This course explores the social, cultural and political aspects of language in Africa, the Middle East and South Asia in the post-colonial context. It examines the interaction and intersectionality of language and variables such as class, ethnicity, gender, and education. It will also look at the range of articulations of politico-linguistic problems and challenges, including language conflict, language rights and language planning, in the three regions. These are topics that have been discussed extensively by scholars from a variety of disciplines, including linguistics, anthropology, sociology, philosophy and political science, resulting in a rich body of literature that offers different perspectives on the different issues. In this course we will examine the contributions of these disciplines to our understanding of language and its uses in society, drawing on comparative experiences of selected countries of Africa, the Middle East and South Asia.
