You know that famous quote of Michael Moore “I really didn't realize the librarians were, you know, such a dangerous group. They are subversive. You think they're just sitting there at the desk, all quiet and everything. They're like plotting the revolution, man. I wouldn't mess with them." well I really try my best to … Continue reading #DecDisplays – Poverty and wealth
Najla Al Owais here. Whilst I was waiting for my kids to finish a looming workshop in the House of Wisdom, Sharjah (see House of Wisdom #UAEReads posts here and here), I started browsing through their children’s library, my favorite part of the library. It wasn’t long before I had accumulated a few books to … Continue reading #UAEReads: Young Voices of Arabia Celebrate the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals
Najla Al Owais, Mariam AlJaberi, Al Zahra Al Jaberi, and Noora Anwahi here. A 2023 SURE+ research grant was led by Dr. Myra Bacsal with her team members consisting of College of Education undergraduate students Noora Anwahi, Mariam Aljaberi, Al Zahra Aljaberi, and PhD candidate Najla Al Owais. We started this journey in May 2023 … Continue reading #UAEReads: An Arabic and Emirati #UNSDG Picture Book Library (Part 2 of 2)
Mark Baildon here. This review essay shares personal impressions of COP28 in Dubai the United Arab Emirates and draws on the lens of stories to examine the event, climate change, and potential solutions to the climate crisis. My experiences and perceptions of COP28 are limited, based on three visits and two presentations in the Green … Continue reading #UAEReads: COP28 and the Stories-We-Live-By
Najla Al Owais, Mariam AlJaberi, Al Zahra Al Jaberi, and Noora Anwahi here. A 2023 SURE+ research grant was led by Dr. Myra Bacsal with her team members consisting of College of Education undergraduate students Noora Anwahi, Mariam Aljaberi, Al Zahra Aljaberi, and PhD candidate Najla Al Owais. We started this journey in May 2023 … Continue reading #UAEReads: An Arabic and Emirati SDG Picture book Library (Part 1 of 2)
Of all my adventures around the world of writing, the most startling and revealing happened closest to my home. Googling “Linguistics Program” took me to the University of Massachusetts (Amherst), which offers an amazing range of linguistics courses, including, but not limited to: Computational Linguistics Discourse Analysis Eye-tracking Field work First Language Acquisition Historical Socio-linguistics … Continue reading #EndangeredAlphabets: Final Post: An Adventure, A Doughnut Hole, A New Curriculum, An Appeal
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6J-lQuyr0Yw&list=PLYG37Sb2buKjaMtjztHjDc5pSS1a1jorr&index=12 My month here is almost over, and I've taken you all to so many places around the world, and brought up so many ideas about the nature and purpose of writing that it's not easy to wrap everything up. So I'm going to steal from myself, and offer you the wrap-up I created for … Continue reading #EndangeredAlphabets: Where Are We Going, Where Have We Been?
"Suksma," or "Thank you," in the traditional Balinese language and script. Photo and carving by the author. Fairly often I get asked: what does it take to revive a traditional script that has been unused, or largely unused, for years? Decades? Centuries? Much less often, I actually have a clear, detailed answer. In this case, … Continue reading #EndangeredAlphabets: How Do You Go About Reviving a Traditional Script? Case Study: Bali
Topographic map in the Bamum script from early 20th-century Cameroon. Image courtesy of the Incunabula Library. Creating a new script for an indigenous people during a colonial era is a two-edged sword. The desire to claim and assert one’s cultural identity may provide the driving force that sustains an author through the long, hard work … Continue reading #EndangeredAlphabets: Succeed at Your Peril
Photo courtesy of the Borneo Post Authors of writing systems need to be as creative as they are linguistically knowledgeable. A little self-promotion helps, and a lot of perseverance is vital. Of all the script creators we know about, though, nobody was as inventive as Dunging Anak (son of) Gunggu, known as "Aki," creator of … Continue reading #EndangeredAlphabets: The Man Who Invented Everything
Global Literature in Libraries Initiative 