About this Event
How to K*ll a Language
What do we lose – culturally, politically, and personally – when a language dies?
Roughly 7,000 languages are spoken around the world today. Over half of them are expected to vanish in the next century – along with the wealth of information they contain, the family ties they represent, and the psychological benefits they confer. This mass extinction event is one of the most pressing cultural emergencies of our age.
Journalist Sophia Smith Galer journeys across continents and generations to chart the phenomenon of linguicide, or language death, and to uncover what’s behind it. From Ghana to Greece, Ukraine to Ecuador, her travels ultimately lead her back home: to Italy, where piaśintein, the Gallo-Italian language of her grandparents, is on the brink of vanishing forever.
Climate crisis, nationalism and war are decimating our languages – but there’s still hope. Smith Galer also spends time with the communities bringing their languages back, from Kurdish activists in Iran to Karuk campaigners in the forests of California, showing that another future is possible.
Sophia Smith Galer
Sophia Smith Galer is an award-winner journalist, author and content creator.
She is credited with pioneering journalism on TikTok in the United Kingdom, using short-form video to report for the BBC and VICE News across religion, technology and health. She has been recognised internationally for journalism innovation with a Webby, a British Journalism Award, a Forbes 30 Under 30 listing and a spot on British Vogue’s 25 Most Influential Women list in 2022.
As well as appearing regularly on BBC radio and in op-eds for The Guardian and Prospect magazine, Sophia makes weekly videos about language which have been viewed more than 200 million times, winning her an audience of one million followers online.
Sophia was part of the team winning team of Durham University alumni students that took the trophy home for their Alma Matter on Celebrity University Challenge on BBC Two, the final drawing in over 1 million viewers.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
Blackwell's Bookshop, 48-51 Broad Street, Oxford, United Kingdom
GBP 6.00 to GBP 22.00
