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.