The topic of language learning will be illuminated in multiple facets as Pharos Alliance President Joseph Lo Bianco prepares to visit the homeland and address suggestions on how to protect the future of Modern Greek.
Professor Lo Bianco will embark on numerous official engagements in Greece from 17-26 September with his first activities to take place in Thessaloniki.
He is set to open the ELLME-25 Conference hosted by Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in conjunction with the Greek Applied Linguistics Association in collaboration with specialists in early childhood education, multilingualism, and language policy.
Professor Lo Bianco will then lead a policy literacy workshop that highlights ways strong language policy can secure multilingual futures in both Greece and Australia.
Following those initiatives, the Pharos Alliance President will go to Athens for a number of meetings with senior officials.
While there, he will also deliver a guest lecture on 23 September at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), including an international seminar organised by NKUA Research Institute Multilingualism and Language Policy, devoted to the work of the Pharos Alliance, under the auspices of Professor Emerita Bessie Dendrinos.
The NKUA event, hosted by the Dean Professor Evdokia Karava, will formally welcome representatives of the Hellenic Ministry of Education as well as senior university authorities.
It will feature several sessions with various speakers all surrounding the topic of Modern Greek learning.
The event will be broadcast on YouTube via the link: https://youtube.com/live/rXghGF722CI
Regarding his visit, Professor Lo Bianco stated in a media release:
“I am excited and humbled by this recognition from two of Greece’s leading universities in Athens and Thessaloniki and delighted to see the participation of Ministry of Education officials.”
He noted that it “represents a significant acknowledgement of the Pharos Alliance’s efforts to ensure a vibrant place for Greek language studies in Australia”.
“While we are all volunteers who meet regularly to support Greek in Australia, we are guided by research studies on the best way to secure a permanent place for the Greek language and Hellenic culture in the diaspora,” Professor Lo Bianco said.
“The support we are receiving in Greece underscores the growing partnership between Greece, the diaspora and education professionals in safeguarding the future of Modern Greek.”
