Les journées macédoniennes" international symposium. Macedonian studies: a rare discipline, November 30

Organized by the Macedonian Studies Section and the research center Plurality of Languages and Identities: Didactics - Acquisition - Mediations-PLIDAM (Inalco)

Wednesday, November 30, 2022 - 09:00-18:00 - Auditorium
Inalco, 65 rue des Grands moulins, 75013, Paris

Contact: Frosa Pejoska-Bouchereau, frosa.bouchereau@inalco.fr

Macedonian studies: a rare discipline

This symposium will present the "rare discipline" label obtained for Macedonian studies and celebrate 60 years of teaching Macedonian at Inalco.

"Rare" means that there is teaching and research in this discipline, but that this has diminished and is limited in number of learners, number of researchers and number of learning and research venues.

Interest in Macedonian studies in the nineteenth century, on a global level, existed but has diminished over time for reasons that are not scientific but political. The number of universities where Macedonian studies are taught has shrunk (the number of learners has decreased), the research centers and researchers working on Macedonian studies has decreased (in space and time).

In France, the Inalco is the only higher education institution where Macedonian studies are studied in full training from the licence to the doctorate and the only country in the world to have a professorial chair in Macedonian studies, outside Northern Macedonia.

Getting the "rare discipline" label guarantees recognition, protection, possible development of studies thanks to funding and the preservation of Macedonian studies at Inalco.

"Preserving and revitalizing Macedonian studies will contribute to ethnic, linguistic and cultural diversity, the foundation of Humanity. Old Slavonic, which is first and foremost Old Macedonian" (Vaillant André, Manuel du vieux slave, Institut d'études slaves, Paris, 1948 ), at the origin of the birth of Slavic letters and the Christianization of Slavs in their language - consecrated the fourth sacred language alongside Latin, Greek and Hebrew -, is not only indispensable to research in Slavic studies but is also a "remarkable contribution of Macedonia to universal culture" (CASTELLAN Georges. Un pays inconnu : La Macédoine - Hier et aujourd'hui, Armeline, 2003).