ESF has recently announced the appointment of a new coordinator of university affairs as successor to Dr. Asya Pereltsvaig, who withdrew from that position in late 2017.
The new coordinator is Angela Tellier, of Britain. She will have responsibility for making contact with university personnel and other specialists who are concerned with Esperanto and interlinguistics either as teachers or as researchers, not only in North America but throughout the world. The aim of her role will be strengthening co-operation in this field nationally and internationally. At the same time she will serve as coordinator of university activities for the Centre for Research and Documentation on World Language Problems.
Dr. Tellier is a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Essex and honorary fellow of the University of Liverpool, where she coordinates the Buchanan Lectureship. She is interested in the propaedeutic role of Esperanto and its effect on the development of metalinguistic awareness in children; she has published widely in this field. Among other activities, she coordinated the five-year in-school research program Springboard to Languages. She is also interested in the lives and works of little-known Esperanto speakers and is currently working on a biography of the interlinguist Professor William Collinson.
“We are delighted to have Dr. Tellier’s help,” said Humphrey Tonkin, ESF president, announcing the appointment. “As someone familiar with the world of teaching and the world of universities, she will be able to move quickly to engage our colleagues across the world, encourage their cooperation, and maintain an overview of the progress of teaching and research on Esperanto and interlinguistics.”
Accepting the position, Dr. Tellier said, “I am very happy to be an integral part of such a prestigious organization as ESF. I’m really looking forward to advancing its important role in the university community.
Dr. Tellier will begin her work in September 2018. In the meantime, ESF will prepare a report on teaching and research in this field, to be compiled by Juan Diego Diaz Bautista (Seville); and Dr. Xavier Alcalde (Barcelona) will organize a symposium immediately following the World Congress of Esperanto (Lisbon, July 28 – August 4) which will consider the report and discuss the role of Esperanto and interlinguistics in linguistics and the social sciences – and vice versa, namely the role of linguistics and the social sciences in teaching and research on Esperanto and interlinguistics.