How languages make us: explorations through performance
Schedule
Tue Apr 21 2026 at 06:30 pm to 08:00 pm
UTC+01:00Location
The British Academy | London, EN
About this Event
How does language shape our sense of self? And does being multilingual change the way we think?
Join us for a lively evening of talks, poetry and songs celebrating the UK’s rich linguistic cultures and communities.
Through multilingual performances – from BSL poetry to Caneuon Cymraeg (Welsh songs) – and short talks by leading researchers, we will explore how language shapes our identities, how it connects communities and why learning languages matters for a more inclusive world.
Speakers
Professor Robert Dunbar
Robert Dunbar is Chair of Celtic Languages, Literature, History and Antiquities at the University of Edinburgh. He is a member of the Committee of Experts of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, and of Bòrd na Gàidhlig, which oversees Gaelic policy in Scotland. He has advised international organisations, governments and legislative bodies, and non-governmental organisations on the protection and promotion of minority languages.
Professor Devyani Sharma FBA
Devyani Sharma is Professor of Language and Communication at the University of Oxford. She studies accents, dialects, migration, attitudes, and bilingualism. She has conducted research across London and in postcolonial settings, and has worked with the Sutton Trust, the BBC, and corporate and government organisations on language in the workplace. She was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2023.
Professor Bencie Woll FBA
Bencie Woll is Honorary Professor of Sign Language and Deaf Studies at University College London. She is a linguist by training and has been involved in research on signage for nearly 40 years, starting with research at the University of Bristol where she was a co-founder of the Centre for Deaf Studies, pioneering research on the linguistics of BSL and on Deaf Studies. She moved to City University London in 2005 to take up the first ever Chair in Sign Language and Deaf Studies in the UK. She was elected a Fellow for the British Academy in 2012 and in 2024 she received an MBE for Services to Higher Education and Deaf People.
Performers
Zoë McWhinney
Zoë McWhinney is a BSL poet and Visual Vernacular performer based in Southeast London. Born to a Deaf Northern Irish father and a Belgian-Finnish CODA (Child of Deaf Adults) mother, Zoë grew up immersed in the sign language community alongside her three Deaf/Hard of Hearing (HoH) brothers. She has performed at renowned venues such as The Roundhouse and the United Nations in Geneva and made history as the first Deaf poet published in British Sign Language in Modern Poetry and Translation magazine. She was runner up BSL poet laureate for 2023-2024 and again for 2025-2026, nominated for Forward poetry prize in Performance category for The Portrait and The Skylight and consulted for the Royal Shakespeare Company on BSL. She wrote for Dead Centre’s stage adaption of Ilya Kaminsky’s Deaf Republic shown at the Royal Court and Dublin Theatre Festival.
Plus more to be announced.
Chair
Professor Charles Forsdick FBA
Charles Forsdick is Drapers Professor of French and a Fellow of Murray Edwards College at the University of Cambridge. He completed a PhD at Lancaster on the author, traveller and naval doctor Victor Segalen, under the supervision of Dr David Steel. Following his first post as Lecturer in French at the University of Glasgow, he moved to the James Barrow Chair of French at the University of Liverpool in 2001, a post he held until his move to Cambridge in 2023. His research interests include Francophone postcolonial studies, particularly postcolonial literature; French colonial history (including Haiti); the transatlantic traffic in enslaved Africans; travel writing and exoticism; translation studies; world literature and graphic fiction. He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2021 and is currently the Lead Fellow for Languages.
Event schedule:
- Doors and bar open: 18:00
- Event starts: 18:30
- Event ends: 20:00
- Bar closes: 20:30
Further information
Free event, donations welcome, booking required.
As tickets are free, people sometimes book and don't attend, so we have to issue more tickets than there are seats available to allow for this. Entry into this event is on a first-come, first-served basis and we recommend arriving in good time to avoid any disappointment.
Registering for a ticket does not guarantee you entrance to the SHAPE Room. If the SHAPE Room reaches capacity, you will be directed to the Wohl Gallery next door to watch a live stream of the event.
This event will also be recorded and live streamed on YouTube.
This event has live subtitles delivered by 121 Captions. This event also has BSL interpretation.
To help plan your visit, please visit the Accessibility at the British Academy page.
For any additional questions or specific access requirements, attendees are invited to contact the Events team at [email protected]
If you have any questions about this event, please refer to our Public Events FAQs. If your question is not answered, please email [email protected]
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Where is it happening?
The British Academy, 10-11 Carlton House Terrace, London, United KingdomEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 0.00 to GBP 5.00
