Who is the Linguistic Justice Foundation?

Hello, world!

LJF is an independent organization driven by people—their ideas, insights, and lived experiences.

You might remember when we shared our mission to: host multilingual, popular education programs on language rights and linguistic justice, conduct research, and offer expert assistance.

Today, we are proud to introduce the people who will co-lead and help shape the next steps toward our shared vision of a world of linguistic justice for everyone.

Dr. Robert Phillipson

Honorary Board Member

Robert is Professor Emeritus in the Department of Management, Society and Communication at Copenhagen Business School in Denmark. He is one of the founding scholars in the field of language rights, and has also been a lifelong advocate for language rights. 

Much of his work has focused on issues related to multilingual education, language policy, and the global role of English. He has been a visiting scholar at the Institute of Education at the University of London (1983), the University of Melbourne in Australia (1994), the Central Institute of Indian Languages in Mysore (1995), the University of Pecs in Hungary (1996) and the Center for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Cambridge (2005). He is the author of over 150 articles, chapters, and books, and his key published works include the Handbook of Linguistic Human Rights and his signature work, Linguistic Imperialism. 

In 2010, Robert was awarded the Linguapax International Award in recognition of his advocacy for “multilingual education as a factor of peace and of linguistic rights against cultural and linguistic homogenization processes.” Throughout his career, Robert has made frequent media appearances to advocate for policy reform that would respect and uphold the language rights of vulnerable communities. Together with his late wife, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, Robert has inspired and guided a whole generation of scholars and activists all around the world to protect and promote language rights for all. Robert lives multilingually, using English, French, Danish and Swedish continuously. 

Dr. Stephen May 

Board Member

Stephen is Professor in Te Puna Wānanga (School of Māori and Indigenous Education) at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He is an international authority on language rights, language policy, bilingual education, and the multilingual turn in language teaching. He has published 26 books and over 100 articles and chapters on these and related topics. His key books include Language and Minority Rights, The Multilingual Turn and, most recently, Critical Ethnography: Language, Race/ism and Education. His academic articles include numerous contributions to the study of language rights, including the germinal piece “Language Rights: The ‘Cinderella' Human Right”.  Stephen is also Series Editor of the Encyclopedia of Language and Education, and editor of the journal Ethnicities. 

Dr. May is an AERA Fellow and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand (FRSNZ). He brings a wide-ranging interdisciplinary understanding to these issues, including a background in applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, education, and sociology. Stephen is an adult language learner of te reo Māori (the Māori language) and speaks, reads, writes, and teaches in both English and te reo Māori. 

Dr. Rob Dunbar

Board Member

Rob is Chair of Celtic Languages, Literature, History, and Antiquities at the University of Edinburgh, where he also serves as a Professor of Celtic. A lawyer by trade, he specializes in the rights of minorities in both international and domestic law, with a particular focus on linguistic minorities, linguistic genocide, language policy, and planning. His key books include, Indigenous Children's Education as Linguistic Genocide and a Crime against Humanity? A Global View, which he wrote with Tove Tove Skutnabb-Kangas. 

Dr. Dunbar’s research and experience encompasses language policy and planning for Scottish Gaelic, other Celtic languages (notably Welsh and Irish), and minoritized languages more broadly. He has worked extensively on legal instruments—international, national, and sub-national—that support language policy and planning initiatives, including norms for broadcasting in minoritized languages. An expert for the Council of Europe and the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), Rob has advised international organizations, national and sub-national governments, and NGOs on language legislation and the revitalization of minority languages and their communities. A former member of Bòrd na Gàidhlig (the Gaelic Language Board) and the board of MG Alba—co-producer of BBC Alba, Scotland's Gaelic digital television service in partnership with the BBC—he has also advised Senedd Cymru (the Welsh Parliament) on Welsh language legislation. 

Originally from Canada, Rob has dedicated nearly two decades to the development of the Gaelic language, as well as its literature, culture, and society, including the history of Gaelic in Canada. Before assuming his current role at the University of Edinburgh in June 2013, he was Senior Research Professor at the University of the Highlands and Islands and Research Director of the collaborative Soillse Research Project.

Dr. Prem Phyak

Board Member

Prem Phyak ᤐᤪᤣᤶ ᤌᤩᤠᤰ (प्रेम फ्याक) is an associate professor of language, society, and education at Teachers College, Columbia University in New York, USA. His research focuses on language policy, multilingualism in education, Indigenous language and activism, land-based and other decolonial education approaches, teacher education, and community-based advocacy for linguistic justice. Originally from the Indigenous Yaakthung land in the eastern hills of rural Nepal, Prem often walked barefoot for 2-3 hours daily to attend secondary school. 

Prem has served as a professor of applied linguistics in Nepal for over a decade and in Hong Kong for three years. He is the co-author of Engaged Language Policy and Practices (Routledge) and co-editor of Multilingual Education in South Asia: At the Intersection of Policy and Practice (Routledge). His work has been widely published in academic journals and newspapers. As an Indigenous Yaakthung teacher educator and critical applied linguist, Prem views educational research as a collaborative and transformative tool. He is committed to fostering critical awareness, agency, advocacy, and activism among teachers, youth, parents, and the public to promote equitable educational policies, plans, and practices. Prem speaks three languages (Yaakthung, Nepali, and English) and understands Hindi and Maithili.

Dr. Gerald Roche

Board Member. Director of Research

Gerald is a globally-recognized expert in linguistic justice and an award-winning political anthropologist with two decades of research and teaching experience. He has worked at Qinghai Normal University (China), Uppsala University (Sweden), the University of Melbourne (Australia), and is now based at La Trobe University (Australia). He has undertaken research in China, Sweden, Australia, and Bhutan. Dr. Roche is an active contributor to public debates on issues related to linguistic justice, and has also carried out language rights advocacy in international forums. He has published 5 books, including his most recent work The Politics of Language Oppression in Tibet (Cornell University Press), and the Routledge Handbook of Language Revitalization. His peer-reviewed articles have appeared in leading academic journals such as Annual Review of Anthropology, Patterns of Prejudice, Language in Society, and State Crime Journal. His input has been integral to formulating LJF’s vision, mission, and programs. As an autistic person, Dr. Roche also draws on his lived experience of linguistic injustice to inform his research, teaching, and advocacy.

Veronica Costea

Chairperson

Veronica has worked in the language access industry and with nonprofit organizations for over 20  years, in roles ranging from translation and interpretation, to training, advocacy, capacity building and organizational development. She was introduced to matters related to language rights and linguistic justice through her over 10 years working for MCIS Language Solutions, a non-profit organization based in Toronto, Canada, supporting access to critical information and services for newcomer communities. Through her lived experience as an immigrant and her work, Veronica gained firsthand knowledge of the injustice and inequities that people face when their human rights are violated through the systemic failure to recognize the importance of language in all areas of life. She was instrumental in developing a unique language independent training for community translators as a way of addressing access issues in community spaces. In the first three years of the program, over 500 newcomers to Canada were trained to provide community translations services, allowing them to support their communities while also earning a living as they started their new lives in Canada. Inspired by the work of her colleagues in the US and Canada, coming together to advocate for language rights, she spearheaded the creation of the Global Coalition for Language Rights in 2020, an informal coalition of practitioners, which she then co-chaired for three years alongside colleagues from around the world. She championed the flagship initiative of this coalition - Global Language Advocacy Day - a day of action bringing together advocates from around the world in late February of each year, to raise awareness of the oppression language communities around the world face and create spaces for collaboration.

With LJF, Veronica hopes to continue this work in a new space that focuses on people first and looks at long-term sustainable interventions by empowering linguistic communities and the organizations that commit to supporting them with knowledge and tools to address linguistic injustice. 

Irene Gotera 

Board Member. Executive Director

Irene is a lawyer by trade. She has worked as an independent consultant, conference interpreter, restorative justice practitioner, and language rights advocate. She brings her extensive experience in the language access industry and court systems, where she witnessed the full extent of systemic language rights violations. Irene is the founder of Linguistic Justice®, an independent private practice she started in 2020, and the creator of the Linguistic Justice® Principles—a transformative framework designed to build radically inclusive multilingual spaces in community organizing and community-based education, by putting language rights theory into practice.

Through her practice, Irene has collaborated with grassroots state-wide social justice movements and philanthropic initiatives in New York, providing strategic guidance on integrating linguistic justice practices into their systems. At a global scale, Irene has created and led pro-bono community-based education initiatives fostering social capital for linguistic justice, including instructional design around language rights, education delivery, and publishing the first-of-its-kind introductory handbook on language rights in Spanish. Spanish is Irene’s mother tongue. She was once the linguistic oppressor in her native town Maracaibo, Venezuela, on the unceded lands of the Wuayuú Peoples. She now experiences linguistic injustice every day in the United States, where she is an Asylum seeker fleeing from abuse and political violence. 

Irene’s vision and leadership are the driving forces behind the inception, organizing, and establishment of the Linguistic Justice Foundation. Her inspiration, Tove Skutnabb-Kangas, is at the heart of her dedication to founding LJF and her relentless commitment to advancing linguistic justice for everyone.

We are all excited to start our collaboration as the LJF inaugural Board and look forward to welcoming more experts from around the world in 2025.

Next year will be a pivotal time for us to build allyship and advance accountability. We will launch our first campaign and have many updates to share with you along the way.

We hope to have your support as we take our exciting first steps in 2025.

Irene

On behalf of the Linguistic Justice Foundation team