The Esperantic Studies Foundation has established the Humphrey Tonkin Fund for Innovation, in honor of the more than 50 years of Professor Humphrey Tonkin’s exceptional commitment to ESF’s work supporting scholarship, linguistic justice, and education.
An anonymous donor will match $10,000 if we achieve this level of donations by the end of 2023. So far we have raised $10,000 towards our $10,000 target! That's 100% of the goal! Help us reach the total by donating today!
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The esfconnected.org blog presents the work, services, accomplishments, etc., of ESF, as a public face for the foundation to the rest of the educated world. Articles will be written by the board, recipients of grants, members of the advisory board, symposium organizers, and special guests. Please subscribe, read the posts and comment!
Just posted: Read about "Edwin Michelsen's Research in China, Japan and Korea," which is a project ESF supported by a Marjorie Boulton Fellowship grant.
Marjorie Boulton Fellowships Awarded
29 June 2021
TWO YOUNG SCHOLARS RECEIVE BOULTON AWARDS
Guilherme Moreira Fians and Edwin Michielsen are the 2021 recipients of the Marjorie Boulton Fellowships of the Esperantic Studies Foundation.
Guilherme Moreira Fians (Brazil) received his Ph.D. in social anthropology from the University of Manchester in 2019 and is currently Lecturer in Anthropology at the University of Brasília. He is co-editor of the journal Esperantologio / Esperanto Studies and serves on the board of the Center for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems (CED). His research project builds on the subject of his Ph.D. dissertation, an ethnographic study of the Esperanto movement in France, and seeks to understand how languages and digital media have an impact on the way people develop and convey political perspectives. “My project will explore how right-wing nationalists mobilize hashtags, bots, languages and other discursive mechanisms to make online political discussions more dynamic and, at the same time, confrontational,” comments Dr. Fians. “Investigating these themes from an original perspective that accounts for these phenomena’s cross-border manifestations, my work will take Brazilians who speak Esperanto as its focus.”
Edwin Michielsen (Netherlands and Canada) holds BA and MA degrees from the University of Leiden in Japanese studies and has recently (2021) completed his Ph.D. at the University of Toronto with a dissertation on “Proletarian Arts and Internationalism in East Asia.” He has served as Visiting Research Fellow at Waseda University and Visiting Junior Fellow at Seoul National University and has done additional research work in China (Tsinghua University) and Japan (Tokyo University). His Marjorie Boulton Fellowship will take him back to Waseda University and to the Japanese Esperanto Institute to examine the early history of Esperanto in Japan and China and particularly how Esperanto was utilized by proletarian writers in the first half of the twentieth century to assemble a linguistic solidarity worldwide against imperial languages and linguistic oppression.
The Boulton Fellowships are named for Marjorie Boulton (1924-2017), a leading poet and scholar in Esperanto over many years and well known also as an educator and scholar of English language and literature. Author of a series of eight popular books on literature beginning with The Anatomy of Poetry (1953), Dr. Boulton also produced the standard biography of the founder of Esperanto, L.L. Zamenhof, in both English and Esperanto editions. In Esperanto she wrote original poems, essays and plays. She held a doctorate from Oxford University and was a member of the Esperanto Academy.
“We are delighted to be able to assist these two young scholars in their examination of the way in which the movement for the International Language Esperanto intersects with larger political and linguistic forces,” commented Charles O. Mays, executive director of the Esperantic Studies Foundation, “We are honored to welcome them into the ESF research community.”
Statement of purpose
ESF works to further the understanding and practice of linguistic justice in a multicultural world.
We aim to develop and support excellence in scholarship, education, and interlingual communication.
Our priorities and values are shaped through engagement with the worldwide community of Esperanto speakers, as well as with researchers, educators and activists in many language-related fields.
Tivadar Soros Lecture Series
Through support provided by the Soros family, the Esperantic Studies Foundation recently sponsored the Tivadar Soros Lectures, presented at the City University of New York. We are now able to make available these interviews with four of the lecturers.
Esther Schor
Ulrich Lins
Ulrich Becker
Michael Gordin
Esperanto history and its place in society
Read about the Esperanto history and its place in current society, by Asya Pereltsvaig
Support ESF!
By supporting the Esperantic Studies Foundation, you will be supporting efforts to promote language equality in the world and equitable, high-quality communication across cultures and language groups. Click here to make a donation.
- Students at Poznan Interlinguistics Program (photo: Ilona Koutny)
- NASK 2005 (photo: Phil Dorcas)
- NASK: North American Summer Esperanto Institute (photo: Phil Dorcas)
- NASK: North American Summer Esperanto Institute (photo: Steve Brewer)
- Students at Macaulay / CUNY Program, 2015
- Students at Macaulay / CUNY Program, 2015
- Students at Macaulay / CUNY Program, 2015
- Esther Schor (Macaulay / CUNY Program, 2015)
- Lernu.net: the largest multilingual Esperanto learning website and community
- Edukado.net: the largest website for Esperanto teachers
- UN Symposium, New York, 2018
2020 ESF Update
by Grant Goodall (in Esperanto)
Have you ever wondered why left-wing activists in France learn a language called Esperanto to discuss politics across national borders, or why young people are linking linguistic justice with activism for open-source software?
If your answer is yes - this book is for you!
If you answer is no - well, the time has come.
Cambridge University confers an Honorary Degree to António Guterres - 3 November 2021
Click to Read the Remarks by António Guterres at the Cambridge University Honorary Degree Ceremony
Final Report on the Symposium: "Language and Migration: Experience and Memory"
Held by the Migration Lab, Princeton University and The Study Group on Language and the United Nations
April 19 - May 1, 2021
2020 End of Year Message
Read ESF's 2020 year-end message from President, Humphrey Tonkin by clicking here.
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Testimonials
I don't hesitate to support ESF, because for me, this foundation is the most important and effective for spreading Esperanto and getting people to accept it. You only need to take a look at the various activities that ESF supports, to understand that the money donated to this foundation is well used and bears concrete and useful fruits.
(Trefflé Mercier, Canada)
I donate to ESF because I agree with and trust the work that they fund. ESF runs and supports some of the most important spaces for Esperanto on the internet, always with a modern eye and inspiring results
(Fernando Maia Jr., Brazil)