ESSE Announcements

Most important decisions taken by the ESSE Board, Santiago de Compostela, Spain (30 – 31 August 2026)

  1. The Board of ESSE strongly reaffirmed its commitment to promote research and to support activities aimed to help both young and established researchers. The Board decided to: 
  • continue with the Bursaries for research trips as well as the Bursaries for Gender Studies within English studies for 2027; the funding for bursary applications was raised; the Application form will be adjusted so that applications more clearly justify financial feasibility as well as explicitly indicate the project’s relevance to English Studies; the new Bursary Committee for 2027 was appointed 
  • continue with the Book and Resources grants
  • continue with the Doctoral Symposium in both conference and non-conference years 
  • continue with two special research support schemes for national associations with tight resources to co-fund the accepted parallel lecture speakers from their national associations for the ESSE conference, as well as to invite plenary speakers from other national associations to their own national conferences, and to cover their travel expenses. 
  1. The Board of ESSE reasserted the need to adhere to the rule established at the Board meeting in 2019 to have only one date for membership updates per calendar year. Fees will be collected according to the membership lists sent to the ESSE Treasurer by 15th November of the current year. Members whose names are included in these lists will be able to apply for ESSE privileges the following year, such as ESSE Bursaries, ESSE Book grants, ESSE Book awards, and conference fee waivers. The only exception will be the ESSE Doctoral Symposium, for which different rules apply as specified in the Symposium announcement.
  1. The Board of ESSE appointed a nominations committee for the election of the ESSE President and the new Editor of the ESSE Messenger 
  1. The Board of ESSE accepted the interim report of the organising committee of the ESSE-18 Conference in Santiago de Compostela, as well as the report of the Doctoral Symposium integrated in this conference.
  1. The Board of ESSE took note of the oral report by Istinye University, Istanbul, Türkiye, as the venue of the ESSE Board meeting and ESSE Doctoral Symposium in 2027.
  1. The Board of ESSE took note of the oral report by the organising committee of the ESSE-19 Conference to be held at Manchester Metropolitan University as the venue of the ESSE-19 conference and ESSE Doctoral Symposium in 2028, and to appoint ESSE representatives to the Academic Programme Committee for this conference.
  1. The Board of ESSE confirmed the decision taken in 2025 that ESSE has withdrawn from social media platform X. ESSE can still be followed on Facebook, Bluesky and LinkedIn.
  2. The Board of ESSE decided to organise a contest among students within the ESSE community to design the cover for an upcoming special issue of the ESSE Messenger as well as to compose poetry on the issue’s theme, and to appoint a committee to set up a call for this.