Meet Cultural Diversity 2024 Event Team

Translation Commons gratefully acknowledges the generous contributions of the multiple parties that came together to produce the 21 May 2024 celebration of the World Day for Cultural Diversity for Dialogue and Development with the online event “Indigenous Languages and Technology: Opportunities for Accessibility and Diversity”.

We thank all participants, all contributors, all supporters, and all attendees, and we hope that the shared experience, knowledge, and inspiration gained from this event will carry all stakeholders forward in their work in Indigenous languages.

Our special thanks go out to the following teams and individuals:

Event Steering Committee

Dr Siva Prasad Rambhatla, Former Honorary Professor, University of Hyderabad (India)
Dr Udaya Narayana Singh, Professor, Amity University Haryana, Gurgaon (India)
Dr Prabhakar Rao Jandhyala, Professor of Linguistics and Head of the Centre for Foreign Language Studies, University of Hyderabad
Ms Saumya Sharma, Freelance Ethnographer and Qualitative Researcher (India)
Dr Tabea De Wille, Associate Professor, University of Limerick (Ireland)
Mr Michael Wynne, Digital Applications Librarian, Washington State University (USA)
Mr Ravi Rebbapragada, Executive Director, Samata (India)
Mr Tex Texin, Globalization Architect, Board of Advisors, Translation Commons (USA)
Ms Jeannette Stewart, Founder & Board of Advisors, Translation Commons (USA)

It has been our sincere pleasure to produce this event with all of you! Thank you for your hard work and thoughtful participation to raise awareness of the importance of Indigenous language preservation and revitalisation across Asia and the challenges specific to Indigenous languages in this field.

Dr. Alan Melby, Language Terminology/Translation and Acquisition Consortium President

• Infrastructure support
• Hosting of the event

A kind thank-you to Alan for providing the Zoom platform for the panels and presentations, and for hosting and monitoring the event with us. Your technical support has allowed the program to stream online to countless viewers.

Translation Commons Volunteers

The truly awesome Translation Commons volunteers have put in the tireless behind-the-scenes work to handle the nuts and bolts, branding, endless detail, and coordination that is necessary to produce an event such as this one. This represents months of work, coordination, patience, and a sense of humor! These may be some of the least visible volunteers in an online event, but they are the most important, and we thank all of them!

Leonidas Pappas, event coordinator, event hosting, branding, social media
Nigar Hasanova, event coordinator, Zoom hosting
Aparna Jorapur, event coordinator
Utkarsh Sinh, web developer, maintenance
Dipal Gajjar, web developer, maintenance
Devasheesh Vaid, web developer, maintenance
Gina Gungaadorj, backup Zoom host

Session Presenters

Ms Jeannette Stewart, Founder Translation Commons, (USA)
Mr Jaco Du Toit, Chief of Section for Universal Access to Information, Communication and Information Sector, UNESCO (France)
Dr Tabea De Wille, Keyboards Team at Translation Commons (Ireland)
Dr Vicki Couzens, Keerray Wooroong Gunditjmara Citizen and Research Fellow at RMIT University (Australia)
Ms Aiyana Twigg, Indigenous Youth Activist for language revitalization (Canada)
Dr Ramesh Gaur, Professor & HoD Kalanidhi Division, Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) (India)
Mr Daniel Héctor Prado, Consultant, Former Director at Union Latine and Former Executive Secretary at Maaya (Argentina)
Mr Hero Patrianto, Linguist, Language Office of East Java, Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology (Indonesia)
Dr Gatut Susanto, Senior Lecturer at The Department of Indonesian Literature, Universitas Negeri Malang (Indonesia)
Mr Awaludin Rusiandi, Translator at Language of East Java Province (Indonesia)
Mr Michael Running Wolf, Lead Architect, First Languages AI Reality Initiative (USA)
Dr Wakoko Wanjala, Lecturer, Linguistics, Faculty of Arts & Social Science, Kibabii University, and Native Lubukusu Speaker (Kenya)
Dr Altaci Correa Rubim, Member of Associação dos Índios Kokamas Residente no Município de Manaus (AKIM) (Brazil)
Mr Evandro de Sousa Bonfim, Professor of Ethnology and Anthropological Linguistics, Anthropology Department, National Museum, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (Brazil)
Mr Tex Texin, Globalization Architect, Board of Advisors, Translation Commons (USA)