IN PERSON ONLY: Greek in Melbourne: language, identity and belonging

Date: Thursday 11 May 2023 @ 7pm Melbourne
Location: Mezzanine, 168 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne
Presenter: Dr Stavroula Nikoloudis & Prof James Walker

Language of Presentation: English
Entry: FREE

Synopsis

The Greek language has a long and varied history in Melbourne, not only in terms of its daily uses but also how people acquire and study it. In this presentation, we provide a brief overview of the history of Greek in Melbourne and its place in the Victorian education system. We detail the current approaches used in the Greek Studies program at La Trobe University and its involvement in the Pharos initiative to review Greek language teaching commissioned by the Modern Greek Teachers’ Association of Victoria. We report on responses to an online survey conducted in 2020-2021 and ongoing interviews to explore views about identity and language use among three generations of Greek Australians in Melbourne. These results provide us with the most up-to-date information from members of the wider community about their language choices and the contexts and types of interactions in which they use Greek. This information will enable us to assess the needs of Greek speakers and improve the language education experience, supporting the Pharos strategic plan for revitalising the acquisition, study and use of Greek in Australia.

Bio for Prof James A. Walker

James A. Walker is Professor of Linguistics at La Trobe University. After completing degrees at the University of Toronto and the University of Ottawa, he worked at York University (Toronto) until taking up his current position in 2017. His research is concerned with language variation and change, bilingualism, ethnicity and identity. He has conducted research on English in Australia, Canada and the Caribbean, Sango (Central African Republic), Swedish and Brazilian Portuguese.

Bio for Dr Stavroula (Stephie) Nikoloudis

Dr Stavroula (Stephie) Nikoloudis is coordinator of the Greek Studies program at La Trobe University. She researches Greek language and society, from Mycenaean to modern times. Her teaching centres on Classical and Modern Greek language and literature. She is especially interested in questions of ethnic identity and cultural diversity, migration, language development and language education. She is a member of Pharos, a community-wide campaign aimed at revitalising Modern Greek in Victoria/Australia.