Professor Bokhtiar Ahmed, dean of the School of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences (SLASS) at Independent University, Bangladesh (IUB), has been appointed UNESCO Chair in Language Ecology, making IUB the third Bangladeshi university to host this prestigious chair.

In this role, Prof Ahmed will lead a four-year research initiative at IUB’s Shasheen Centre for Multilingual Excellence (SCMLE), dedicated to advancing research and practices in the field of language ecology in Bangladesh and beyond.

The appointment follows a formal agreement between IUB and UNESCO to promote international collaboration and knowledge-sharing among institutions. With this milestone, IUB joins the global network of UNESCO Chairs and the University Twinning and Networking (UniTwin) Programme, further reinforcing its internationalisation goals.

The chair will integrate research, teaching, training, and community engagement under Prof Ahmed’s leadership. The project aims to preserve endangered languages and cultures, develop digital literacy tools and multilingual educational resources, and enhance access to education and employment for communities that speak endangered languages.

Established in 2022, SCMLE has quickly become a cornerstone of IUB’s research agenda, focusing on endangered languages and the cultural heritage of their speaker communities in Bangladesh. The UNESCO Chair is a recognition of the centre’s early achievements and its growing impact in the field of language ecology.