The importance of mastering the Romanian language is widely acknowledged, with the majority of the Hungarian community agreeing that "we live in Romania; we must learn the state's official language." However, this raises the question: if a state is home to several linguistic communities, why should only one community's language be official? Is it equitable for all citizens to contribute equally to the maintenance of public goods through taxes, yet not all languages receive equal recognition? Can we envision more equitable arrangements for our linguistic relations, or would these fairer solutions lead to unsustainable costs?

Our lecture navigates these complex questions with Dr Philippe Van Parijs, one of the world’s most significant and comprehensive thinkers on linguistic justice and an ardent advocate of the struggle for greater linguistic justice in Europe and in the world. He studied philosophy, economics, law, sociology and linguistics at the Universities of Louvain, Oxford, Bielefeld and California (Berkeley). He holds doctorates in philosophy (Oxford) and the social sciences (Louvain). He is a guest professor at the Universities of Louvain and Leuven and a Robert Schuman Fellow at the European University Institute. He was the founding director of Louvain’s Hoover Chair of Economic and Social Ethics from 1991 to 2016, and a regular visiting professor at Harvard University from 2004 to 2008 and at the University of Oxford from 2011 to 2015. He is a member of Belgium’s Royal Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the British Academy and doctor honoris causa of Laval University (Québec).

His partner in exploring this topic will be András Bethlendi, an expert in minority language rights and a dedicated  advocate for cultural and linguistic equity, founding member of Musai-Muszáj, a grassroots advocacy initiative, which became a symbol of civil advocacy actions for multilingualism and mutual respect in Kolozsvár/Cluj-Napoca. He is the Director of Academic Activities at MCC, leader of the MCC’s Hungarian-language debate club, and a faculty member at Sapientia University.

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