Story Pavillion at TU Dortmund University’s Summer Festival

Within the context of this year’s Sommerfest at TU Dortmund (4th of July 2019) the university library invites native and heritage speakers of indigenous languages and rare dialects to tell or sign stories and subsequently explain their significance and meaning to the audience in German or English. Thus, the audience will come into contact with a variety of languages and the culture inherent in those stories.

The Story Pavilion celebrates the International Year of Indigenous Languages, which UNESCO has proclaimed for 2019. Languages play a definitive role in human (co)existence. Not only communication, but also our identity and the way we perceive the world around us – all of it is based on our mother tongue. In spite of the great significance of language, more and more tongues are disappearing from the landscape of human expressiveness. In order to call attention to this situation and to commemorate the diversity of the remaining languages, the university library organizes the Story Pavilion in cooperation with researchers from faculty 15 (Cultural Studies) at TU’s Sommerfest. Through academic posters and language activities the researchers will engage both the students and staff of TU Dortmund University and visitors.