Basque Studies Today: Critical Perspectives and Future Agendas

What can the study of language reveal about the human mind? What role does Basque play in international linguistic research?

Itziar Laka, an internationally renowned linguist and a leading figure in contemporary research on language and bilingualism, will deliver the second lecture in the Euskal Gaiak Zertan Dira Gaur? / Basque Studies Today series, organized by the Institute of Basque Studies at the University of Deusto, on November 26.

Professor of Linguistics at the University of the Basque Country (EHU), PhD graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and director of The Bilingual Mind research group, Laka has built an outstanding international academic career exploring the relationships between language, brain, and cognition. In 2024, she received the Eusko Ikaskuntza–LABORAL Kutxa Prize for Humanities, Culture, Arts and Social Sciences.

Her participation offers an opportunity to reflect on the contribution of Basque to our scientific understanding of human language and the place of linguistics within contemporary Basque Studies.

Lecture series: Euskal Gaiak Zertan Dira Gaur? / Basque Studies Today

Speaker: Itziar Laka

Date: November 26, 2026