Featured speakers at Language & Development Conference 2015

Ajit Mohanty is an ICSSR National Fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, and the Founder Director of NMRC. He has also been a Fulbright Visiting Professor at Columbia University, a Fulbright Senior Scholar at the University of Wisconsin, a Killam Scholar at the University of Alberta, a Fellow of the Association of Psychological Science, USA, and a Fellow of the National Academy of Psychology, India. He developed Multilingual Education Policies for Nepal and Odisha (India).

Birgit Brock-Utne is a professor at the University of Oslo, Norway, and Director of the EDCON Consultancy. She has been a professor at the University of Dar es Salaam for four years and a visiting professor at several universities in the US, New Zealand, Japan, Austria and Spain. Her publications include Educating for Peace: A Feminist Perspective (1985), Whose Education for All? (2006) and Optimising Learning and Education in Africa (UNESCO).

James Simpson is the lead on Language Education group in the School of Education at Leeds, where he researches language learning and migration. James is the co-author of ESOL: A Critical Guide (Oxford University Press), the editor of The Routledge Handbook of Applied Linguistics, and the co-editor of Adult Language Education and Migration (Routledge, 2015). 

Osama Manzar is a social entrepreneur, author, speaker, editor, columnist and new media specialist. He spearheads the mission to bridge the information barrier between India’s rural sector and the so-called developed society, through the Digital Empowerment Foundation, which he founded and of which he is Director. He is on the advisory and working committees of numerous bodies of the Ministry of Communication & IT and the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, Government of India.

Rukmini Banerji is the CEO of Pratham and has been with the organisation for 18 years. She is a member of the national leadership team. Since 2005, Rukmini has also been involved in the design and implementation of ASER (Annual Status of Education Report) – the largest annual study ever done by Indian citizens to monitor the status of elementary education in the country.

Srikant Sarangi is professor in Humanities & Medicine in Aalborg University, Denmark, and Director of the Danish Institute of Humanities & Medicine. He is also Honorary Professor at Cardiff University, and a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences, UK. His research interests are in institutional/professional discourse studies and applied linguistics. He is the editor of journals: Text & Talk; Communication & Medicine and Journal of Applied Linguistics and Professional Practice.