Mark Fettes
Mark Fettes | |
---|---|
World Esperanto Association | |
In office 2013–2019 | |
Preceded by | Probal Dasgupta |
Succeeded by | Duncan Charters |
Mark Fettes is an
Career in Esperantujo
Fettes worked from October 1986 until January 1992 in the UEA central office as editor of the monthly magazine Esperanto. In this period he also re-established the UEA's public relations section; he has become known as a speaker and organizer. In 1990 he wrote an essay on the theme "One language for Europe," which won an award from the European Union Studies Association and later appeared as an official Esperanto document in several languages.
At the 77th
In 1992 he became an editor of the Esperanto magazine Monato, with a column La monda vilaĝo ("The global village"),[1] a position he held till 1995. Fettes began working with the Esperantic Studies Foundation (ESF) in 1995 and became its first director-general in 2000. In April 2001 he organized a seminar on Esperanto and education in Arlington, Virginia, part of the Washington, D.C. conurbation. The colloquium led to the creation of two educational website projects — edukado.net and lernu.net.
In 2010, after a 12-year absence from the UEA Komitato (its governing committee), Fettes went back as a category-B member (i.e., a member-at-large). He proposed that the Komitato create a board for strategic questions; the Komitato accepted his proposal and chose him to guide the board.
At a July 20, 2013 Komitato meeting held during the 98th World Congress of Esperanto in
Personal life
Fettes learnt Esperanto as a 14-year-old boy in New Zealand, having been introduced to it by his uncle Christopher Fettes.
In 2000 he and his family moved to Vancouver; after a year as a postdoctoral researcher at Simon Fraser University, he became an assistant professor in the education faculty, where he still works. After joining the SFU faculty, Fettes joined the board of ESF, where he is currently its vice-president. In this role he was responsible for ESF's collaboration with the international youth non-profit organization E@I and the planning and development of various networking and other projects.
In 2003 he received a $1 million research grant to study the education of indigenous children. In 2010, along with a colleague, he shared a second $1 million research grant to develop an environmental public elementary school in the neighbouring city of Maple Ridge.[3] The school aims to teach children about the environment and raise awareness of ecological issues. Fettes is also conducting a study to examine the differences between outdoor experiential learning and more traditional textbook learning.[3]
References
- ^ Paul Peeraerts, Enkonduko ("Introduction"), in Monato, January 1992 issue, page 3
- ^ Gazetaraj Komunikoj de UEA, No. 510: Respondecoj de la novaj UEA-estraranoj ("Responsibilities of the new executive members"). Accessed 16 July 2015.
- ^ a b Janet Steffenhagen, Environmental School Project: Place-Based Imaginative and Ecological Education in Maple Ridge, BC, Vancouver Sun. Accessed 16 July 2015.