The Excellence in Basque Studies V Summer Course will honor Mariasun Landa

One more year, the Etxepare Basque Institute and the UPV/EHU Summer Courses  have orgnized a Training Course for the Teaching of Basque Language and Culture in Foreign Universities, under the direction of Mari Jose Olaziregi, the Institute Director for the Promotion and Dissemination of the Basque Language. Etxepare has currently 34 lectureships at universities outside the Basque Country, where 27 lectors give classes of Basque language and culture. This course aims to strengthen the preparation of these teachers and to train those who wish to join this network in the future -though it is open to any person interested-, for which the program invites experts on various areas of knowledge of the Basque culture.

This year the course is entitled Excellence in Basque Studies V. Mariasun Landaren omenez and will be specially devoted to Mariasun Landa, writer of literature for children and youth, who is, together with Bernardo Atxaga, the Basque language writer whose work has been translated into more languages . The program will address issues such as children literature, gender studies, reading habits in the digital age and the challenges of a multilingual society for the writer, issues that Landa has dealt with for years. On another hand, the workshops will pay attention to the Basque symbols, will offer tools to overcome the difficulties of teaching Basque at the university and will also share various resources for teaching.

The program includes local and international experts: Olga Anokhina (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris), Francesc Xavier Pla i Barber (Universitat de Girona), Gemma Lluch (Universitat de València), Gema Lasarte (UPV / EHU), Nerea Arruti (University of Aberdeen) and Mikel Ayerbe (UPV-EHU). The seminars will be taught by some readers of the Basque Institute Etxepare network: Miren Ibarluzea (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle III, Paris), Gorka Mercero (University of Liverpool) and Aitor Arruza (University of Warsaw, Warsaw).

Furthermore, on July 9 the Donostia-San Sebastián Aquarium will host a literary reading, Mariasun Landarekin solasean, open to the public, with the participation of the writers Bernardo Atxaga, Juan Kruz Igerabide, Patxi Zubizarreta, Miren Agur Meabe, Miquel Desclot and Fina Casadelrrey, and the illustrators Antton Olariaga, Elena Odriozola and Jokin Mitxelena, who will draw live at the event; they will all accompanied on the piano by the musician Juantxo Zeberio.

The course will be held at the Miramar Palace in Donostia and will have an academic value of 30 hours; the registration period is open.