On Friday the 7th of July, Queens’ College welcomed filmmaker Mehmet Sarı for the Empowering Romeyka Voices event, a screening of two documentaries (including Sarı’s newest, The Cursed Forest) and a discussion of his work and background. Sarı’s work focuses on the lives of those living in remote Turkish villages in the mountainous regions of Trabzon, Çaykara, and particularly centres on women's work and their role in the community. Crucially, in their aims to capture a true depiction of life in these villages, the documentaries are entirely in the Romeyka language; Sarı is the first Romeyka speaker to be invited to the University.
This event—sponsored by the AHRC Impact Accelerator Account—was hosted by Prof. Ioanna Sitaridou, with assistance from two undergraduate Queens’ linguistics students, Natalia Stevenson and Edgar Harding. Since 2008, Prof. Sitaridou has spearheaded the Romeyka Project, promoting the documentation and study of this endangered language. This has involved a wide range of 23 published articles, workshops, and over 75 invited talks around the world, as well as various media features in newspapers such as The Guardian and the BBC. Her efforts in this project may be seen as part of her wider interest in heritage languages and endangered languages, and her internationally recognised work on language change and contact in Ibero-Romance languages and Greek.
This event culminated with a discussion between Sarı and Sitaridou, with interpretation by Dr Birgul Yilmaz (University of Exeter), a sociolinguist with expertise in intercultural communication, where they explored the realities of growing up in an isolated community with an endangered language, and the complexities of passing this language on to future generations. Questions from the audience were also taken, before a reception hosted by Queens'.
Sitaridou wishes to express her thanks to all those involved, particularly Sarı and the Romeyka speakers who continue to enable research in this area. She also wishes to express her gratitude to Queens’ College for their continuing support, which makes events like these possible, and to Dr Ben Early, Senior Impact Coordinator for Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at the University of Cambridge, Research Strategy Office for his unfailing support.
