Research and Support

According to its Constitution, ESSE’s goal is “to advance the education of the public by promoting the European study and understanding of English languages, literatures in English and cultures of English-speaking peoples”. Hence, one of ESSE’s main aims is to assist ESSE member academics in different countries in carrying out their research and in promoting their academic publications which fall within the scope of the ESSE proclamation. For these reasons, ESSE offers a bursary scheme to support young and senior scholars, and it provides book and resource grants to researchers whose academic activities agree with ESSE goals. Every other year, ESSE also awards prizes to junior and senior scholars for books they wrote in the field of English studies. Besides, ESSE offers financial support for parallel lecture speakers at ESSE conferences and for plenary speakers at national conferences of affiliated national associations. In parallel, ESSE also organises a Doctoral Symposium, open to PhD students who are writing their theses in English Studies.

Type A Bursaries

1. Meaghan Ayano Blanchard, BAAHE, Pragmatic markers in native and non-native Englishes: A study into the use of and attitudes to pragmatic markers
2. Lauriane Brémond, SAES, “Pour ma Chere Chère Soeur”, a critical edition and translation of the correspondence of Charles II and his sister Henriette
3. Hannah Champion, PASE, The Encoded Queer: Reading expressions of deviancy in 19th C American women writer’s short stories
4. Ewa Olszewska, PASE, Understanding discourses of art. A reception study
5. Stefano Rosignoli, NAES, The ethical impetus towards a Libertarian individualism in the early life and work of James Joyce

Type B Bursaries

1. Angela Andreani, AIA, Serving the realm. Meredith Hanmer and the English Church as an agent of the Privy Council
2. Kornelia Boczkowska, PASE, Toward the experimental road movie: Revisions of landscape, travel and cultural critique in selected works of post-war American avant-garde and experimental film
3. Murat Kadiroglu, IDEA, A history of modern English poetry
4. Yordan Kosturkov, BSBS, The literary oblivion/Damnatio memoriae. Recovering George Meredith
5. Andrej Stopar, SDAŠ, The prosody of negation: Irony, metalinguistic negation and litotes
6. Zénó Vernyik, CZASE, Arthur Koestler’s The Age of Longing – Manuscript research

The ESSE Collaborative Project Workshop Scheme offers seed funding of up to €8,000 to support preliminary meetings of European researchers working towards collaborative research projects in the field of English Studies. The main purpose of this grant is to encourage prospective co-researchers from different national associations to plan a bid for a larger award from alternative funding sources; it also aims to resource the time and space to work out practical and intellectual details of the proposed project. Applications will be assessed on the quality and originality of research, evidence of sustainable international collaboration, and the feasibility of the project and its development.

• The proposed workshop should be designed to explore a collaborative research project that falls within the subject area of ESSE. The main purpose of the workshop should be to plan or facilitate grant writing for a larger award, although other activities connected to the development of the project may be involved.
• Applications should be submitted jointly by two full ESSE members (according to the official membership list submitted to ESSE in November 2020) from two different national associations affiliated with ESSE.
• Other participants in the proposed workshop may be drawn from the same institutions or associations, but international diversity and collaboration across associations will be one of the criteria for assessing applications. Proposals can include postdoctoral and postgraduate researchers. Any participants who are not members of their national associations will be expected to join where possible following a successful application.
• The ESSE Board members are excluded from proposing or taking part in the workshop.
• The grant will only fund workshops of the type described above; it does not support other types of events, such as conferences, symposia, colloquia, seminar series or guest lectures.
• The grant may be used for reasonable expenses only: these include travel, accommodation and subsistence. Costs of meeting room bookings should be met by the hosting institution.
• The grant is designed to support a two-day meeting, and budgets should be designed to reflect this structure unless there is good reason for an alternative.
• The grant will be of a maximum of €4,000 per application.
• Successful applicants are expected to submit a full financial report with a detailed overview of expenses, including receipts and invoices. They will also be required to report back to ESSE on how the workshop objectives have been achieved and what plans are in place for the follow-up bid. Workshop participants may also like to write up their meeting for the ESSE Messenger.
• Successful applicants should acknowledge support received from ESSE in subsequent publications or publicity for the project. The ESSE logo should be included where appropriate in printed or electronic materials related to the project.

Applications should include the following:

1. Workshop participant details: name, affiliation, position and email address for all participants, and indication of their contribution to the project (maximum 150 words for each participant)
2. Project topic: outline of the proposed project with research questions and brief bibliography (maximum 1,000 words)
3. Funding plans: details of funding body, scheme and amount of award to be applied for, where possible.
4. Workshop details: breakdown of date, venue and costs for workshop Please use the ESSE Expense Form, and check the ESSE Budget and Reimbursement Guidelines
5. Rationale: a statement explaining the urgency/value/originality of the project and the key objectives of the workshop (maximum 500 words)
6. Applications should be sent to the chair of the selection committee, Minna Nevala nevala@tuni.fi

Dates

• Deadline for applications: 31 March 2021
• Notification of results will be sent to applicants by 8 May 2021
• Deadline for completing the workshop and submission of workshop reports: 30 November 2021

In your application for an ESSE bursary, you should budget the cost of your trip carefully, even though it will be impossible to determine exactly what everything will cost in advance. Note that an ESSE bursary is a contribution towards the cost of a research trip, though it is possible that the award made will cover most of the expenses involved.

It is perfectly acceptable to ESSE that you combine an ESSE Bursary with grants from other sources, if you have other sources of funding available to you. Note, though, that you will be required to submit original receipts to ESSE for the expenditure financed by the ESSE Bursary.

Your budget should include the following items:

Travel costs. Include all travel costs to the place of your research, including travel within your country to get to the airport and travel within the destination country to the place of stay but NOT minor daily local travel during your research visit, e.g. local buses from your accommodation to the university. Bear in mind that plane costs vary quite dramatically according to when you book your flight and which days you travel. You should not budget your plane journey on the basis of a special offer available for only a few days at the time you make your application, but you should research the normal cheapest way of travelling to your destination, noting perhaps that travel is regularly cheaper on certain days of the week, or that a budget airline may be much cheaper than a more regular airline. In your budget, note down the airline and route you expect to take, and make a reasonable estimate on the basis of your Internet research of what the ticket is likely to cost at the time you book.

Accommodation expenses. If possible, find the actual cost of a suitable place to stay. If you cannot discover a place at the time of your application, then budget €60 per night for bed and breakfast. You may choose to stay somewhere that costs more than that, but ESSE will only pay more than €60 per night under exceptional circumstances and if you can provide very clear and convincing reasons as to why this is necessary.

Living expenses. ESSE will pay an allowance of €25 per day towards food, entertainment and miscellaneous expenses such as local bus fares or personal necessities such as shampoo. You will not be asked to produce receipts for these expenses. This allowance will be payable for each day from when you leave home to when you arrive home again. Note, though, that if you obtain funding from other sources to cover your living costs, you should not claim this allowance from ESSE.

Miscellaneous costs. Cost of visas, travel insurance, postage (including registered post of receipts to me after the trip), library access cards, photocopying of materials, and any other substantial costs that you envisage you will incur.

Bank transfer fees, currency exchange fees. Your local bank may deduct a charge for receiving money in euro from ESSE. You may also have to pay charges for currency exchange. Check with your bank. If you are told that your bank will make a substantial charge for receiving a transfer, then ESSE will pay this charge over and above the amount of your bursary. Please note that ESSE has a bank account in the UK and can transfer all or part of the bursary in Sterling into another UK bank account, if you have one that is accessible to you.

Book purchases. ESSE will consider contributing towards the cost of books that are essential for your research project, and which you may need to obtain to read before travelling or to buy at your destination to read on your return. If possible, you should list specific titles and briefly explain the importance of the books to your project in your application.

Partial funding from other sources. If you know that you will obtain other funding to cover part of the cost of your trip, please note this, and indicate which expenses are to be covered from the other source(s), and what you are applying to have covered by ESSE.

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The total budgeted cost of your trip may be less, or more, than the maximum amount of an ESSE bursary (€1,500). ESSE will consider awarding you up to the full amount of your budget, subject to a maximum amount per award of €1,500.

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In your application, you should specify the length of the trip planned, even if you do not know exact dates at the time of your application. You should briefly explain in your application the reasoning behind the length of your stay, which is likely to be related to the amount of relevant material you need to examine, for example. Please bear in mind that ESSE bursaries are intended to enable research visits to an institution in another country, for example to study material in an archive. You may well wish to extend your visit for other purposes – attendance at a conference, perhaps, or simply holiday. This is perfectly acceptable to ESSE, but ESSE will not pay for living expenses, additional travel (to another town, for example) or accommodation for the part of your trip that is not related to the purpose for which your bursary is awarded.

On your return from your visit, you will be asked to submit receipts to prove that money has been spent on budgeted items (except for the €25 per day living allowance, which is payable automatically without receipts, unless you received funding to cover such expenses from another source). It is not expected that the amounts spent will match the budget exactly, and provided that money awarded for the Bursary has been spent on reasonable items connected with your research trip for which ESSE would normally be willing to pay, then slight mismatches between budget and actual spending will be accepted. Thus, for example, it might be that you were able to obtain a cheaper flight than originally expected, but that the cost of your accommodation was a little higher than budgeted; or that you used the money saved on the cheaper flight to stay an extra day, or take extra photocopies related to the project and send them home by post. If, however, your total spending was €50 or more below the amount of your award, you will be asked to repay the balance. On the other hand, if you find that you unavoidably spent more than originally budgeted and you were awarded less than the maximum amount of €1,500, you may ask ESSE to consider making an extra contribution to make up all or part of the deficit.

All fee waivers will cover or partially cover the basic registration fee for the conference only. A fee waiver is a full or partial deduction from the registration fee only and is not given as a cash payment to the recipient.

Full or partial fee waivers will be available for a number of ESSE members at any career stage who are experiencing currency difficulties or financial hardship. Please send a CV and a letter of application stating why you need a fee waiver to aoifebleahy@hotmail.com between 15 April 2016 and 30 April 2016.

Some fee waivers will also be set aside for early career researchers who are presenting at the conference. Eligibility will be limited to ESSE members who are doctoral students or have finished their PhD thesis after 1 January 2012 (a statement in English from your referee is sufficient proof of your status). If your national association does not accept PhD students as members, your PhD supervisor should be an ESSE member. Preference will be given to those who have no funding, are unemployed, or on a low income. Please send the following documents to aoifebleahy@hotmail.com between 15 April 2016 and 30 April 2016:
– CV
– Letter of application stating why you need a fee waiver
– Statement from your PhD supervisor regarding your status, including a statement of your lack of financial support or means. If you have been conferred with your PhD after 1 January 2012, the statement may come from your former PhD supervisor or your Head of Dept or a suitable academic referee such as a former employer.
– Letter from a convenor who has accepted your paper or presentation. You will not need this letter if you have had a poster accepted by the APC.

Selection committee for all fee waivers:
Prof Lieven Buysse, KU Leuven, Belgium
Prof Lionel Pilkington, NUI Galway, Ireland
Dr Aoife Leahy, Independent Scholar, Ireland

What used to be called the ESSE PhD Sessions is now known as the ESSE Doctoral Symposium.

Please note that the ESSE Doctoral Symposium will now be organized every year, including non-Conference years. The next ESSE Doctoral Symposium will take place in Thessaloniki in 2017.

For more information please visit https://essenglish.org/doctoral-symposium/

Recognising that it is difficult in some situations to obtain access to books necessary for research without purchasing them, and recognising also that some ESSE members have financial difficulties, ESSE awards some small grants to its members for the purchase of books in connection with specific research projects.

Grants will be of a maximum of 300 euro per applicant. However, applications will be kept to the minimum necessary and restricted only to books that fulfil the following criteria:

• Books that are not held by the applicant’s university libraries and cannot easily and quickly be obtained by interlibrary loan.
• Books that need to be available to the applicants over an extended period, longer than would be possible through a library loan.
• Books whose price would place a strain on the applicant’s available financial resources, for example, because of the high cost of the books concerned.

ESSE requests that successful applicants donate the books to their university libraries when their research projects have been completed, so that other scholars can benefit from the books.

Eligibility

• Applicants for book grants must themselves be members of their national associations affiliated to ESSE, with the exception of PhD students from the Serbian Association for the Study of English, which does not consider doctoral students eligible as members; in this case, their supervisor must be a member of an association affiliated to ESSE.
• Grants are available for any research project, whether it is formally registered and recognised or simply normal individual academic research. However, it is not the intention to provide books for general academic purposes, e.g. as reference works to have on one’s bookshelf.

Dates

The application deadline is 1 May 2019. Applications will be dealt with as quickly as possible.

Books included in the application must be bought at the personal expense of the applicant between the application deadline and 30 June 2019.

After purchasing the books, the winners will send the itemised receipts to the Treasurer of ESSE, Alberto Lázaro (alberto.lazaro@uah.es). The receipt(s) will include the name of the purchaser, the titles and the cost of the books (even if the purchases are electronic).

Grant money will be transferred to recipients’ accounts before 15 July 2019.

Selection Committee

• Prof. Titela Vilceanu (Chair): elavilceanu@yahoo.com
• Željka Babić
• Armela Panajoti

Applications

Applications should be sent to the Chair of the Bursaries Committee using the form to be downloaded.

In 2019, ESSE will offer funding of up to €19,000 to help cover costs associated with a research trip.

ESSE will again offer TWO types of travel bursaries:

Type A: a number of bursaries of up to €1,500 each will be available for scholars in need of support to pursue a project or programme of research leading to the writing of their PhD dissertation.

Type B: a number of bursaries of up to €1,500 each will be available for scholars already holding a doctorate or its equivalent.

Applications are invited from all member countries. Awards are made on the basis of academic merit.

Only one application per person is allowed.

Bursaries may not be used to support research trips begun before the Bursary Committee has announced the outcome of the competition.

Applications for Type A and Type B Bursaries will not normally be entertained from candidates who have previously been successful in that competition.

In the case of both competitions A and B, winners are expected to make a short-term visit to a country where they, for example, identify an outstanding holding, collection or other type of material relevant to their research, or where they gather corpus materials or conduct an experiment. Conference participation is not supported by these bursaries; award winners may extend their visit at their own expense to attend a conference in the country concerned, but no part of the conference expenses will be covered by the bursary. Bursaries must be utilized and the study trips completed by the application deadline for next year’s bursaries, i.e. 1 March 2020.

After completing the research trip, winners will be asked to send a financial report to the Treasurer of ESSE and a report about their results to both the Treasurer and the Chair of the Selection Committee. This latter report may be published in ESSE Messenger.

Applicants for the first type of bursary are required to be members of their national associations affiliated to ESSE with the exception of the Serbian Association for the Study of English which does not consider PhD students eligible as members; in this case, their supervisors must be ESSE members.

Applicants for the second type of bursaries must be registered members of their national associations affiliated to ESSE for at least one year (membership starting on 1 January of the previous year – this is to say, January 2018).

The deadline for applications for both types of Bursaries is 1 March 2019.
Notification to the applicants should be sent (electronically) by 15 April 2019. Applicants should send electronically to the chair of the Selection Committee:

• the completed application form (see below) with sections on personal information, a list of the applicant’s most important publications, a research plan, and a provisional budget proposal;
  • a scanned or electronically generated letter issued by the president or the secretary of the appropriate national organization to certify the membership of the applicant (or his/her supervisor in Serbia);
  • for Type A bursaries, a letter of recommendation, sent directly via email to the Chair of the Selection Committee by the supervisor of the PhD candidate.

Note: the names of the bursary winners and their projects will be published on the ESSE website.

Selection Committee:

• Prof. Titela Vilceanu (Chair): elavilceanu@yahoo.com
• Željka Babić
• Armela Panajoti

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APPLICATION FORM

ESSE Bursaries, Type A and B, for 2019

Application deadline: 1 March 2019. Notification about decision: 15 April 2019. Bursaries to be utilized by: 1 March 2020.

I. PERSONAL SECTION

NAME OF APPLICANT:

TITLE OF RESEARCH PROJECT

BRIEF SUMMARY OF RESEARCH PROJECT (no more than 5 printed lines)

In this section please focus on the project that you plan to carry out abroad, which can obviously be situated within a broader research project if relevant. Make sure (for empirical studies) to outline the methodology used or (for library and archive visits) to be as explicit as possible about the holdings you wish to consult. The Bursary Committee should also get a clear view of why your research trip is essential to your project, and why it should have the length of stay you are proposing.

AFFILIATION AND POSITION
(for Type A indicate your PhD Program, for Type B your University and Department):

BEST EMAIL ADDRESS AND TELEPHONE NUMBER (the latter in case of emergency):

MA DEGREE (year and major/s):

PhD DEGREE (for Type B only; year, university and topic):

OTHER DEGREES (if applicable):

MOST IMPORTANT SCHOLARSHIPS:

II. PUBLICATIONS (The list below applies only to Type B applications. For the pre-doctoral Type A application simply list your publications if you have any, or disregard this section. Please provide translations into English of any titles and other details in languages other than English.)

A/ BOOKS AUTHORED BY APPLICANT

B/ BOOKS EDITED BY APPLICANT

C/ FIVE MOST IMPORTANT ARTICLES IN PEER-REVIEWED JOURNALS

D/ FIVE MOST IMPORTANT PAPERS IN COLLECTIONS OR CONFERENCE PROCEEDINGS

III. THE RESEARCH PROJECT (Should be no longer than 2 printed pages!)

A/ RESEARCH QUESTION, GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE TOPIC

B/ THE PROJECTED RESEARCH ACTIVITIES DURING THE BURSARY PERIOD

C/ EXPECTED RESULTS

IV. BUDGET PROPOSAL. Please see the guidelines page. Please remember, that, while the €1,500 is the maximum award, smaller requests are welcome! Conference participation expenses are not eligible for coverage by ESSE bursaries.

A/ TRAVEL EXPENSES

B/ ACCOMMODATION

C/ EVERYDAY EXPENSES (€25 per day)

D/ MISCELLANEOUS COSTS, including any BOOK PURCHASES (though please check the guidelines before applying for money to cover book purchases)

E/ TOTAL OF EXPENSES

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