Policy Roundtable

Policy Roundtable: Bridging the Gap Between Language Policy Planning and Language Policy Making

Together, the RISE UP Project and the Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity (NPLD) will be hosting a high-level policy round table to explore a key challenge in the field of language policy: how can we bridge the persistent gap between the language policies we design and the realities of implementing them on the ground?

Join us on June 18 for a discussion on what we can learn from past initiatives, and what can be done in the future. The round table will feature contributions from policymakers, researchers, government officials, and community stakeholders who will share their insights into the barriers that limit the effectiveness of language policy — including budgetary constraints, ineffective planning, political inertia, and societal resistance — and how to overcome them.

Participation is open to everyone - and if you are part of a minoritised language community, your feedback and lived experiences will form an invaluable part of the discussion.

The working language of the round table is English. The event will be streamed online (Webex).

When?

18.06.2025, 8:45-13:00 CET

Where?

Sky Lounge, 1090 Vienna, Austria

Online participation possible!

Agenda

8:45-9:00: Registration

9:00-9:15: Welcoming words

Gisela Hagmair – RISE UP
Roger Serra – NPLD
Anna Solé Mena – European Commission

9:15-10:15: Keynote speech: Policy making and implementation on the ground: Insights from RISE UP and related case studies

Julia Sallabank – SOAS

10:15-10:45: Coffee break

10:45-13:00: Roundtable discussion

Roundtable Speakers:

Jelske Dijkstra | Researcher at Mercator – Fryske Akademy

Jelske Dijkstra studied speech therapy at Hanzehogeschool Groningen and general linguistics with a specialisation in speech technology and speech communication at the University of Amsterdam. She then worked as a scientific researcher on the Frisian speech therapy language instrument F-TARSP at the Fryske Akademy. Jelske currently works as project leader of the Mercator European Research Centre on Multilingualism and Language Learning, part of the Fryske Akademy.

Roger Serra | Director General for Language Policy in the Technological and Audiovisual Fields at the Government of Catalonia and Vice Chair of the Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity

Roger Serra is the current Director General for Language Policy in the Technological and Audiovisual Fields at the Government of Catalonia and Vice Chair of the Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity. He holds a degree in International Relations from the Autonomous University of Barcelona and is specialised in the Asian market. He served as Director of the Fundació .Cat from 2022 to December 2024, an organisation that promotes the Catalan language online and manages the .cat domain.

Sabrina Rasom | Director Istitut Cultural Ladin “Majon di Fascegn”. Fassa Valley (Autonomous Province of Trento)

Sabrina Rasom is Director of the Ladin Cultural Institute and of the Ladin Museum of Fassa Valley and was former responsible for the Unit of Ladin Language Policy (for the use of the local language in the public administration and for community prestige planning) of the Comun general de Fascia, in the Province of Trento, Italy.

She studied foreign languages and did her PhD in syntactic variation and Ladin syntax in Padova; In the last 3 years she has been working, as promoter and part of the scientific table, on CLAM2021 (Cimbro-Ladino-Mocheno), the sociolinguistic inquiry for the minority languages of the Region Trentino-Southtyrol. She was former Vice Chair of the Network to Promote Linguistic Diversity NPLD and is the current coordinator of the ECCA project (European Charter Classroom Activities) bringing together young students of European language regions.

Marija Nikolova | Chair. Integra Nau; long-time Advisor. Government of the Republic of Northern Macedonia

Marija Nikolova is Chair of the Association for Rights and Humanity Integra Nau and has been working as Advisor in the Directorate for development and promotion of education on community languages within Ministry for education and science/Ministry for Inter-Community relations, Government of the Republic of Northern Macedonia for the last 20 years. Amongst others, she was involved in activities on political level relating to the promotion and reporting of and education in Aromanian/Vlach, as well as creating curricula and teaching materials for this language and translations.

Theresa Grandits | Editor in Chief of Hrvatske Novine

Theresa Grandits, born in 1996 in Oberwart/Austria, has been working as an editor for the Croatian weekly newspaper Hrvatske novine since 2020, since 2023 she is editor in chief. In addition, she is studying Slavic studies and Ethnomusicology in her Master’s degree, in which she is particularly dedicated to the Burgenland Croats. In her free time she is involved with the Croatian Academic Club (HAK), and dances and sings in various ensembles. In Stinatz/Stinjaki, where she lives, she is active in the Cultural Initiative Stinatz, with which she was setting up the Virtual Archive Stinjaki/Virtualni arhiv Stinjaki.

Imanol Larrea | Director of Soziolinguistica Klusterra

Imanol Larrea is the Director of Soziolinguistica Klusterra, a research centre based in the Basque Country, dedicated to the revitalisation and social development of the Basque language. It conducts applied sociolinguistic research and develops methodologies to promote language use across various domains, including education, work, and community engagement. Imanol holds a degree in Sociology and a PhD in Communication. His work has addressed the following topics: immigration, language attitudes, Catalan sociolinguistics, the promotion of the Basque language in the socio-economic sphere, and the management of R&D&I (Research, Development and Innovation).