In 1928, Indonesian nationalist students pledged, among other things, satu bahasa, meaning "one language." This aspiration for a unifying language has been balanced in the intervening decades with the reality of a multilingual archipelago and a complex linguistic heritage in various sectors of the population. The 2012 Yale Indonesia Forum spring workshop seeks to explore the interactions, identities, and implications of the many languages of the Indonesian world from several different disciplinary perspectives. How do speakers' various orientations to linguistic structure and use both reflect and shape broader cultural and socio-political dynamics in Indonesia? How do languages influence one another? How does the use of language influence its speakers? How do speakers change their languages, and the national language of Indonesia, to reflect their own ideologies?

The conference will begin on Friday night with an opening reception and a panel of current Yale graduate students presenting their own original research. On Saturday the program will feature six scholars presenting on the cutting edge of language research in the fields of anthropology, literature, linguistics, and history.