MUSCAT — New developments in research and thinking in the study of language, linguistics, literature and translation will be the focus of an international conference opening here on Wednesday.

The three-day event, hosted by the English Department of Sultan Qaboos University (SQU), will feature papers from more than 70 speakers from countries as diverse as Oman and Russia, Switzerland and Algeria, Taiwan and the UK, as well as countries in the Gulf.  The title of the conference, ‘Centring the Marginal, Stretching the Boundaries’, is intended to “capture the spirit of examining areas of concern which are often considered as marginal, to see if there are lessons to be learned of wider relevance,” a spokesman for the hosts said on Saturday, adding: “At the same time, the conference aims to ‘stretch’ the traditional limits of each field, to see what may be learned from related disciplines.” 

The meeting will open with a presentation by Professor Itesh Sachdev, from the world famous School of Oriental and Africa Studies at London University. Professor Sachdev’s paper will focus on how immigrants and minorities continue to express their identity through their language use. On Thursday, a paper will be presented on the changing nature of English grammar presented by the distinguished linguist Prof. Geoffrey Leech, emeritus professor at Lancaster University.

Later on the same day, two plenary talks will be given by Prof. Gauri Viswanathan of the Columbia University in New York and Prof. James Dickens of Salford University, UK.

Prof. Viswanathan will speak on the nature of English Studies in relation to post-colonialism and global history, while Prof. Dickens will focus on the difficulties involved in translating culturally specific items from one language to another.

Scholars from Algeria, Egypt, India, Italy, Lebanon, Switzerland, Ukraine, the USA, Yemen and the Gulf will attend the conference which is open to all language professionals in Oman and in the region.