In Galicia, little scientific dissemination is done and of the little that is done, only a small part is done in the local language, Galician. This is the reality that is being put on the table in a series of round tables held this week on the campuses of Vigo and Pontevedra under the title In Galician! Scientific research and dissemination. What is this reality due to? How can we change it? These were the questions that four researchers from the University of Vigo with different profiles, different ages and interests… but with the common vocation of doing scientific dissemination and doing it in Galician tried to answer this afternoon. The four do it out of pure voluntarism and at the cost, in some cases, of seeing their own research career penalized.
The participants in this roundtable discussion, held this afternoon in the boardroom of the Ernestina Otero building, were the director of the Mycology Laboratory, Marisa Castro; the head of the Neurobiology research group of Lampreys Neurolam, Manuel Ángel Pombal; the researcher at the Marine Research Center, Anxo Mena, and the director of the Linguistic Normalization Area, Fernando Ramallo, an expert in Sociolinguistics, who served as moderator. From their point of view, highlighting scientific dissemination would be enough to multiply what is done and, regarding what would be the best ways to increase this appreciation, they are clear: rewarding people who are already doing this work or who are willing to do it or, at least, not penalizing them. This especially affects younger researchers, who see how all the hours they invest in dissemination are hours that are subtracted from other types of work, which are what are taken into account, both at the regional and national level, when competing with other candidates to stabilize their research career and which refer, above all, to articles published “in English” in international journals.
Need for a Strategic Science Plan in Galician
“All the time I invest in dissemination is time that will not be valued and that will penalize my research curriculum”, lamented Anxo Mena, the youngest of the participants, who put on the table the need to create a Strategic Science Plan in Galician, aimed above all at strengthening and highlighting the science that is being done in Galicia. “They force us to be teachers, researchers, managers, but they penalize our dissemination work, which, on the contrary, is something completely necessary and correct”, added Pombal, thus introducing into the debate the obligation to “give back to society part of what society gives us, since it is the citizens themselves who, through their taxes, maintain the university institution”.
A tool that helps to enhance the prestige of the language
A key issue that was also discussed in this round table has to do with the role that scientific dissemination plays in the normalization and dynamization of Galician. Given the delicate situation that the language is going through, the four were convinced that scientific dissemination is a tool that “clearly” helps to enhance the prestige of the language. Defining herself as a “strong defender of the language that I have nurtured”, Marisa Castro defended the importance of university teachers and researchers carrying out their tasks in Galician, whether in classes, giving a conference or writing an article in a newspaper. “We are an example and we have to be able to help enhance the prestige of our language”, stressed Castro, to which Pombal added that “there is no reason why, as Galician speakers, we should formulate ourselves to do it in a language other than our own”.
The debate continues in the afternoon in the city center
Estes debates sobre investigación e divulgación científica en galego, nos que participan un total de 15 investigadoras e investigadores de diferentes escolas e facultades, están organizados pola Área de Normalización Lingüística en colaboración coa Unidade de Cultura Científica e da Innovación. Arrancaron onte mércores na Facultade de Belas Artes do campus de Pontevedra e continuarán hoxe pola tarde na Biblioteca Pública de Vigo Juan Compañel coa participación, nesta ocasión, dos investigadores Xavier Simón, do grupo de investigación Economía Ecolóxica, Agroecoloxía e Historia, GIEEAH; Alejandro Saavedra, do grupo de investigación de Inferencia Estatística, Decisión e Investigación Operativa, Sidor; Gustavo Bergantiños, do grupo de Economía, Sociedade e Territorio, Ecosot; e Xosé Manuel Pacho, en representación da Agrupación de Grupos de Investigación de Dereito Administrativo e Filosofía do Dereito, AGAF.
Source: DUVI
