Soillse Conference
31/08/2011 - 03/09/2011 - Sabhal Mòr OstaigSoillse is a 5-year, £5.29 million research project involving the University of the Highlands and Islands (with Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, UHI’s Gaelic college in Skye, and Lews Castle College, in Lewis participating), as well as the Universities of Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, and funded by the Scottish Funding Council, Bòrd na Gàidhlig (the language planning body created under the Gaelic Language (Scotland) Act 2005) and Highlands and Islands Enterprise.
The purpose of Soillse is to enhance the research capacity to inform public policy towards the maintenance and revitalisation of Gaelic language and culture. One of the ways in which Soillse is intended to enhance research capacity is to hold two residential conferences, the first of which will be held at Sabhal Mòr Ostaig, in the beautiful and historic Sleat Peninsula, the Isle of Skye, between 31 August and 3 September 2011.
The theme which Soillse has chosen for this conference is “Maintaining and Revitalising Minority Languages in their ‘Heartlands’”. Gaelic is traditionally associated with the Highlands and Islands of Scotland, but ever since UK census data has been collected on Gaelic, the language has generally weakened in this large geographic area. According to the most recent census, of 2001, Gaelic is now spoken by a majority of the population in the Western Isles (Outer Hebrides) and at the north end of the Isle of Skye, and in these remaining ‘heartlands’, the language, and the communities which speak it, are under considerable pressure.