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Eco/logical Learning and Simulation Environments in Higher Education (ELSE) (2018-2021)

Published on 4th December 2020 in Events

No. 2018-1-ITO2-KA203-048006
www.elseproject.eu

The Erasmus+ research project Eco/logical Learning and Simulation Environments in Higher Education, in short, ELSE, was registered as part of the key action, Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices (Strategic Partnerships). The priority of the project is Higher Education and the development of skills – supporting the use of digital technologies to improve pedagogies and assessment methods. Its horizontal priority consists of (a) open education and innovative practices in a digital era and (b) the extension and development of educators’ competences.

Continue reading “Eco/logical Learning and Simulation Environments in Higher Education (ELSE) (2018-2021)” →

ESSE POSITIONS: Call for applications and nominations

Published on 27th October 2020 in ESSE Matters

For the position of PRESIDENT OF ESSE

The Nominations Committee seeks nominations for the position of President of ESSE, which falls vacant in January 2022. 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 submitted electronically, by 30 April 2021 at the latest, to the members of the Nominations Committee:

From the applications and nominations received, the Committee will select the best candidates. They will be interviewed (in person or online) and elected by vote at the ESSE Board meeting in August 2021.

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 2022. 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 submitted electronically, by 30 April 2021 at the latest, to the members of the Nominations Committee:

From the applications and nominations received, the Committee will select the best candidates. They will be interviewed (in person or online) and elected by vote at the ESSE Board meeting in August 2021.

ESSE President

The ESSE Messenger Editor

Announcement of Doctoral Symposium

Published on 30th September 2020 in Doctoral Symposium, ESSE Matters

ESSE organizes an annual Doctoral Symposium, which continues a tradition dating from 2012 and is designed to provide a platform for young scholars to present their work and receive feedback. The Symposium is open without charge to PhD students who are writing their theses in English Studies and at the time of submitting their application are at least in the second year of work on their doctorate. To be eligible, either their supervisor or they themselves must be a member of an ESSE-affiliated Association (or, in relevant countries, of a Department that belongs to an ESSE member Association) at the moment of application. The next Symposium will be fully integrated into the (online) ESSE Conference and will take place, according to provisional planning, on 31 August and 1 September 2021. For further details, see: http://www.esse2020lyon.fr/en.

Participants will have an opportunity to make a brief presentation of their work in progress in one of three strands: English Language & Linguistics, Literatures in English, and Cultural & Area Studies. Their presentation should deal with the issues addressed or hypotheses tested in their doctoral research, the results so far obtained, and above all the methodology applied, with the purpose of gaining feedback from established scholars in the field and from their peers. Each presentation will last no longer than 10 minutes, followed by 15 minutes’ discussion. Participants are expected to attend all the presentations in their own strand and to take part in the discussions. There will also be extensive opportunities for informal contact with other participants and with the academics attending the ESSE Conference. Participation in the Doctoral Symposium does not exclude the possibility of taking part in one of the regular seminars in the Conference. No conference fee will apply to the participants in the Doctoral Symposium.

Applying to participate

Note that each PhD student can submit an application to only one strand of the Doctoral Symposium and should specify in the application which strand they wish to be placed in. Applications must include a letter from the student’s PhD supervisor giving the (provisional) title of the dissertation and confirming that the student is working under his/her supervision and has completed at least his/her first year of PhD studies. The Treasurer of ESSE will check the eligibility of all applicants and their supervisors.

The application should take the form of a summary of the project of no more than 300 words, indicating:

  • The main topic and issues, including the thesis proposed/hypothesis defended;
  • The methodology (theoretical tools and standpoints);
  • Where relevant, the corpus under consideration;
  • The results obtained so far.

Each strand of the Symposium will be coordinated by two experts (to be known as Convenors). They will make a selection from the applications received, chair the discussions and respond to the presentations.

Applications (including the letter from the applicant’s supervisor) should be sent, no later than 30 April 2021, to the Coordinator of the ESSE Doctoral Symposium, Professor J. Lachlan Mackenzie (VU Amsterdam, Netherlands) at lachlan_mackenzie@hotmail.com, to whom general enquiries can also be addressed. The eligibility check and the selection of submissions by the Convenors will be completed and announced by 21 May 2021.

Book Announcement – Jane Austen and William Shakespeare

Published on 19th May 2020 in Book Announcements

Jane Austen and William Shakespeare: A Love Affair in Literature, Film and Performance,

Edited by Marina Cano & Rosa García-Periago

Palgrave, 2019

This volume explores the multiple connections between the two most canonical authors in English, Jane Austen and William Shakespeare. The collection reflects on the historical, literary, critical and filmic links between the authors and their fates. Considering the implications of the popular cult of Austen and Shakespeare, the essays are interdisciplinary and comparative: ranging from Austen’s and Shakespeare’s biographies to their presence in the modern vampire saga Twilight, passing by Shakespearean echoes in Austen’s novels and the authors’ afterlives on the improv stage, in wartime cinema, modern biopics and crime fiction. The volume concludes with an account of the Exhibition “Will & Jane” at the Folger Shakespeare Library, which literally brought the two authors together in the autumn of 2016. Collectively, the essays mark and celebrate what we have called the long-standing “love affair” between William Shakespeare and Jane Austen—over 200 years and counting.

CONTENTS

Chapter 1: Introduction: Jane and Will, the Love Story,
Marina Cano and Rosa García-Periago                       

Part 1: History, Contexts and Criticism

Chapter 2: Jane Austen as ‘Prose Shakespeare’: Early Comparisons,
Joanne Wilkes

Chapter 3: William Shakespeare and Jane Austen: Biographical Challenges,
Robert Bearman

Chapter 4: Shakespeare and Austen Translated,
Marie Nedregotten Sørbø

Chapter 5: Jewels, Bonds and the Body: Material Culture in Shakespeare and Austen,
Barbara Benedict

Part 2: Intertextual Connections

Chapter 6: Is it ‘a marriage of true minds’? Balanced Reading in Northanger Abbey and Persuasion,
Lynda Hall

Chapter 7: ‘As sure as I have a thought or a soul’: The Protestant Heroine in Shakespeare and Austen,
Claire McEachern

Chapter 8: Tyrants, Lovers, and Comedy in the Green Worlds of Mansfield Park and A Midsummer Night’s Dream,
Inger S. B. Brodey

Chapter 9: Forbidden Familial Relations: Echoes of Shakespeare’s King Henry VIII and Hamlet in Austen’s Mansfield Park and Sense and Sensibility,
Glenda Hudson

Part 3: Theatre, Film and Performance

Chapter 10: Shylock’s turquoise ring: Jane Austen, Mansfield Park and the Exquisite Acting of Edmund Kean,
Judith Page

Chapter 11: Austen and Shakespeare: Improvised Drama,
Marina Cano

Chapter 12: Shakespeare, Austen and Propaganda in World War II,
Rosa García-Periago

Chapter 13: Screening Will and Jane: Sexuality and the Gendered Author in Shakespeare and Austen Biopics,
Lisa Starks

Part 4: Popular Culture

Chapter 14: Austen and Shakespeare, Detectives,
Lisa Hopkins

Chapter 15: In the Pursuit of Love: Twilight, Jane and Will,
Heta Pyrhönen

Chapter 16: Curating Will & Jane,
Janine Barchas and Kristina Straub

Chapter 17: Afterword,
Mark Thornton Burnett

More about the volume

ESSE 15 Conference, Lyon (France) postponed to 2021

Published on 30th April 2020 in ESSE Matters

In view of the current situation, the organizing committee and the ESSE Executive have jointly acknowledged that the 2020 conference cannot be held on 31 August / 4 September. All events are cancelled, except for the doctoral symposium and the annual board meeting, which will take place online. Board members and participants of the doctoral symposium will be notified about the details in due course.

We are provisionally planning to reschedule the event on 30 August / 3 September 2021 with a minimal number of adjustments. In spite of the many uncertainties ahead of us all, we remain hopeful that the conference can go ahead in 2021. A new situation update will be circulated in due course after the summer.

Details here: http://www.esse2020lyon.fr/en

ESSE 2020 Conference (Lyon, France) – Update

Published on 21st March 2020 in ESSE Matters

As a reaction to the current uncertainties, the ESSE Executive and the Organizing Committee of the Lyon Conference had an emergency meeting (via Skype) on March 19. The preparations are well under way and on schedule, and we all hope and trust that the conference will take place as planned at the end of August/beginning of September. However, in view of the uncertainties it was decided that the opening of the registration procedure will be postponed for the time being. A new situation update will be posted on April 30. The dates for early bird registrations will be reassessed and possibly adjusted depending on the time when registration can be opened. We very much hope that the situation will be clearer by the end of April and will inform accordingly. In the meantime, keep safe and stay healthy.

Details here: http://www.esse2020lyon.fr/en/pages/esse-2020-home

Conference Report – 28th CDE Conference

Published on 10th January 2020 in Conference Reports

“Theatre of Crisis. Aesthetic Responses to a Cross-Sectional Condition”
June 20-23, 2019, University of Graz, Austria

Julia Boll, CDE Secretary

The Bildungshaus Mariatrost in Graz (Austria)

The 2019 CDE conference officially opened with the welcoming words by the conference organiser Nassim Balestrini (University of Graz), Maria Löschnigg (University of Graz), and Leo Lippert (University of Vienna). The President of the society Ute Berns thanked the conference organisers for their work and commitment. The conference organisers then introduced the conference theme, followed by a welcome by Martin Löschnigg, the deputy head of the Institute of English Studies at the University of Graz.

After dinner, the conference participants made their way into Graz city centre to attend a performance of Ayad Akhtar’s The Who and the What at Schauspielhaus Graz, followed by a roundtable discussion with dramaturgs and other representatives of the theatre.

The second day started with the conference’s first keynote: Erin Hurley (McGill University, Montréal), “Community Vitality and Minority-language Theatre: English-language Drama and Theatre in Modern Québec” (chaired by Nassim Balestrini). Hurley traced English-language theatre’s status as a minority theatre in francophone Québec, arguing that the crisis of anglophone theatre in Québec does not register as a crisis.

Continue reading “Conference Report – 28th CDE Conference” →

Call for Topics for Three Special Issues of EJES

Published on 19th October 2019 in EJES Matters

Call for Topics for Three Special Issues of European Journal of English Studies

(Volume 26, to be published in 2022)

The European Journal of English Studies is calling for proposals for the topics of three special issues of the journal that will be published in 2022. EJES or the European Journal of English Studies is the official journal of the European Society for the Study of English. The journal is published by Routledge, a division of the Taylor and Francis Group. EJES is peer reviewed, and several recent issues have been reprinted as hardback books by Routledge (Routledge Special Issues as Books). During 2018, EJES received 29,713 full-text downloads from the T&F platform.

The journal’s acronym “EJES” reflects its editors’ aspiration to publish cutting-edge research that questions boundaries between literary research, linguistics, and cultural and media studies. Pronounced “edges,” the journal takes an interest in topics that investigate edges of and overlaps between interdisciplinary scholarship in English Studies. “European” does not describe a geography, but a situation in which “English” is studied and taught, across a wide range of disciplines. We are particularly interested in seeing work that addresses crossovers between political and aesthetic issues, also as they are reflected in language use. See https://essenglish.org/ejes/aims-and-scopes/ for Aims and Scope.

Proposals for themed issues are welcome at any time. Yet a selection of three new topics is made at the end of each calendar year. The current call is for Volume 26, to be published in 2022. Guest editing teams are ideally comprised of two or three individuals who are working in different localities within Europe. They should also have significant editing experience. The general editors ask that suggestions for new topics be proposed in the form of a 300 to 500 word call for papers and be submitted to all three general editors, who are listed below. Proposals should be submitted by 15 December.

To get an impression of the scope of the journal, it is helpful to see the special issue topics of EJES in the current volume:

Volume 23 (2019)

23.1 Narratives of Religious Conversion from the Enlightenment to the Present, eds Ludmilla Kostova (Turnovo) and Efterpi Mitsi (Athens)

23.2 Fact and Fiction in Contemporary Narratives, eds Jan Alber (Aachen) and Alice Bell (Sheffield)

23.3 Shame and Shamelessness in Anglophone Literature and Media, eds Katrin Röder (Potsdam), Christine Vogt-William (Berlin) and Kaye Mitchell (Manchester)

And in the upcoming one:

Volume 24 (2020)

Representing Trans, eds Elahe Haschemi Yekani (Berlin), Anson Koch-Rein (Grinnell) and Jasper Verlinden (Berlin)

Neo-Victorian Negotiations of Hostility, Empathy and Hospitality, eds Rosario Arias (Málaga) and Mark Llewellyn (Cardiff)

‘Decentering Commemorations’: Literary, Cultural, Historical and Political Commemorations across and beyond the British Isles, eds Jeremy Tranmer and Céline Sabiron (Lorraine)

The current call for special topic proposals runs simultaneously to the final call for papers for the three EJES issues that will be published in 2021. These are for

 Volume 25 (2021)

“Brexit and Academia,” eds Sibylle Baumbach (Stuttgart) and Andreas Maurer (Innsbruck);

“Feminist Responses to Populist Politics,” eds Mónica Cano Abadía (University of Graz), Sanja Bojanić (University of Rijeka), Adriana Zaharijević (University of Belgrade)

and

“Disseminating Knowledge: The Effects of Digitalized Academic Discourse on Language, Genre and Identity,” eds Rosa Lorés Sanz (Universidad de Zaragoza), Giuliana Diani (Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia)

See https://essenglish.org/ejes/current-cfps/ for details on how to submit and to contact the guest editors of these issues.

ESSE Book Awards 2020 – For books first published in 2018 and 2019

Published on 14th September 2019 in ESSE Matters

ESSE Book Award (Category A):  A book prize of €1,500 will be awarded by ESSE in 2020, coinciding with the 15th Conference to be held in Lyon, France, for books first published in 2018 or 2019 in each of the following fields:

  1. English language and linguistics
  2. Literatures in the English language
  3. Cultural and area studies in English

ESSE Book Award for Junior Scholars (Category B): A further book prize of €1,500 will be awarded by ESSE in 2020 to a junior scholar for a first research book published in English in each of the three fields mentioned above, provided that publication was in 2018 or 2019.

The deadline for submission of books is 1 February 2020. The winners will be announced on the occasion of ESSE-15 in Lyon, France.

The requirements are as follows:

  • Books eligible for prizes will be those published in English; they must have an ISBN. PhD dissertations published in book format, with an ISBN, are accepted. Editions of collected essays will NOT qualify for these prizes. The books must be works of scholarly research in the field of English studies. Undergraduate textbooks will not be considered.
  • Any number of books may be submitted by the same author (provided that they are published within the admitted period of time), except for category B, since junior scholars are expected to submit their first research book published in English.
  • All books will be evaluated strictly on the basis of their academic value, without regard to publisher, country of publication or nationality of the author.
  • Authors must be members of national associations affiliated to ESSE (according to the official membership list submitted in 2019).
  • Three copies (printed or electronic format) must be provided of each book submitted for consideration. No book will be considered for an award unless three copies have been received. The copies will not be returned.
  • Candidates must write an email to the President of ESSE, Prof. Andreas H Jucker esse.president@outlook.com, informing him of their intention to participate, declaring their affiliation to a national association which is a member of ESSE, giving their university address, mentioning the field to which their book belongs, and indicating whether the copies of the book will be sent by the author or by the publisher. Candidates for the Category B award must also include a brief CV which must contain at least their date of birth, university affiliation, main field(s) of research and previous publications.

The three review copies must be sent to the address below by 1 FEBRUARY 2020. The deadline must be observed.

Books must be sent to the following address:

President of ESSE          
Prof. Dr. Andreas H. Jucker
Department of English
University of Zurich
Plattenstrasse 47
CH-8032 Zurich

The selection committees (three members each) will be appointed by the Board of ESSE in each of the three fields and for the two categories named above. Their composition will not be made public. Board members shall not pass on any information concerning this matter to the members of their associations. The Executive of ESSE will replace any members who are unable to carry out their duties. The Chairs of the selection committees will report progress regularly to the President of ESSE. The members of the committees can be Board members or ESSE members invited by the Board to do the selection job. The members of the committees and the ESSE Board are excluded from submitting their own books.

Two months before the opening of the conference a shortlist of a maximum of five books in each field and category will be announced on the ESSE Website. Board members are asked to report to the President any misgivings that they may have about the propriety of awarding a prize to any book on the shortlist, with the President passing on such comments to the committees if he deems it appropriate. The committees will recommend the awards to the Board, or they may recommend that no award be made in a particular field. Each committee can also recommend the conferment of one honourable mention. The President will report to the Board whether the work of the committees has been satisfactorily conducted. The Board may then approve the recommendations of the committees or they may reject a recommendation, in which case no award will be given in that field or category. Winners will be informed immediately in confidence, and the awards will be publicly announced during the opening ceremony of ESSE-15 conference, in Lyon, France

Most important decisions taken by the Board (Wroclaw, Poland, 29 – 30 August 2019)

Published on 9th September 2019 in ESSE Matters
  1. The Board of ESSE unanimously agreed to have only one date for membership updates per calendar year. Fees will be collected according to the membership lists sent to ESSE Treasurer by 15 November of the current year. Members whose names are included in these lists will be able to claim 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, whose requirements for both, taking part and applying for a grant remain unchanged.
  2. The Board of ESSE unanimously accepted a new member association. This is the Montenegrin Society for the Study of English (MONTESSE).
  3. The Board of ESSE agreed to the theme of the forthcoming winter volume (December 2019) of The ESSE Messenger. The topic will be “The book-to-film debate in the age of visual commodities”. The planned theme for the summer volume (July 2020) is “Language, discourse and gender identity”.
  4. The Board of ESSE appointed the evaluation committees for the ESSE Book Awards in 2020.
  5. The Board of ESSE accepted the proposed parallel lectures, seminars and round tables for ESSE-15 conference in Lyon in 2020. The call for papers will soon be published on the ESSE website.
  6. The Board of ESSE strongly reaffirmed its commitment to promote research and support activities destined to help young and established researchers. The Board decided to:
  • continue with the Bursaries, and appointed a Bursary committee for 2020. The deadline for the submission of applications is 1 March 2020;
  • continue with the Book grants. The deadline for the submission of applications is 1 May 2020;
  • continue with the Doctoral Symposium in conference and non-conference years, as well as to offer funding of up to €5,000 to help eligible doctoral students in need of support to participate in the Doctoral Symposium that will be held in Lyon, France, during ESSE-15 conference. The announcement will soon be published on the ESSE website;
  • continue the Collaborative Project Workshop Scheme, whose purpose is to support a preliminary meeting of European researchers working towards a collaborative research project in the field of English Studies.

Job Advertisement

Published on 8th July 2019 in Vacant Academic Positions

The Faculty of Translation Studies, Linguistics and Cultural Studies, FB06, Campus Germersheim, invites applications for the position of a Junior Professorship of Anglophone Studies (Bes.Gr. W 1 LBesG) to be in post on 01.04.2020.

Details here.

In Memoriam Professor Herbert Grabes (1936-2015)

Published on 5th July 2019 in In Memoriam

Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. (mult.) Herbert Grabes (1936-2015) in Memoriam

 

 This memoriam is composed on the basis of a memorial speech that I held in German at Prof. Dr. Dr. h.c. mult. Herbert Grabes’s funeral service in December of 2015. An obituary written in German by my friend and former University of Giessen colleague Professor Ingo Berensmeyer flows into this text as do some of the recorded memories of several of Herbert Grabes’s former colleagues and friends.

My first experience of Herbert Grabes was as a distant admiring listener at a huge ESSE conference. I remember Professor Ansgar Nünning’s loving introduction of his senior colleague and my sense of how lively and interesting and erudite a speaker Herbert was. I subsequently got to know him personally at the beginning of my time at the University of Giessen in late 2008. In 2009, I had the honor of taking over his chair in American and British Studies at the University of Giessen. Filling his footsteps remains a large undertaking. It also marks a change of generations and also of style in German English and American Studies, with more women professors now holding chairs and with more native speakers of English now in the front lines as well. Herbert once told a younger woman relative that his successor was “some feminist,” but he met this feminist with a wonderful mixture of good will and also openness to change. It is an honor to remember his life here. This includes his multifaceted efforts at the University of Giessen as well as to promote American and English Studies in Germany, Europe, and beyond.

Continue reading “In Memoriam Professor Herbert Grabes (1936-2015)” →

Conference Report: 27th CDE Conference: Fear and Anxiety in Contemporary Drama

Published on 6th June 2019 in Conference Reports

Conference Report: 27th CDE Conference: Fear and Anxiety in Contemporary Drama

May 31-June 3, 2018, University of Hildesheim

by Dr. Julia Boll
CDE Secretary 

CDE Universitaet Hildesheim Neubau Luebecker Strasse
Photo by Andreas Hartmann

The 2018 CDE conference officially opened with the welcome speeches by the conference organiser Stefani Brusberg-Kiermeier and the Dean of the University of Hildesheim’s Faculty of Arts Prof. Dr. Jens Roselt. The President of the society Prof. Dr. Ute Berns thanked the conference organisers for their work and commitment. She then informed the members of the recent death of long-standing member of CDE, Dr. Christoph Henke, PD (Augsburg), who died the weekend before the conference. A minute of silence followed.

The President then announced the two winners of the Bi-Annual CDE Award for outstanding dissertations (jury: Annette Pankratz, Kerstin Schmidt, Christina Wald). She read the laudations for Cyrielle Garcon and Jan Suk, who shared the prize this year: Cyrielle Garson (Univ. de Avignon) for her thesis Beyond Documentary Realism: Aesthetic Transgression in Contemporary British Verbatim Theatre, and Jan Suk (Charles University Prague) for The Poetics of Immanence: Performance Theatre of Forced Entertainment. Both theses will be published as monographs in the CDE book series.

Continue reading “Conference Report: 27th CDE Conference: Fear and Anxiety in Contemporary Drama” →

Position of Professor (f/m) of English Literary and Cultural Studies

Published on 10th March 2019 in Vacant Academic Positions

 

Karl-Frazens University of Graz (Austria)
The Institute of English Studies at the Faculty of Arts and Humanities

is seeking to appoint a

Professor (f/m) of English Literary and Cultural Studies pursuant to §98 of the University Act (UG)

(40 hours per week; permanent employment according to the Austrian Law on Salaried Employment (AngG); expected starting date October 1st 2020)

The holder of the position will represent the field of English literary and cultural studies from the early modern period up to and including the 18th century in research and teaching, with a particular focus on Shakespearean drama. Teaching responsibilities concern the bachelor’s and master’s programmes in English and American studies, the English teacher training programme, and the doctoral programme. Research and teaching should focus on literary studies and philologically-oriented cultural studies. In addition, the holder of the position will seek points of contact with existing research collaborations at the institute and at the faculty. Applicants are expected to have a record of excellent research activities and teaching experience in the above-mentioned fields. The candidate is expected to have a habilitation or equivalent qualification in English Literature, excellent academic qualification in research and teaching for the relevant subject, and a very good command of German. In addition, we expect gender mainstreaming competence.

Please submit your applications stating the reference number BV/19/98 ex 2018/19 by March 27th 2019 at the latest.

For information about the application procedures and other prerequisites, please visit
jobs.uni-graz.at/en/BV/19/98.

 

Call for participants – International summer school, “Romanticism on the Coast”

Published on 6th March 2019 in Summer / Spring Schools

The international summer school is organised by the Interuniversity Centre for the Study of Romanticism (Bologna branch), in partnership with Lerici City Council and the Cultural Association “Amiche e Amici di Mary Shelley”, to be held in Lerici (Italy) between 17 and 21 June 2019. The master classes and workshops offered by the Summer School will deal with issues related to British and European Romanticism, focusing in particular on the personal and cultural connection between some of the most famous Romantic poets, writers and critics (including PB Shelley, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, Women Romantic Poets), the city of Lerici and the famous Gulf of the Poets. The Summer School is addressed to postgraduate students and early stage researchers (MA, PhD students, Post-docs), as well as independent scholars of Romantic literature and culture.

 Details

 Registration form

Conference Report: Crossing Borders

Published on 11th February 2019 in Conference Reports

RADAC 40th Anniversary Conference: Crossing Borders: Contemporary Anglophone Theatre in Europe

Paris, October 11th-12th, 2018

Susan Blattès (President RADAC)
ILCEA4 Université Grenoble Alpes

Gallery

This conference had several objectives. First, we wanted to celebrate the 40th anniversary of RADAC (Recherches sur les Arts Dramatiques Anglophones Contemporains), an association of scholars and theatre professionals set up in France in 1978. Second, as a group which increasingly involves members from other countries, we wanted to look at the wider issue of the place of contemporary Anglophone theatre in continental Europe. Finally, by involving speakers and participants from many different European countries, we thought that the conference would allow us to consider how to increase collaboration amongst drama and theatre scholars throughout Europe, with a view to setting up a European network. We decided therefore to include in the conference programme a session in which this could be discussed.

The conference ran for two complete days and brought together around 70 academics and theatre professionals, translators and publishers. Papers were given in parallel panels during the morning. In all, twenty papers were given dealing with a wide range of playwrights, types of play or topics concerning the Czech Republic, Greece, Italy, Malta, Montenegro, Portugal, Serbia, Spain and France, of course. All panels were chaired by specialists coming from the various countries mentioned as well as Britain and Germany. The panels all included a mix of nationalities while speakers ranged from PhD students to internationally recognised scholars. The papers gave rise to fascinating discussions in which our common interest in Anglophone theatre was confronted with the specific contexts of theatre production in other European countries (translating, publishing, programming performing …).

The afternoons were organised differently. There were two round-tables: one brought together theatre practitioners (writers, actors, directors) who discussed the challenges of producing Anglophone theatre in a non-Anglophone context. A second round-table focused specifically on issues relating to translation and the publishing of translated plays (round-table participants came from France, Germany and Italy). Another session was organised in which those scholars who belonged to a network of theatre researchers extending beyond their own institution presented their group. This included CDE (Contemporary Drama in English) in Germany which functions in a similar way to RADAC, the Contemporary Drama Barcelona  group from Spain, and one from Rome. All groups brought up the question of funding conferences, publications, supporting doctoral students etc. A thorough presentation of European funding was given by two representatives from Sorbonne University. Many of the participants expressed the desire to collaborate at the European level.

Two keynote addresses were given. Elisabeth Angel-Perez (Sorbonne University) discussed the presence of Anglophone theatre in France and the role played by certain directors and translators in getting these works performed in France. Peter Boenisch (Royal Central School of Speech and Drama) looked at the work of English directors on the continental stage, insisting particularly on two directors (Robert Icke and Joe Hill-Gibbons) in Holland, Germany and German-speaking Switzerland.

Each day ended with an appropriate climax. Day one concluded with An Irish Story by Kelly Rivière (surtitled by students from Paris 8 under the guidance of Marie Nadia Karsky).

At the end of day two the conference participants were treated to an interview of celebrated playwright Simon Stephens by Dan Rebellato (Royal Holloway London). Simon Stephens is an ideal dramatist to interview in relation to the theme of the conference. Firstly, his own work has been put on across Europe, notably thanks to his collaboration with Sebastian Nübling. Secondly, Simon Stephens has contributed to the circulation of non-Anglophone plays in the UK, having translated/adapted works by playwrights such as Brecht, Chekhov and Ibsen. The discussion between Dan Rebellato and Simon Stephens brought out the importance of crossing borders in Stephens’s work and in the Anglophone theatre in general. Despite the many serious themes evoked, Stephens and Rebellato managed to end on an optimistic note about the role of theatre in Europe to the delight of the conference participants.

A selection of the papers will be published in 2019 along with highlights from the round-table discussion in a special issue of Coup de Théâtre.

The European Journal of English Studies – Call for Papers

Published on 31st January 2019 in EJES Matters

Brexit and Academia

(Special Issue, European Journal for English Studies)

The outcome of the 2016 referendum and the consequences the United Kingdom and Europe are currently facing in its aftermath will have a deep effect on various sectors within academia. It will not only affect research funding, the recruitment of talents and cross-border collaborations between academics on the continent and in the United Kingdom, but also have an impact on student and staff exchanges. Above all, however, Brexit and the debates surrounding the referendum posit new challenges to the role of academics in a renationalising Europe: the Vote Leave campaign was driven by an anti-establishment, anti-supranational, and anti-European rhetoric that did not stop short of academia.

The short- and long-term implications of Brexit on academia and the relationship between British and EU universities are hard to predict, but need to be addressed. While some universities have already reacted to the looming Brexit by founding research networks to support the exchange with researchers from the UK (such as the BritInn-network at the University of Innsbruck) or by establishing strategic partnerships with research institutions in the UK, more initiatives are needed to further support long-term collaboration post-Brexit.

This special issue on Brexit and Academia aims at scrutinizing the consequences of Brexit for the European research landscape, future collaborations between colleagues from Europe and Britain, and academia as a whole from a wide range of different (trans-)disciplinary perspectives.

Papers might address, but are not limited to,

  • analysis of the referendum campaigns, the subsequent Brexit-negotiations, or the future relationship between the UK and the EU;
  • the specific challenges faced by researchers involved in cross-border projects;
  • the impact of Brexit on the arts, humanities, and sciences and possible solutions;
  • the consequences, challenges, and possible solutions for higher education institutions;
  • the impact on different areas within politics, the economy, culture, and society that will have a lasting effect on academia;
  • the role of academia for maintaining collaboration and exchange in post-Brexit Europe
  • possible solutions for universities and research institutions to further support collaboration between researchers from Europe and the UK

Detailed proposals (up to 1,000 words) for full essays (7,500 words), as well as a short biography (max. 100 words) should be sent to sibylle.baumbach@ilw.uni-stuttgart.de and Andreas.Maurer@uibk.ac.at by 31 October 2019.

Main Editors:

Univ.-Prof. Dr. Sibylle Baumbach, Department of English, University of Stuttgart
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Maurer, Department of Political Science, University of Innsbruck

The European Journal of English Studies – Call for Topics

Published on 31st January 2019 in EJES Matters

Call for Topics for Two Special Issues of The European Journal of English Studies (Volume 25, to be published in 2021) until 1 March 2019

 

The general editors of the European Journal of English Studies are currently seeking proposals for two special issues of Volume 25 to be published in 2021.  EJES presents work of the highest quality in English literature, linguistics and cultural studies. The journal’s acronym ‘EJES’ reflects on the journal’s aspiration to publish cutting-edge research within an outlook that questions boundaries between disciplines and cultural contexts. For us, ‘European’ does not describe a geography, but a situation in which ‘English’ is studied and taught in both Anglophone and non-Anglophone contexts and across a range of disciplines. EJES is published by Taylor & Francis, a division of Routledge. The journal is peer reviewed and has an emphasis on interdisciplinary projects. Numbers of the special issues have been subsequently published by Routledge as books.

The general editors encourage proposals of up to 300 words for special issues that span divides between cultural theory, literary analysis and linguistics. Guest editing teams should be comprised of two individuals working in different localities within Europe. They should demonstrate significant editing experience. Please send your proposal by 1 March to all three general editors and see the EJES website for examples of earlier CFPs: https://essenglish.org/ejes/

Greta Olson (Justus Liebig University of Giessen): greta.olson@anglistik.uni-giessen.de 
Isabel Carrera Suárez (University of Oviedo): icarrera@uniovi.es
Katerina Kitsi-Mitakou (Artistotle University of Thessaloniki): katkit@enl.auth.gr

Recent special issues

Volume 22 (2018)

22.1 Approaches to Old Age, eds Sarah Falcus and Maricel Oró Piqueras

22.2 Global Responses to the ‘War on Terror’, eds Michael C. Frank (Düsseldorf) and Pavan Kumar Malreddy (Frankfurt)

22.3 Poetry, Science and Technology, eds Irmtraud Huber (Berne), Wolfgang Funk (Mainz)

And the following future special issues are scheduled:

Volume 23 (2019)

23.1 Narratives of Religious Conversion from the Enlightenment to the Present, eds Ludmilla Kostova (Turnovo) and Efterpi Mitsi (Athens)

23.2 Fact and Fiction in Contemporary Narratives, eds Jan Alber (Aachen) and Alice Bell (Sheffield)

23.3 Shame and Shamelessness in Anglophone Literature and Media, eds Katrin Röder (Potsdam), Christine Vogt-William (Berlin) and Kaye Mitchell (Manchester)

Volume 24 (2020)

24.1 Representing Trans, eds Elahe Haschemi Yekani (Berlin), Anson Koch-Rein (Grinnell) and Jasper Verlinden (Berlin)

24.2 Neo-Victorian Negotiations of Hostility, Empathy and Hospitality, eds Rosario Arias (Málaga) and Mark Llewellyn (Cardiff)

24.3 ‘Decentering Commemorations’: Literary, Cultural, Historical and Political Commemorations across and beyond the British Isles, eds Antonella Braida-Laplace, Jeremy Tranmer, and Céline Sabiron (Lorraine)

Book Announcement: The ‘Desegregation’ of English Schools

Published on 8th December 2018 in Book Announcements

Olivier Esteves, The ‘Desegregation’ of English Schools: Bussing, Race and Urban Space, 1960s-1980s

Manchester University Press, 2018

  • Format: Hardcover
  • ISBN: 978-1-5261-2485-2
  • Pages: 240
  • Price: £80.00
  • Published Date: December 2018
  • BIC Category: Sociology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / General, Multicultural Education, Society & social sciences / Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies, Ethnic Studies, Humanities / Social & cultural history

Dispersal, or ‘bussing’, was introduced in England in the early-1960s after white parents expressed concerns that the sudden influx of non-Anglophone South Asian children was holding back their own children’s education. It consisted in sending busloads of mostly Asian children to predominantly white suburban schools in an effort to ‘spread the burden’ and to promote linguistic and cultural integration. Although seemingly well-intentioned, dispersal proved a failure: it was based on racial identity rather than linguistic deficiency and ultimately led to an increase in segregation, as bussed pupils were daily confronted with racial bullying in dispersal schools. This is the first ever book on English bussing, based on an in-depth study of local and national archives, alongside interviews with formerly-bussed pupils decades later.

Olivier Esteves is Professor of British Studies at the University of Lille, France.

Table of contents:

Introduction
1 “To allay people’s fears on numbers”: the introduction of dispersal in Southall
2 Improvisation in high places? Setting the national framework for bussing
3 “Before it gets out of hand”: the introduction of dispersal in Bradford
4 Reluctant cities: how London and Birmingham said no to dispersal
5 Dispersing in diverse places: how the other L.E.A.s fared
6 Taking the bullying by the horns: the emergence of resistance against bussing
7 Babylon by bus: the quotidian experience of being bussed
Conclusion
Index

Call for applications and nominations for the ESSE positions of secretary and treasurer

Published on 16th November 2018 in ESSE Matters

The Nominations Committee of the ESSE Board seeks applications for the positions of Secretary and Treasurer, which fall vacant in January 2020. The usual term of office is three years. Candidates, who should preferably have been involved in ESSE affairs or have had similar positions in their national associations, 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 any of these two positions (only one candidate for each position). 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 candidate(s) 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 submitted electronically, by 30 April 2019 at the latest, to the members of the Nominations Committee:

From the applications and nominations received, the Committee will select the best candidates (maximum of three for each office). The two officers will be chosen by vote at the ESSE Board meeting in Wroclaw, 29–30 August 2019.

 ESSE Secretary and ESSE Treasurer 2019

The ESSE Collaborative Project Workshop Scheme

Published on 3rd November 2018 in ESSE Matters

Developing Mediation Skills for Teaching Legal English

By Patrizia Anesa & Barbora Chovancova

 4-5 October, 2018
Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería de Sistemas Informáticos, MADRID

Picture Gallery

The project proposal was presented by Patrizia Anesa (University of Bergamo, Italy) and Barbora Chovancová (Masaryk University Language Centre, Brno, Czech Republic). Members of the project are: Ismael Arinas Pellon (Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain), Shona Whyte (Université Nice Sophia Antipolis, France) and Halina Sierocka (University of Białystok, Poland).

 The workshop gave the participants the chance to discuss the project proposal and offer a definition of the first operational steps. Some of the sessions were also open to members of the Comm&Learn Research Team based at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (in particular Carola Álvarez-Bolado Sánchez, José Luis Llavona Arregui, Luis Dochao Moreno, and Éva Jakusné Harnos). The workshop also allowed us to discuss future strategies and potential forms of cooperation, as well as to share ideas about how project findings can be presented and circulated to colleagues internationally.

The term mediation can denote both a tool to reach a consensus in ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) and a language skill which enables communication over a linguistic barrier. The project intends to address both aspects. It also aims at defining good practices in the field of mediation to be developed for the legal profession, identifying educational needs and gaps in the area (emerging across different countries), and producing flexible programmes for legal English in a globalized, fast evolving legal world. The approach is not limited to linguistic features but will be contextualised by information offered by practitioners and teacher educators.

The complexity of mediation dynamics encompasses phenomena such as the popularization of information and its recontexualization, especially in teaching and training contexts. Thus, mediation will also be observed from a communicative perspective as a skill which has been relatively overlooked in ESP teaching (Chovancova 2016). The project will investigate practices which can be implemented in the teaching of Legal English in light of the importance of such discursive practices in making informed decisions. Thus, the analysis also aims to evaluate to what extent mediation may be defined as a crucial skill in legal language instruction and teacher education, and will provide practical applications of the integration of mediation into the legal English syllabus. In particular, legal language learning is inherently linked to content construction in Content-Based Instruction (CBI) and English Medium Instruction (EMI). Thus, a syllabus focusing on technical mediation material, interactive teamwork, and communication skills is crucial for efficient teaching and learning. Practical examples of qualitative and quantitative results from courses involving different types of technology-mediated teaching and learning in different universities will also be considered.

The overall objective is thus to offer insights into ways of enhancing and modernizing legal English teaching and learning by taking into account skills which are often ignored in traditional materials, but which in turn represent essential abilities in specific professional contexts.

This workshop represented a great opportunity to discuss the strengths and weakness of the project and exchange ideas with other experts in the field. We would like to express our gratitude to ESSE, which supported it and made it possible.

Book Announcement: Women on the Move

Published on 26th October 2018 in Book Announcements

Women on the Move: Body, Memory and Femininity in Present-Day Transnational Diasporic Writing
Edited by Silvia Pellicer-Ortín, Julia Tofantšuk

 

Published by Routledge
266 pages
Hardback: 9781138321991
eBook (VitalSource) : 9780429452291

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Notes on Contributors
Foreword
Disturbing Transitions: Critical Inner Landscapes of Migration, Jill Lewis
Introduction: The Female Body and Self in the Glocal: Plights and Opportunities for Contemporary Diasporic Women, Silvia Pellicer-Ortín and Julia Tofantšuk

SECTION 1: Unbelonginess and Displacement in the Diaspora: Finding a Voice Through Narrative
1 Ceìdric Courtois: The Travelling Bodies of African Prostitutes in the Transnational Space in Chris Abani’s Becoming Abigail (2006) and Chika Unigwe’s On Black Sisters’ Street (2009)
2 Merve Sarikaya-Şen: A Traumatic Romance of (Un)Belonginess: NoViolet Bulawayo’s We Need New Names,

SECTION 2: Globality, Locality and Cosmpolitanism
3 Beatriz Pérez Zapata: Dancing Across Nations: The Transnational and the Glocal in Zadie Smith’s Swing Time,
4 María Rocío Cobo-Piñero: Taiye Selasi and the Afropolitan Daughters of the Diaspora,

SECTION 3: Defining Feminine Spaces: Home, Self, Identity and Food
5 Chiara Battisti and Sidia Fiorato: Corinne Bigot; “By Way of Their Fingers”: Making Sense of Self and Home in Selected Short Stories by Edwidge Danticat, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

6 Chiara Battisti and Sidia Fiorato: In the Kitchen with Monica Ali: Flavouring Gender and Diaspora

SECTION 4: Femininity, Spatiality and Liminality
7 Maria Amor Barros-del Río: Recalling Female Migration in Contemporary Irish Novels: An Intersectional Approach

8 Selen Aktari-Sevgi: Liminality and Affective Mobility in Anne Enright’s The Green Road

9 Julia Tofantšuk: Movement, Places and Knotted History in Charlotte Mendelson’s Almost English

SECTION 5: Crossing Borders: Female Bodies and Identities in Transit
10 Paul Rüsse and Maialen Antxustegi-Etxarte: Travelling the US-Mexican Border, Challenging Chicanidad

11 Carolina Sánchez-Palencia: Under the Skin of British History: Bodies in Transit in Andrea Levy’s Small Island

12 Silvia Pellicer-Ortín: Short Stories on the Move: Mapping Memory and Constructing the (Jewish) Diasporic Female Self in Michelene Wandor’s False Relations

Index

Silvia Pellicer-Ortín is a Lecturer in the Department of English and German Philology at the University of Zaragoza, Spain.
Julia Tofantšuk is Associate Professor of British Literature and curator of Liberal Arts in Humanities programme at Tallinn University, Estonia.

ESSE Collaborative Project Workshop Scheme for 2019

Published on 8th October 2018 in ESSE Matters

The ESSE Collaborative Project Workshop Scheme offers seed funding of up to 8,000 Euro to support a preliminary meeting of European researchers working towards a collaborative research project 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 from two different national associations.
  • 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 euro 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 (download the budget guideline)
  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 Rainer Emig emigr@uni-mainz.de

 Dates

  • Deadline for applications: 31 March 2019
  • Notification of results will be sent to applicants by 8 May 2019
  • Deadline for completing the workshop and submission of workshop reports: 30 November 2019