Manuela Burghelea

Manuela Burghelea joined the Esperanto-Project at St Andrews as a continuation of her Master research on Esperanto between universal ideals and local cultural practices. She holds a joint MA degree in Intercultural Mediation (Lille) and a Bachelor degree in Philology (Bucureşti). Besides Romanian (native tongue), she speaks Esperanto, French, Portuguese, English, and German. Manuela conducted European volunteer work in Esperanto associations in France and in the Netherlands and is currently administrating the online citizen media translation community Global Voices Esperanto. Her project, funded by the St Andrews Interdisciplinary PhD funding scheme, focuses on the current millennial revival of Esperanto in a historical and anthropological perspective, jointly supervised with Professor Mark Harris (Social Anthropology). The project is entitled “Wandering Language: Senses of Place and Belonging among Esperanto Millennials”. In a socioanthropological and historical perspective, the project aims at analysing motivations, aspirations, and agendas of young Esperanto speakers in Rio de Janeiro. It is an original ethnography of one of today’s most vivid youth Esperanto communities and its multiple links in a global world.