ESSE Announcements

Most important decisions taken by the Board of ESSE, August 2023, Milan, Italy
ESSE POSITIONS: Call for applications and nominations for the position of PRESIDENT OF ESSE
ESSE POSITIONS: Call for applications and nominations for the position of EDITOR OF THE ESSE MESSENGER

Most important decisions taken by the Board of ESSE 
during its meeting on 26th and 27th August 2023, in Milan, Italy

1. The Board of ESSE appointed a nominations committee for the election of the ESSE President and the Editor of The ESSE Messenger. The term of office for both posts will begin on 1st January 2025. The call for applications will be published on the ESSE website by October 2023 The deadline for the submission of applications is 30th April 2024. 

2. The Board of ESSE appointed the evaluation committees for the ESSE Book Awards for 2024. The call for submissions will be published on the ESSE website by October 2023.

3. The Board of ESSE accepted the report of the APC for Lausanne conference and accepted the proposed plenary lectures, parallel lectures, seminars and round tables for the ESSE-17 conference in Lausanne in 2024. The call for papers will be published on the ESSE website by October 2023. 

4. The Board of ESSE accepted the bid of Santiago de Compostela, Spain, as the venue of the ESSE–18 conference in 2026.

5. The Board of ESSE accepted the bids of the University of Malta and Södertörn University, Stockholm, Sweden as the venues of ESSE Board meetings and ESSE Doctoral Symposiums in 2025 and 2027 (with the order to be decided at a later point). 

6. 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 and appointed a Bursary committee for 2024. The Board also decided to continue with bursaries for Gender Studies within English studies for 2024; 
  • continue with the Book and Resources grants and extend this research support scheme to enable applicants to gain access to resources other than books, for example, specialized online databases, corpora, library collections, etc.; 
  • continue with the Doctoral Symposium in both the conference and non-conference years and, for the conference year 2024, to offer funding to help eligible doctoral students in need of support to participate in the Doctoral Symposium that will be held in Lausanne, Switzerland, for two days during the ESSE 17 conference, 26th – 30th August 2024;
  • continue the Collaborative Project Workshop, whose purpose is to support a preliminary meeting of European researchers working towards a collaborative research project in the field of English Studies, and to offer funding for it;
  • continue with a special research support scheme for national associations with tight resources to propose parallel lecture speakers from their national associations for the ESSE conference and to cover their travel expenses; 
  • continue with a special research support scheme for national associations with tight resources to invite plenary speakers from other national associations to their own national conferences and to cover their travel expenses;
  • continue with the fee waiver support for ESSE members (with special focus on PhD students, postdocs and retired academics) to attend the ESSE conference to be held in Lausanne, Switzerland in 2024.

7. The Board of ESSE agreed 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, conference fee waivers and the Collaborative Project Workshop Schemes. The only exception will be the ESSE Doctoral Symposium, for which different rules apply as specified in the Symposium announcement. 

ESSE POSITIONS: Call for applications and nominations for the position of 
PRESIDENT OF ESSE

The Nominations Committee seeks nominations for the position of President of ESSE, which falls vacant in January 2025. The usual term of office is three years. Candidates should be Professors of English with a distinguished scholarly career, and they should preferably have been involved in ESSE affairs. They need to obtain the written support from two national associations. Candidates should submit, as e–mail attachments:

  • a letter of application
  • a short (2–3 page) CV
  • letters of support from two national associations.

Each national association can also nominate candidates for this position (only one candidate can be nominated by each national association). In this case, national associations will submit, as e–mail attachments:

  • a letter, signed by the Association’s President, describing the candidate’s competence for the specific office
  • a short (2–3 page) CV of the candidate proposed
  • a letter, signed by another Association’s President, seconding this proposal
  • a letter in which the candidate will express his/her agreement with the candidacy.

Applications and nominations must be emailed by 30 April 2024 to all three members of the Nominations Committee:

Please use the following wording in the subject line:

ESSE: Nomination for President

From the applications and nominations received, the Committee will prepare a shortlist for the ESSE Board. Finalists will be interviewed (in person or online) and elected by a vote at the August 2024 board meeting.

ESSE POSITIONS: Call for applications and nominations for the position of 
EDITOR OF THE ESSE MESSENGER

The Nominations Committee seeks nominations for the position of Editor of The ESSE Messenger which falls vacant in January 2025. The usual term of office is three years. Candidates should preferably have been involved in ESSE affairs. They need to obtain the written support from two national associations. Candidates should submit, as e–mail attachments:

  • a letter of application
  • a short (2–3 page) CV
  • letters of support from two national associations.

Each national association can also nominate candidates for this position (only one candidate can be nominated by each national association). In this case, national associations will submit, as e–mail attachments:

  • a letter, signed by the Association’s President, describing the candidate’s competence for the specific office
  • a short (2–3 page) CV of the candidate proposed
  • a letter, signed by another Association’s President, seconding this proposal
  • a letter in which the candidate will express his/her agreement with the candidacy.

Applications and nominations must be emailed by 30 April 2024 to all three members of the Nominations Committee:

Please use the following wording in the subject line:

ESSE: Nomination for Editor of the ESSE Messenger

From the applications and nominations received, the Committee will prepare a shortlist for the ESSE Board. Finalists will be interviewed (in person or online) and elected by a vote at the August 2024 board meeting.