---------- Forwarded message ----------
From:
Mark Sedgwick <[log in to unmask]>Date: 22 December 2011 18:59
Subject: Email from Dr. Marco Pasi
To:
[log in to unmask]Dear ESSWE member,
I would like to draw your attention to an important open letter that is being addressed to the European Commissioner for Research and Innovation, Máire Geoghegan-Quinn. As some of you may know, the future research programme of the European Commission is now being discussed and there are many concerns about the continuing presence of funding for research projects in the humanities and the social sciences. There are reasons to believe that, if action is not taken now, these research areas may be largely, or even totally, neglected in future European research programmes. Since the vast majority, if not the totality, of the ESSWE members are scholars working within the humanities or the social sciences, I think we have reasons to be concerned. Possibilities for creating an umbrella organization that will voice these concerns and defend the interests of scholars in the humanities and social sciences with the European institutions are now being explored. In the meanwhile, the petition is an important first step towards making these issues visible and sensitive, both at institutional level and in the public opinion. I would invite you all to read the text of the open letter and sign it, if you agree with it. You can find the text and the online form for signing here:
http://www.eash.eu/openletter2011/. Twenty-three thousand colleagues have already signed so far.
You are of course also welcome to further spread this message.
Best regards,
Marco Pasi
Dr. Marco Pasi
Associate Professor
History of Hermetic Philosophy and Related Currents
Treasurer of the European Association for the Study of Religions (EASR)
Universiteit van Amsterdam
Oude Turfmarkt 141
1012 GC Amsterdam
Tel.
+31-20-525.4880
Fax
+31-20-525.3572
Email:
[log in to unmask]
Website chair group:
www.amsterdamhermetica.com
Website EASR:
www.easr.eu
Website ESSWE:
www.esswe.org
