History of the Association

In 1948 the editors of English Studies, Professors R. W. Zandvoort (Groningen), Simonne d’Ardenne (Liège), Olof Arngart (Lund), C. A. Bodelsen (Copenhagen), Lorentz Eckhoff (Oslo), and Henry Lüdeke (Basle), together with Professors Kemp Malone (Baltimore), Mario Praz (Rome), Bohumil Trnka (Prague), and Fernand Mossé (Paris), addressed to professors of English in British universities a request to convene an international congress of English Studies. A conference of British professors of English, to which Professors d’Ardenne and Zandvoort were invited, was held in Edinburgh at Easter 1949. It was then decided to convene an international conference at Oxford in August 1950.

The Oxford conference was attended by about 150 professors of English from various countries, who resolved to hold a second conference at Paris in 1953. An international consultative committee was also set up, which in 1951 established the International Association of University Professors of English, affiliated to the International Federation of Modern Languages and Literatures (FILLM), thereby obtaining support from UNESCO.

Since then, triennial conferences have been held at Cambridge (1956), Lausanne (1959), Edinburgh (1962), Venice (1965), Dublin (1968), Istanbul (1971), UCLA (1974), Poznan (1977), Aberdeen (1980), Hamburg (1983), York (1986), Lausanne (1989), Peterborough, Canada (1992), Copenhagen (1995), Durham (1998), Bamberg (2001), Vancouver (2004), Lund (2007), and Malta (2010). The next conference will be held in Beijing (2013).

Presidents of the Association

• 1950-51: C. L. Wrenn (Oxford)

• 1951-53: A. H. Koszul (Paris)

• 1953-56: E. M. W. Tillyard (Cambridge)

• 1956-59: G. Bonnard (Lausanne)

• 1959-62: W. L. Renwick (Edinburgh)

• 1962-65: M. Praz (Rome/Venice)

• 1965-68: J. J. Hogan (Dublin)

• 1968-71: A. V. Turhan (Istanbul)

• 1971-74: W. Matthews (UCLA)

• 1974-77: J. Fisiak (Poznan)

• 1977-80: A. Rutherford (Aberdeen)

• 1980-83: R. Haas (Hamburg)

• 1983-86: J. Berthoud and D. Pearsall (York)

• 1986-89: I. J. Kirby (Lausanne)

• 1989-92: E. Orsten (Trent)

• 1992-95: A. Zettersten (Copenhagen)

• 1995-98: J. R. Watson (Durham)

• 1998-2001: W. Viereck (Bamberg)

• 2001-04: P. Stanwood (Vancouver)

• 2004-07: M. Thormählen (Lund)

• 2007-10: P. Vassallo (Malta)

• 2010-13: Li Cao (Tsinghua) and Li Jin (Beijing)

Secretary-Generals / Treasurers of the Association

• 1959-71: P. H. Butter

• 1971-95: J. J. Lawlor

• 1995-present: I. J. Kirby

Honorary Members of the Association

• R. W. Zandvoort

• Simonne d’Ardenne

• J. J. Lawlor

Officers of the Association

• “Officers of the Association and Members of the International Committee, 2010-13″

Joint Presidents

• Li Cao, Tsinghua University; Li Jin, Beijing Foreign Studies University

Past President

• Peter Vassallo, University of Malta

Secretary-General and Treasurer

• Ian Kirby, Lausanne

Chair of the International Committee:

• Jewel Spears Brooker, Eckerd College (Florida)

Members of the International Committee elected in 2010:

• Helen Ostovich, McMaster (Canada)

• Frederic Regard, Sorbonne

• Ray Siemens, Victoria (Canada)

• Tom Vargish, U.S. Air Force Academy

Members of the International Committee elected in 2007

• Dinah Birch, Liverpool

• Jewel Spears Brooker, Eckerd College

• Henryk Kardela, Lublin

• Merja Kyto, Uppsala

• Michael Lofaro, Tennessee

• Irma Taavitsainen, Helsinki