Current Calls for Papers

Call for Papers
What are Basque Studies?
UCLA | December 3rd, 2025

We invite submissions for the inaugural conference "What are Basque Studies?", to be held at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) on December 3rd, 2025.

This one-day conference seeks to critically examine the field of Basque Studies—its origins, evolution, and current directions. Born from the desire to preserve and promote Basque language and culture, Basque Studies has historically encompassed a range of disciplines from linguistics to anthropology and political science. Today, the field is being reshaped by new questions and transdisciplinary approaches that cross traditional academic boundaries.

We welcome proposals from scholars and students working within and beyond Basque Studies who wish to engage with questions such as:

  • How have Basque Studies evolved in different geopolitical contexts?

  • What role do Basque Literature, Basque History, Language, and Sociolinguistics play in shaping the discipline today?

  • What is the contribution of Basque Studies to Diaspora Studies?

  • In what ways can transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary methodologies—drawing from environmental studies, migration studies, artificial intelligence, gender studies, media studies, and more—help us understand or reimagine Basque Studies?

  • Cross-cultural dialogues: how do minor/small/underrepresented languages and cultures collaborate and face current challenges?

  • How do new global challenges (e.g. climate change, diasporic identity, digital media) influence Basque cultural and academic production?

  • What does it mean to teach and research Basque topics from institutions outside the Basque Country?

We encourage submissions from emerging and established scholars and students from all disciplines, and especially welcome critical, creative, or experimental approaches that challenge traditional definitions of the field.

Please submit abstracts of no more than 300 words along with a short bio (max 250 words) to nicsmith@ucla.edu by August 21st, 2025.

Notifications of acceptance will be sent by September 15th, 2025.

For questions or further information, contact Nic Smith at nicsmith@ucla.edu or Iker Arranz at iker@ucla.edu.

Conference Schedule

What Are Basque Studies?

Wednesday, December 3 — 8:30 AM–6:30 PM

8:30 – 8:45 — Registration & Coffee (15 mins)

8:45 – 9:15 — Welcome & Opening Remarks (30 mins)

Panel 1 — Euskara: Standards, Identity and Transmission

Moderator: Iker Arranz Otaegui (UCLA)

9:15 – 9:40 — Eukene Franco-Landa (University of Miami) — Standard Basque and Identity Negotiation in the US Diaspora

9:40 – 10:05 — Itxaso Rodríguez-Ordóñez (California State University, Long Beach) — The socio-indexical value of Batua is expanding: evidence from ergative processing

10:05 – 10:30 — Leixuri Urrutia Pujana (University of the Basque Country – UPV/EHU, Faculty of Economics and Business) — Euskera on Trial: Legal Conflicts, Identity, and the Fight for Linguistic Rights in the Basque Country

10:30 – 10:55 — Oihana Villanueva (University of Nevada, Reno) — ‘Just Another Way’ to Be Basque in America: Euskara in the Personal and Communal Identities of Basque-American Youth

10:55 – 11:10 — Panel Q&A

11:10 – 11:20 — Transition Break (10 mins)

Panel 2 — Music as a Cultural Vessel: Migrating and Changing Realities from the Basque Country

Moderator: Edurne Arostegui (University of Nevada, Reno)

11:20 – 11:45 — Nic Smith (UCLA) — Euskal Popgintza Berria: On the Post-Pandemic Music Scenes of the Basque Country

11:45 – 12:10 — David Vila (California State University, Monterey Bay) — Rock Radikal Maketo: punk eta immigrazioa Euskal Herrian

12:10 – 12:35 — Caitlin Romtvedt (University of California, Berkeley) — Cultivating Basque Sensibilities through Music, Dance, and Language Classes

12:35 – 12:50 — Panel Q&A

12:50 – 2:20 — Lunch Break (1 hour 30 mins)

Panel 3 — Basque Studies as the Object: The Basque Scholarly Subject

Moderator: Nic Smith (UCLA)

2:20 – 2:45 — Edurne Arostegui (University of Nevada, Reno) & Iker Echeverria — Cataloging the Past, Unlocking the Future: A Database for Basque Studies Research

2:45 – 3:10 — Mariann Vaczi (University of Nevada, Reno) — Basque Studies in the Broader Discipline of Anthropology: Reflections on Research, Publishing, Teaching, and Careers

3:10 – 3:25 — Panel Q&A

3:25 – 3:35 — Transition Break (10 mins)

Panel 4 — The (Sometimes) Wild Basque America: History and Stories from California

Moderator: Kevin Moore (Stanford University)

3:35 – 4:00 — Iker Arranz Otaegui (UCLA) — A Brief Story of the Basque Town of Los Angeles. A Critical Approach

4:00 – 4:25 — Steve Gamboa (California State University, Bakersfield); John Bieter (Boise State University); Iñaki Arrieta (UNR) — Multi-disciplinary Basque Studies: The Case of Basque Arborglyphs

4:25 – 4:50 — Joanna Brooks Leonis (San Diego State University) — Basque Studies and Indigenous Studies in the North American Context: Retelling Basquelino Stories in a Kontrabandista Frame

4:50 – 5:15 — Blake Allmendinger (UCLA) — A User’s Guide for Future Basque American Writers

5:15 – 5:30 — Panel Q&A

5:30 – 5:40 — Transition Break (10 mins)

Exclusion, Expulsion, Reintegration: The Journeys of Jews in the Basque Borderlands and Beyond (1940–1953) forthcoming book presentation by Sandra Ott (UNR)

Moderator: Steve Gamboa (California State University, Bakersfield)

5:35 – 6:15 — Sandra Ott (University of Nevada, Reno – Center for Basque Studies) — Exclusion, Expulsion, Reintegration: The Journeys of Jews in the Basque Borderlands and Beyond (1940–1953)

6:15 – 6:25 — Q&A and Closing Remarks