Language ideologies were an important component of modern nationalism, and they figured prominently in the cultural and political discourses of modernity and modernization in and around what came to be known as “the Middle East” in the 19th and early 20th centuries. This conference brought together scholars across humanistic and social scientific disciplines (such as history, literary theory, linguistics, and anthropology) to explore the articulation, circulation, and mobilization of ideas about language death and revival, language reform, and language modernization in the contexts of empire, emerging nationalisms, and a modernizing world.

This conference was presented as part of the Quest for Modern Language Between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, 1820–1948 research project at the Neubauer Collegium, co-sponsored by the Joyce Z. and Jacob Greenberg Center for Jewish Studies and the Franke Institute for the Humanities at the University of Chicago.