks of the project as well as project achievements so far with an expected audience from a wide range of academic backgrounds.On this occasion, we also invite papers from external researchers working on Bantu languages. We accept any topic relevant to the project's theme, i.e., historical, typological, and lexicographical investigations that shed new light on our current understanding of the past and present of Bantu languages. However, contributions concerning the following topics are particularly welcome.

     

    • Historical linguistics dealing with Bantu-wide, regional, or local processes of historical change or contact;
    • Typological micro-variation from a Bantu-wide, regional, or local perspective;
    • Historical or typological studies focusing on contact phenomena either within neighboring Bantu languages or between Bantu and non-Bantu languages;
    • Lexicographic studies, especially those utilizing methods and technologies from the field of digital humanities.

     

    Those who are interested in giving a talk at the workshop, please send us the title and 5 keywords of your presentation and a short description about the relevance to the project's topics (max. 100 words) by July 31, 2022.

    Please note that financial support for traveling to and from Gent will not be available. Registration is required and should be submitted through the online form. If you have any questions or need more detailed information, please contact us.

    Anyone interested in various issues on the past and present of Bantu languages is welcome and we hope to havean exciting discussion to expand our knowledge on the historical and typological processes of the diverse Bantu languages.

    The organising commitee

    Koen Bostoen, Gilles-Maurice de Schryver, Daisuke Shinagawa, and Nobuko Yoneda

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