Frequently Asked Questions
- About ESSE
- Membership
- The Messenger
- Money matters
- What can ESSE do for me?
- What can I do for ESSE?
- The ESSE feed
A:
See our homepage.
Q: What does ESSE do?
A:
Take a look at our aims
and purposes.
Q: How long has ESSE been in existence?
A:
ESSE was founded in Rome in January 1990. Its first Constitution was
adopted in 1991. Changes were introduced in 1995 and since then it has
been placed under Swiss law. See the 1995 Constitution.
Q: Is ESSE a service of the European Union?
A: No. Although academics in English
studies in all current EU countries have, or soon will have, access to
associations affiliated to ESSE, we are not in any way linked to the
EU, and we welcome Associations from the
whole of Europe in the geographical sense, from Portugal to Russia,
from Norway to Armenia. See the current list of the 33 National Associations that are part of
ESSE.
Q: What is the current membership of ESSE?
A:
About 7,200.
Q: Why can't you know for sure?
A:
The membership of ESSE is the total membership of the 33 National
Associations that form it. Not all National Associations send their
updated
lists of members at the same time, so that the exact figure is never
known exactly. The Treasurer maintains a database of the whole
membership, solely for the purpose of mailing The European English Messenger.
This database is never made available to third parties.
Q: I am the Secretary or Treasurer
of a National Association. How often
should I send an update of the membership to the Treasurer of ESSE?
A: To ensure accurate dispatch of
The Messenger,
you should send an update in spring and autumn, with deadlines 15 March
and 15 October. You are welcome to send more frequent updates if there
are substantial changes to your list. This will ensure that our
database is always as correct as possible for checking membership, for
example in connection with conference attendance or book prize entries.
Q: Do all the National Associations have individual membership?
A: Almost all. The Nordic
Association (= Denmark and Norway) and of the United
Kingdom have departmental membership.
A: You do not
join ESSE as such:
you become a member of ESSE by joining your National Association of
University (or Higher Education) teachers and researchers in the field
of English studies. In most European countries, if
you are a fee-paying member of your National Association, then you are
a member of ESSE.
Q: How do I know if I am a member of ESSE?
A: All members
of ESSE receive
the ESSE newsletter, The European English Messenger,
which is published twice a year.
Q: How do I know if such an Association exists in my country?
A: The list of National Associations that are members of
ESSE is available on this site, with their postal addresses. Many of
them run their own websites.
Q: What should I do if no such
Association exists in my European country?
A: Get together with your
colleagues and found one under the laws of your country. If this should
prove impossible, then join the National Association of another country
which accepts foreign members.
Q: How do I tell ESSE if my address or my name has changed or if I no longer wish to receive The European English Messenger?
A: You don't.
You tell your National Association, which in turn will tell ESSE.
Remember that you
are a member of ESSE through your National Association.
The Messenger
Q: What do I do if I am a member of an ESSE-affiliated Association but have not received my copy of The Messenger?
A: Contact your National
Association, and make sure that it has informed the Treasurer of ESSE
of your current address.
Q: Can I subscribe to The Messenger
without joining a
National Association?
A: Yes. You
should contact the Treasurer
of ESSE. The
subscription is Euro 30 p.a. for individuals and Euro 45 p.a. for
institutions.
Q: Can I advertise in The Messenger?
A: Yes.
Advertisements relevant to English Studies are welcome. Please
look at the page of information for advertisers,
and contact the Editor
of The Messenger.
Q: Can I publish an article,
review or conference report in the
European English Messenger?
A: Submissions
of articles, reviews and conference reports from ESSE
members are always welcome. Please contact the Editor of The Messenger.
Q: Is it possible to have access
to older issues of The Messenger?
A: Back numbers can be borrowed from
two university libraries, one in Lyon, France, and one in Amsterdam,
the Netherlands. The index to all the issues published in the first
twelve years - from issue I/1 (Autumn 1991) to issue XII/2 (Autumn
2003) - can be downloaded. The
covers and tables of contents of all
back issues can be viewed on the Messenger
homepage.
Q: Can I get hold of an electronic version of the articles published in
The Messenger?A: From issue XV/1 (Spring 2006),
The Messenger can be
downloaded in pdf format. This service, however, is restricted to
member of ESSE who receive the printed edition of The Messenger. The pdf documents
are protected by a password, which can be found in the corresponding
printed issue of The Messenger.
A: Most of it
(over Euro 5) goes to printing and posting The Messenger
at the cheapest available rates. Most of the rest goes on ESSE
bursaries and book prizes, and on the day-to-day expenses of the
Executive and the Editor of The
Messenger.
Q: Are the members of the ESSE
Executive, the Editor of The
Messenger, and the webmaster paid for their work?
A: No, but
their expenses are fully covered.
A: ESSE acts
for the general
development of English studies in European Universities. More
precisely:
- it publishes a free newsletter (The European English Messenger)
- it publishes a journal (EJES, The European Journal of English Studies, published in cooperation with Routledge)
- it publishes occasional reports on English studies in Europe
- it runs this website
- it
organises biennial Conferences covering all fields of English studies.
See the list of the previous
conferences organized between 1991 and 2012.
- it offers a bursary scheme to help support young academics
- it awards prizes to books in the three fields of Linguistics, Literature and Cultural Studies
- it announces forthcoming conferences in English Studies through this website and in The Messenger; national associations can display these announcements in the form of a news feed posted from this website.
- it announces vacant situations in the field of English
studies on this website.
A: There's a
lot that you can do:
- you can get involved in the running of your National Association, and, through it, of ESSE
- you can contribute articles to The Messenger by sending proposals to the editor
- you can review books for The Messenger
- you can volunteer to organize an ESSE Conference
- more generally you can seek to influence ESSE policy through your representative on the ESSE Board.
Q: Can I run for office in the
ESSE Executive?
A: Yes, but you
have to be proposed by your National Association and
seconded by another National Association. You can also make suggestions
to your National Association.
Q: What is a news feed?
A: A news feed, usually marked on
websites with the orange RSS logo above, is a list of links that can be
sent
from a website and reproduced elsewhere. These links give information
on what is carried in the website from where it is sent, and can
redirect the user to the corresponding pages.
Q: I still do not undertand...
A: Let's take the example of the
ESSE feed. The ESSE wesbsite carries the "calls for papers" (cfps) of
conferences in the field of English studies throughout Europe. It is
important that all colleagues in Europe are made aware of those cfps as
they are issued. The ESSE website therefore publishes a list of the
most recently announced conferences, which makes it possible to check
what's new at one glance. This list is displayed on the ESSE website;
but obviously, and understandably, most colleagues visit the websites
of their national associations more often than they do the ESSE
website. It therefore became necessary to find a way of displaying that
list, drawn by ESSE, on the sites of national associations - which is
made possible by the list taking the form of a news feed.
Q: Where can I find the ESSE feed?
A: For one thing, the ESSE feed
is displayed on the ESSE website
itself.
Then, a number of national associations display the ESSE
news feed on their own websites, so that you do not even have to visit
the ESSE website
to be aware of all the coming conferences all over Europe! Now you can
also read the ESSE feed on your Smartphone
or iPhone.
Q: What exactly does the ESSE feed show?
A: The ESSE feed has been
restricted to the cfps of the fifteen most recently announced
conferences in Europe. For each cfp, the ESSE feed displays the full
name of the conference, the place where it is to be held, and its
dates. The name of the conference is a link that takes you to the full
call for paper as published on the ESSE website. The feed also gives
the date when the announcement was put on line on the ESSE website:
since the most recently announced conferences are at the top of the
list, you can check at one glance if any new calls for papers have been
added since your last visit.
Q: How often should I check the ESSE feed?
As often as possible. It is
always convenient to be aware of cfps as early as possible. Late in
July and
early in August, there will probably be few or no new announcements,
and
the
feed may remain unchanged for several weeks. On the other hand, there
are times in the academic year when new cfps are posted almost daily,
so that each individual cfp will remain posted on the feed for a
limited
number of days. Nevertheless, the full cfps always remain
available on the site until well after the conferences have taken
place, even after they have been removed from the feed.
Q: The website of my national association does not carry the ESSE feed: what can I do?
A: You can get in touch with your
national association, preferably with the webmaster, or with the
secretary, or with the representative of your national association on
the ESSE Board, and suggest that the feed
should be displayed. It is technically quite simple to display an
existing feed; clear instructions are provided for webmasters who need them, and if there is a
problem the ESSE webmaster
can offer help.
Q: When I use the ESSE feed on the website of my national association, reading the cfps is not easy. What can I do?
A: Different websites use
different formats. When you read the cfps after clicking on a link in
the ESSE feed, you are actually displaying a page from the ESSE website
within the format of the website of your national association, and,
occasionally, the two formats might not agree. The definition of the
computer
monitor or screen that you use also plays a part. If you hold down the
"Ctrl" (Control) key as you click on a link in the ESSE feed, this will
open the cfps on a new page, which in some cases may make reading the
page more comfortable.
Q: I know of a conference for which cfps have been issued - and yet I cannot find any trace of it on the ESSE website. Why?
A: Simply because the organisers
of the conference have forgotten to tell ESSE. Please remember to tell
ESSE if you organise a conference. Remind conference organisers that
putting an announcement on the ESSE website ensures that their
conferences acquire a European dimension. Obviously only conferences
where English will be the only or the main working language are of
interest to the whole ESSE community.
Q: How do I tell ESSE about cfps?
A: If you are a conference
organiser, please send a call for papers
for inclusion on the ESSE website, in the ESSE news feed, and in The Messenger.
Q: Are there other ways of having access to the ESSE feed?
A: If you
use Firefox
as a browser, you may be aware of the possibility of adding RSS feeds
as bookmarks in your "Personal Bar". By doing this, you ensure that the
ESSE feed is never more than one click away.
Another way of having access to feed is to display them on the desktop of your computer, rather than as part of an existing website. This implies using a programme called an "RSS news reader". More information about this can be found for instance on the BBC News website.
But remember that having access to the ESSE feed on the website of your national association gives you a great opportunity of keeping in touch with your national association: there is probably a lot more on its website than just the ESSE feed.
Another way of having access to feed is to display them on the desktop of your computer, rather than as part of an existing website. This implies using a programme called an "RSS news reader". More information about this can be found for instance on the BBC News website.
But remember that having access to the ESSE feed on the website of your national association gives you a great opportunity of keeping in touch with your national association: there is probably a lot more on its website than just the ESSE feed.
