Throughout the holiday season, we are encouraging our supporters to read about the lives being impacted by our work. Read on to hear from Eldin Milak, one of our 2022 DDG awardees!
Eldin Milak (Sungkyunkwan University): “From the outset of my studies in linguistics, I was intrigued by the relationship between languages and the visual symbols we use to represent them. The ability to externalize and mark thought and language in the form of material signs which can traverse time and space, is perhaps one of humankind’s greatest achievements.
Having lived in South Korea for the past four years, I have become sensitized to the variety of ways in which different scripts can be used to reach different audiences, even if the linguistic message is the same. Unlike many Western contexts, where the prevalent account of language and script sees them as one and the same, scripts in the spaces of East Asia produce unique visual settings in which numerous systems and symbols compete for dominance, subvert expectations, and reproduce identities, histories, and nations. My aim is to describe this landscape to the best of my ability, and thanks to your generous contributions, I am much closer to that goal.
Your support is giving me the necessary encouragement to continue my research. As the funding for Humanities is running low around the world, student researchers like me are increasingly giving up on the work they love for fear of financial insecurity. Grants such as the DDGs remind us that the work we do is valuable and important, and that there are many individuals out there who are vested in improving our societies in ways which do not entail just economic growth and profit. As a scholar interested in exploring aspects of reality which are hidden in plain sight, I am very grateful for individuals such as yourself, who are able to maintain long-term vision in an increasingly shortsighted global order.”
Learn more about Eldin’s work here: http://www.tirfonline.org/…/TIRF_DDG_2022_EldinMilak.pdf
Our Trustees our matching donors’ gifts dollar for dollar between now and December 31st, up to $17,525 total. Use the following link to support doctoral students like Eldin: https://give-usa.keela.co/tirfs-2022-year-end-fundraiser1