19 March 2020
The Prospect of Holding the 92nd Annual Conference of the ELSJ
Under the Current Circumstance Concerning the New Coronavirus Spread
As the new coronavirus has been globally spreading, it will probably take a long time to contain it in Japan. Now
we need to consider an adequate balance between keeping our health and conducting our sound social life. Under thiscircumstance, the executive board committee of the ELSJ discussed if we should hold the 92nd Annual Conference,
which is to be held on 16 and 17 May at the University of the Ryukyus, and confirmed the following guidelines.
1. When to Judge the Possibility of Holding the Conference
We will judge if the conference is held or not around one month before the scheduled dates and publish the decisionby 20 April (Mon) through our website (www.elsj.org) and other media. Moreover, the secretary to the conference
management committee will send an email to all the speakers and chairs. As for the reception on the evening of the16th, it would automatically be cancelled in the event of the conference not taking place at all. However, should wedecide to hold the conference without the reception, we will let you know through the website and other media.
2. Guidelines for the Decision
We will consult, as well as other various elements, if the curriculum at the University of the Ryukyus is carried out
regularly around the time of our conference. If it is confirmed that the University of the Ryukyus will not have any
particular problem in receiving us, we would like to hold our annual conference with thorough care for preventing
the infection of the new coronavirus. If you refuse to attend the conference when it is held, you will be regarded as
being absent from it for your personal reasons. If you cannot come to the University of the Ryukyus (though youwant to) because of some unavoidable circumstances, however, we will consider the possibility of online participation,using Skype and other means. Such unavoidable circumstances include, for example, living in a country or area wheretravels are restricted, and refraining from attending the conference because of some symptoms suggesting aninfection.
3. Alternative Opportunity in the Event of the Conference Being Cancelled
Should we have to cancel the conference at the University of the Ryukyus, we will build a cloud space on ourwebsite, which will be open for limited days only to the members of the ELSJ. The documents relevant to thepresentations will be uploaded there and this space will be regarded as the virtual site of our 92nd annual conference.
The documents will be collected from speakers around the end of June and the virtual conference will be held in July.
If speakers submit the necessary documents, the ELSJ will admit them as the speakers’ record of conference papers.
As there still are many things to be decided about the virtual conference (if it becomes necessary), the secretary to theconference management committee would contact all the speakers and chairs via emails as soon as its details are
fixed, and they would also be made public to other members of the ELSJ through our website.
The English Literary Society of Japan
President Noriyuki Harada
Secretary General Miki Iwata
Chair of the Conference Management Committee Yuri Fuwa
Executive Board Committee