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The University of Nevada, Reno is excited to host the Institute on Collaborative Language Research (CoLang) in summer 2026. The institute provides a cutting-edge training program for new and established scholars, community language activists, and other language workers engaged in language documentation, revitalization, and reclamation. The institute consists of two components: two weeks of workshops on a diversity of relevant topics and a week of in-depth practica, in which participants apply their knowledge and skills to document and analyze understudied and threatened languages. We offer a model for other academic institutions seeking collaborative work with a variety of different communities.

Our theme for CoLang 2026 is “Strengthening Solidarity, Overcoming Obstacles, Forging our Future.”

Sommergarten 2026 will provide a new collective where students, teachers, scholars, and other interested community members can share and discuss research on the intersections between language learning, culture, and pedagogy. Although research shows that the importance of learning about our societies and cultures is widely recognized, a number of studies reveal that many language educators find culture distinctly difficult to teach, and/or in some cases feel they possess inadequate cultural knowledge or awareness themselves. This has implications for students who are in need of cultural learning opportunities, yet lack access to them or participate in educational activities that are poorly designed and implemented. Sommergarten’s inaugural symposium will serve as a shared space where those involved and interested in language education can discover efforts across the globe to increase cultural learning, as well as consider various scholarly perspectives on improving and sustaining our abilities to teach it.

Culture in Language Education: Interpersonal and Intellectual Developments