"I find Basque fascinating for a number of reasons. I am hoping that the audience will be intrigued by its resilience and the culture that goes with it. As a citizen of Iceland, I am sensitive to the struggle small nations endure in order to make their voices heard globally."

The University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) is holding a series of conferences on Basque Studies. EuskoSare is very interested in learning more about the driving forces behind this shceme.

Why did you choose Basque language for this year's event?
The UCSB has a long history of Basque Studies; We have an endowed chair of Basque Studies named after Barandiarán, the famous anthropologist, which was established in 1993 with the help we received from the Basque Government. The first and only Chair was Prof. Avalle-Arce, a famous cervantista, who retired 4 years ago - the post has remained vacant ever since. When the cat is away the mice will play, and if the chair is vacant the interest in Basque studies dies progressively. This is where I come in; I thought it was a pity to waste away the interest our undergraduates have always shown in Basque studies. We also teach Catalan and have a number of courses in Galician language as well as a fully-fledged Portuguese programme.

We need to convince the UCSB Administration to start the search for the Barandiarán Chair immediately as this would make it possible for us to have a complete and improved programme of Basque Studies. This shows that there is an interest in Basque language.

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