Other events
2017
Speciala elfaro de Esperanto-simfonio in Bialystok, Pollando 13an de Aprilo
More information: here
Winter 2017: New Course at UC Santa Cruz, Linguistics Department: Invented Languages, from Elvish to Esperanto
More information: here
Anton Ginzburg. Blue Flame: Constructions and Initiatives
Art Exhibit at Southern Alberta Art Gallery. Anton Ginzburg “employs Esperanto – a language devised as an international medium of communication – to guide the viewer through each chapter of this “fictionalized non-fiction.””
Exhibit Open: December 3, 2016 – February 5, 2017
Opening Reception: Saturday, December 3
For more information: here
Bridge of Words: Esperanto and the Dream of a Universal Language, with Esther Schor, professor of English at Princeton University, and Sam Green, documentary filmmaker and director of “The Universal Language.”
When: Wednesday, March 15, 2017, 6:30 p.m.
Where: Mid-Manhattan Library, NYC
For more information: here
2016
Talk: ‘Writing in Esperanto: Esperanto Literature and the Book Trade’
Topic: the Allan C. Boschen Esperanto Collection at the UMass Library
Date: November 9, 2016
Venue: Library, W.E.B. Du Bois, Room: 2601, UMass Amherst Campus
Additional information can be found here.
2012
Universal Esperanto Association seminar on United Nations and UNESCO
Topic: United Nations and UNESCO
Date: July 28 – August 4, 2012
Venue: Hanoi, Vietnam.
The Universal Esperanto Association’s 97th World Congress of Esperanto in Hanoi, Vietnam, July 28 – August 4, 2012, was the setting for a seminar (conducted in Esperanto) on the work of the United Nations and UNESCO. The seminar, conducted by Humphrey Tonkin and Neil Blonstein, representatives of UEA at UN-New York, and Renée Triolle, representative of UEA at UNESCO, provided an overview of the structure of the two organizations and particularly their humanitarian and human rights activities. The seminar’s purpose was to promote the UN in the Esperanto-speaking community. Some forty people participated in the seminar from a wide range of countries and representing a wide range of professions, including teachers. Materials from the seminar are available on the website of Esperanto por UN, at www.esperanto-un.org, where Esperanto translations of important UN documents are available, along with a glossary of UN terms in Esperanto and a description of the structure of the UN.
2011
Seminar on the Literature of Esperanto
Dates: February 26-27, 2011
Venue: University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky. Under the leadership of Ulrich Becker (poet and publisher), Duncan Charters (linguist), Humphrey Tonkin (critic), Tim Westover (author).
2009
NASK 40th Anniversary Symposium
Dates: July 11, 2009
Venue: University of California, San Diego
ESF directors and advisory board members recently participated in a symposium marking the 40th anniversary of the NASK program held at the University of California, San Diego. NASK is an intensive three-week, university-credit immersion program in the international language. ESF directors included Dr. Humphrey Tonkin (President) and Dr. Mark Fettes (Vice-President). Presentations were also made by ESF advisory board member, Dr. David Jordan (UCSD) and Ms. Spomenka Štimec, a leading Esperanto author, teacher, and cultural activist from Croatia.
Click here to view the symposium presentations.
International Society for Language Studies Conference
Dates: June 11 – 13, 2009
Venue: Orlando, Florida
ESF directors participated in two panel discussions at the International Society for Language Studies (ISLS) Conference in Orlando, Florida on June 11 – 13, 2009. Session I focused on interlinguistics and critical linguistics, and included not only an overview of interlinguistics as a field of study, but also an examination of why the planned language Esperanto merits the serious attention of language scholars. Session II focused on contemporary issues of Esperanto and education, and included presentations about Esperanto and foreign language education in the U.S. and consideration of the empirically demonstrated propaedeutic value of Esperanto in promoting further and additional language learning by students. The session abstracts can be accessed here.
2008
Conference of Universities Teaching Esperanto and Interlinguistics
Dates: July 17 – 18, 2008
Venue: University of Amsterdam, Netherlands
ESF underwrote the costs associated with a conference on this subject held in July 2008, hosted by the University of Amsterdam and organized by CED (The Center for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems). Objectives of the conference included the exchange of information and ideas, planning for the exchange of personnel, and cooperation in curriculum, libraries, etc. The conference, chaired by Prof. Wim Jansen of the University of Amsterdam and Dr. Humphrey Tonkin of ESF, brought together some 50 academics from 30 universities in 23 countries: Austria, Brazil, Bulgaria, China, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, India, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, UK, USA, and Venezuela. Its concluding document contained 24 recommendations grouped under the above three headings: programs of study, exchanges, and administration. Many of these recommendations are now being pursued, in part by ESF, in part by CED (which is affiliated with the Universal Esperanto Association), and in part by other individuals. The website Edukado.net has established web pages for the exchange of information and the initiation of activities. This is the first time such an effort of this kind has ever been attempted, and it bodes well for what has hitherto been a fragmented field largely lacking in coordination. Follow-up events were held in 2009 in Krakow and Bialystok, Poland.
53rd Annual International Linguistic Association Conference
Dates: April 11 – 13, 2008
Venue: SUNY College at Old Westbury, NY
ESF Board and Advisory Board members presented several papers at this conference.
Timothy Reagan:
- Good intentions and the road to hell: Language policy and language planning for sign languages.
- Globalization and language policy at the international level: The role of foreign language education in promoting multiculturalism.
Humphrey Tonkin: Language policy at the international level: Toward a research agenda.
Mark Fettes: Language policy and social imaginaries in a globalizing age.
Nancy Schweda Nicholson (Advisory Board member): Language planning and policy development for European Union (EU) law: Efforts to establish uniform standards for interpreter services in criminal matters.
Conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
Dates: February 15 – 18, 2008
Venue: Boston, MA
ESF provided funding to support a symposium organized by former board member and ESF co-founder Dr. E. James Lieberman at the 2008 conference of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in February 2008 in Boston. The symposium addressed linguistic inequality in the scientific community and featured three speakers: Jose Antonio Vergara (Chile), Ulrich Ammon (Germany) and Humphrey Tonkin (USA). The symposium caused a considerable stir among scientists who had hitherto failed to recognize such language discrimination in their ranks, and reports appeared in newspapers across the world, including Die Welt in Germany and newspapers in Belgium and Pakistan. The US periodical The Scientist ran an editorial on the subject stimulated by the symposium.
2007
PDK Summit on Global Education
Dates: October 18 – 20, 2007
Venue: Vancouver, B.C.
ESF Board members Humphrey Tonkin, Mark Fettes, Ian Richmond, Grant Goodall, and Bonnie Fonseca-Greber presented at PDK’s 2007 Conference in Vancouver, B.C. in a session entitled “Getting Hooked on Language: Beginning the Process of Language Learning.” Programme summary: “We are inclined to put language learning in a separate category from global studies, but the reality is that learning another language is the quickest way to an understanding of human difference, and the best way to understand cultural diversity – both fundamental elements in global studies. But many students stumble as they tackle a second language, and many educators tend to downplay the importance of language as a factor in international education. While it is true that English is growing in popularity around the world, most people do not speak it, and many of those who do are at a disadvantage when dealing with native speakers. One goal of international education is the pursuit of equality of communication, leading to awareness that speaking more than one language is not just a good thing, but a necessity for a truly globalized world. Two of our panelists are from the US and two are from Canada. Two are language teachers and two are specialists in international studies. All have a history of thinking out of the box when it comes to language in an international setting.”
2006
The Translator as Mediator of Cultures University of Hartford Translation Conference
Dates: October 20 – 21, 2006
Venue: Hartford, CT
ESF co-sponsored a conference on “The Translator as Mediator of Cultures” at the University of Hartford in October 2006. Several members of the ESF board and advisory board participated, and a planning meeting of the advisory board was held following the conference. Several of the papers were subsequently published in Humphrey Tonkin & Maria Esposito Frank, eds., The Translator as Mediator of Cultures (Amsterdam: Benjamins, 2010) . Additional information from the conference program can be found here.