Spring 2001 MLA Volume 33, Number 1 N E W S L E T T E R

In This Issue 1 Executive Director Search 2 2000 Election Results

3 President’s Column • Sylvia Molloy JERRY FRISHMAN PHOTOGRAPHY Moving dialogue 4 Editor’s Column • Phyllis Franklin October 2000 employment trends 30 Findings from the MLA Survey of Staffing in English and Foreign Language Departments, Fall 1999

BOOK NEWS Call for contributions in Approaches series 29 Three new MLA titles published 29

CONVENTION Winners of MLA prizes announced 2 Calls for papers for 2001 convention 8 ADE and ADFL department chairs’ hotel reservations 29 Participants in the Presidential Forum “Creative Collaboration: Alternatives to the Adversarial Academy.” Stand- GOVERNANCE ing (left to right): Corinne Arraez, Linda Hutcheon, J. Edward Chamberlin, and Levi Namaseb; seated (left to Requests for comments on Delegate right): Andrea A. W. Lunsford, Lisa Susan Ede, Frances Smith Foster, and Nellie McKay. The photographs here Assembly resolutions 7 and on pages 7, 13, 26, and 29 were taken at the 2000 MLA convention in Washington, DC. Delegate Assembly meeting summary 32

MEETINGS JOB ANNOUNCEMENT 2001 ADE and ADFL Summer Seminars 29

MLA WEB SITE NEWS 2 Search for New Executive Director Phyllis Franklin has announced her intention to retire at the end of her current term as execu- Other News and Announcements tive director of the association. Accordingly, the MLA Executive Council has established a Report on women in the profession 8 MLA parliamentarian 8 search committee, which invites applications for the position. The call for applications follows. Correction 29 Classified advertisements 35 MLA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Fellowships and grants deadlines 35 Upcoming MLA deadlines 36 Under the direction of an executive council, the executive director administers the af- fairs of the association, working with a staff of ninety-two full-time employees at the headquarters office in New York City. As an ex officio member of all MLA committees and commissions and in conjunction with eight senior directors, the executive director has general oversight of the entire range of association publications and activities, in- cluding an annual budget of $12.8 million. Applicants should combine appropriate financial and administrative experience with substantial scholarly credentials in a discipline represented by the MLA. The director must be responsive to the wide spectrum of interests and concerns of association mem- bers and have a strong sense of the current and long-range needs of the profession and the humanities. In addition, the director should possess the ability to articulate the scholarly and professional meaning of the association to the public at large, including government agencies and the many organizations with which the MLA has traditionally New Orleans cooperated. Starting date not later than the summer of 2002; salary commensurate with qualifica- 2001 tions and experience. Send nominations or résumés to Sylvia Molloy, Chair of the Search Committee, Modern Language Association, 26 Broadway, 3rd floor, New York, New York Calls for papers begin on page 8. 10004-1789. Preference will be given to applications received prior to 15 April 2001. The MLA is an equal-opportunity employer. MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 2

2000 Election Results CONVENTION In the elections conducted last fall, Mary Winners of MLA Prizes Announced Louise Pratt (Spanish, Stanford Univ.) was elected second vice president of the asso- The winners of ten annual prizes and four biennial awards given by the MLA were rec- ciation. Pratt will serve in that office in ognized at the 2000 MLA convention in Washington, DC. Sylvia Molloy, first vice presi- 2001, will become first vice president in dent of the association, announced and presented the prizes at a ceremony preceding the 2002, and will succeed to the office of Presidential Address on 28 December. president in 2003. William Riley Parker Prize: Rita Felski, “Nothing to Declare: Identity, Shame, and the Judith Butler (Univ. of California, Berke- Lower Middle Class” (PMLA, January 2000) ley), Rey Chow (Brown Univ.), and Tey James Russell Lowell Prize: Mary Baine Campbell, Wonder and Science: Imagining Worlds Diana Rebolledo (Univ. of New Mexico) in Early Modern Europe (Cornell University Press) were elected members of the Executive Council for the term 2001–04. Butler and Modern Language Association Prize for a First Book: Srinivas Aravamudan, Tropico- politans: Colonialism and Agency, 1688–1804 (Duke University Press). Honorable Mentions: Chow represent fields defined as “other” Ian Baucom, Out of Place: Englishness, Empire, and the Locations of Identity (Princeton Uni- by the MLA constitution (art. 8.A.5), and versity Press), and Yopie Prins, Victorian Sappho (Princeton University Press) Rebolledo represents the field of Spanish. Fifty-one new representatives were Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize: Guy Cook, Language Play, Language Learning (Oxford elected to the Delegate Assembly. Sixteen University Press) delegates were elected to represent special- Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize: A. Suresh Canagarajah, Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in En- interest categories in the assembly, and glish Teaching (Oxford University Press) thirty-five delegates were elected to repre- Howard R. Marraro Prize and the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Italian Lit- sent seven geographical regions in the erary Studies: Margaret Brose, Leopardi Sublime (Re Enzo Editrice), and Nancy L. United States and Canada. The names of Canepa, From Court to Forest: Giambattista Basile’s Lo Cunto de li cunti and the Birth of the Delegate Assembly members will appear Literary Fairy Tale (Wayne State University Press) in the September 2001 PMLA. Modern Language Association Prize for Independent Scholars: Steven J. Holmes, The In addition, eighty-four members were Young John Muir: An Environmental Biography (University of Wisconsin Press) elected to the division executive commit- tees. Their names will also appear in the Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize: Idelber Avelar, The Untimely Present: Postdictatorial Latin September 2001 PMLA. American Fiction and the Task of Mourning (Duke University Press) Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies: Leonard Barkan, Unearthing the Past: Archaeology and Aesthetics in the Making of Renaissance Culture (Yale WWW.MLA.ORG University Press). Honorable Mention: Sharon Marcus, Apartment Stories: City and Home MLA Web Site News in Nineteenth-Century Paris and London (University of California Press) Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for French and Francophone Studies: Margaret Featured Cohen, The Sentimental Education of the Novel (Princeton University Press), and Philip •Results of the 1999 MLA survey of Watts, Allegories of the Purge: How Literature Responded to the Postwar Trials of Writers and staffing in English and foreign language Intellectuals in France (Stanford University Press) departments are available in the fea- Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Germanic Languages and Literatures: Lutz tured contents section of the MLA Web Koepnick, Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetics of Power (University of Nebraska Press) site at http://www.mla.org. The survey Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Literary Work: Norman R. provides information on staffing prac- Shapiro, One Hundred and One Poems by Paul Verlaine (University of Chicago Press) tices from 1,988 departments in a searchable format. Modern Language Association Prize for a Distinguished Bibliography: David W.Forbes, Hawaiian National Bibliography 1780–1900, 1: 1780–1830 (University of Hawai’i Press) New Reports and Documents Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Publication Award for a Manuscript in Italian Literary •MLA Statement on the Significance of Studies: Victoria Eulalia Kirkham, Fabulous Vernacular: Boccaccio’s Filocolo and the Art of Primary Records (originally published in Medieval Fiction (University of Michigan Press) Profession 95) The MLA’s prizes are awarded under the auspices of the Committee on Honors and •Preserving Research Collections, a Collab- Awards, which appoints the members of the selection committees and determines proce- oration between Libraries and Scholars dures, deadlines, and criteria for eligibility for all the prizes. Deadlines for upcoming •Summary of Data from Surveys by the prizes appear on page 36. To submit books or to obtain detailed information about any of Coalition on the Academic Workforce the prizes, call or write the Office of Special Projects at the MLA office (646 576-5141; [email protected]). Member and 2001 Convention Information The MLA Newsletter (ISSN 0160-5720) is published four times a year (Spring, Summer, Fall, •Calls for papers Winter) by the Modern Language Association of America, 26 Broadway, 3rd floor, New York, •Special-session proposal forms for the New York 10004-1789. The MLA Newsletter is edited by the executive director of the association, Phyllis Franklin. The managing editor is Judy Goulding. The cost of an annual 2001 convention in New Orleans subscription is $6. The subscription price is included in the dues of all members of the •Membership renewal association. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offices. •Publications information and sales All news items and letters should be sent to the MLA Newsletter at the above address. •What’s the Word? (MLA radio series POSTMASTER: Send address changes to MLA Newsletter, 26 Broadway, 3rd floor, New streamed for modem or high-speed York, NY 10004-1789. connection) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 3

PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Moving Dialogue s in all MLA conventions, the one in Washington last Decem- glossed over in our more lofty literary and cultural debates. The Aber used the services of a shuttle bus. Described in the MLA MLA has traditionally observed the division between English and brochure as a convenience, it seemed, at times, more like an un- foreign languages (with comparative literature caught somewhere avoidable nuisance. People standing on the pavement outside the in the middle). Up until the not so distant past, this made for tidy hotels groused when they had just missed a bus and realized they MLA conventions in which territorial domains existed side by would have to wait all of ten minutes for the next one. Looking side, usually oblivious of each other and sometimes, when enroll- irked, bored, or just resigned, they wondered out loud (an exercise ments were at stake, suspicious of each other. Some of these do- we academics seem to relish) why things had to be so compli- mains, like French and German, formed alliances with others cated. It seemed as if every desirable event, whether it was a through comparative literature. Others, like English, forgot that panel, a business meeting, the presidential forum, the Delegate they too were “languages.” Yet others felt left out altogether and, Assembly, or the book exhibit, was unfailingly held at the other instead of forging (or even forcing) links, raised battlements or hotel. Many of us took that shuttle during those three days, so abandoned the field. Spanish was in that position, with Hispanists many of us that we impressed one of the drivers, who jocularly fleeing to other organizations where we felt we had a better observed, “I don’t know what you folks do exactly but whatever it chance at dialogue. Underlying many of these conflicts, born out is there are a whole lot of you doing it.” The remark was ad- of mutual misunderstanding, was a perception that, to a point, ob- dressed to me as I waited for other convention members to board, tains even today: that literature, theory, and most forms of critical and I was not amused. “It seems all we really do is to take this thought occur in English; that languages occur in varying degrees shuttle back and forth,” I said with some irritation. Only later, in, well, foreign languages. when reflecting on the ways in which our different fields and dis- In spite of welcome critical revisions and genuine attempts at ciplines function, did I realize how unexpectedly apt my feeble dialogue, the perception that languages are “just” languages en- joke was. Taking the shuttle back and forth is, indeed, a central dures, has been given new credibility by the general public and, aspect of our intellectual activity. Or, at least, it should be. to the dismay of many of us, by administrators. Foreign languages I am referring here not to the institutional or professional links (some seen as more “foreign” than others) are often gauged prag- we establish with other colleagues as we deal with the many matically, their worth weighed in terms of popular demand and pressing issues facing higher education today but to another type immediate utility, their future imperiled if they fail to measure of connection. There are topics of concern that make for common up. Small language departments worry. They have every reason to reflection and action without the explicit need of the cumbersome do so. And while Spanish, due to its exceptionally high enroll- shuttle: the uncertain role of the humanities in an increasingly ments, escapes some of these pitfalls, it does not escape the per- corporate-minded university system, the erosion of faculty gover- ception that it too is “just” language. (Indeed, at times it would nance, the stealthy downgrading of the tenure-track system, and appear that its popularity with undergraduates disallows its being the increased reliance on inadequately paid part-time labor are all considered anything else.) issues that (despite specific local differences that by no means Alliances can and should be formed to work against this stingy should be ignored) bring us together naturally or at least should perception of language both within and without the academy, al- bring us together, since they affect the future of higher education liances that should cross disciplinary lines and include all the hu- as a whole. I am speaking instead of less evident connections, the manities. Many of us working in more than one field say that we ones we do not always recognize or know quite how to forge, feel comfortable with multicultural dialogue (or what we think of among all the “modern languages” of the MLA and the cultural as multicultural dialogue). But I wonder if comfort should not be practices they represent. These connections, questioning territor- read as a warning here. For all its talk about multiculturalism, the ial claims, challenging assumptions about “our” fields, and shak- academy, when it comes to languages, seems to be resolutely ing us out of complacency, would ultimately lead to more monolingual. Perhaps we need to recover the value of discomfort, imaginative, although not always comfortable, intellectual exchange. the kind of discomfort, for example, that comes with the labori- And here is where comparison with the shuttle comes in handy. ous learning of a new language. It is that discomfort that I would I could have chosen a more noble metaphor to reflect on these like to summon with the image of the shuttle: an image of move- other links instead of resorting to the lowly shuttle. Say border ment back and forth, of some awkwardness, possible delays, of crossings, say translation: as one born and raised in one country, puzzling unfamiliarity and mutual impatience, to be sure. But the trained in another, working in yet a third, and brought up trilin- shuttle also promises renewed intellectual exchange, true multilin- gual, I know the full value, both literal and metaphorical, of these gual awareness, and, ideally, multilingual critical work. In that re- terms, their decentering potential, both for good and for bad. Yet visionary exchange, foreign languages would think of themselves the image of the shuttle, precisely because of its inescapable ba- as cultural practices in relation to others and create new forms of nality, allows for a host of related experiences and feelings, usu- cross-cultural work; and English, not forgetting that it too is a lan- ally obscured or repressed in the more prestigious metaphors, to guage, would also revise its borders to participate fully in that come forth. Inconvenience, delays, obstruction, difficult traffic, multilingual, cross-cultural give-and-take. and personal discomfort are the stuff of shuttle transportation. Utopian? Perhaps. But pedestrian as well. It would be great to They are also the stuff of some of the connections I believe we tell my driver, he who wanted to know “exactly what we all did,” should strive to establish. that, in fact, this is what we do: we shuttle. I am thinking specifically of languages, of the perception of lan- guages in our profession, an issue if not neglected at least often Sylvia Molloy MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 4

EDITOR’S COLUMN

October 2000 Employment Trends aiting for the annual count of the jobs announced in the Oc- 104 in 2000. In foreign languages, the number of non-tenure-track Wtober Job Information List (JIL) is always difficult. I try not to positions decreased 2.3%, from 87 in 1999 to 85 in 2000. This be a pest, but I know that I am, peering over colleagues’ shoul- trend in job listings is consonant with the growing use nationwide ders, pressing them to guess at how the numbers will turn out, of part-time and non-tenure-track teachers and graduate student and knowing that only the most extraordinary improvement teaching assistants. would prevent the disappointment of many job seekers. Even so, Just as I wait each year for the count of the October job listings, I’m relieved to learn that this year’s count shows modest improve- so do I watch for the release of the Annual Survey of Earned Doc- ment in English and remains stable in foreign languages. The torates from United States Universities, which is sponsored by the number of English positions increased 6%, rising from 899 to 959. National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Na- In foreign languages, the number of listings decreased by less tional Endowment for the Humanities, United States Department than 1%, dropping from 672 to 666. Figure 1 presents trends in of Education, and United States Department of Agriculture. Com- the number of October JIL positions from 1975 through 2000. paring the number of entry-level positions with the number of The most desirable entry-level academic jobs are “definite” or PhDs granted each year offers a gauge of the difficulty of finding funded tenure-track assistant professor positions. The growth rate a good academic job. Data from the newest Survey of Earned Doc- in this kind of position was particularly disappointing this year. In torates indicate that in the academic year 1998–99, 1,024 doctor- English, the number of these appointments did not increase in ates were awarded in English and American language and proportion to the overall number of jobs announced. In the Octo- literature and 628 were granted in foreign languages and litera- ber 2000 JIL, 528 of the listings in English were for definite tures. While both numbers continue a three-year downward tenure-track assistant professorships, an increase of only 2% from trend—English language doctorates have declined 6% since 1997; 1999, whereas English tenure-track positions overall rose 7%, foreign language doctorates have decreased 4%—the number of from 769 to 821. In foreign languages, definite tenure-track assis- new PhDs is still significantly greater than the number of jobs tant professor positions decreased by 3.3%, from 343 positions in available. Moreover, each year those who earned degrees in previ- 1999 to 333 in 2000. This decline mirrors a general drop in for- ous years join the new degree holders in competing for tenure- eign language tenure-track positions, from 521 in 1999 to 504 in track employment. Figure 4 presents trends in the number of 2000. Figures 2 and 3 show trends since 1990 in all positions and doctorate recipients in English and foreign languages from 1970 the definite tenure-track assistant professor listings in the October through 1999. JIL. Counts for 1982, the previous low, are provided as a refer- Finally, I call your attention to tables 1 and 2, which indicate ence point. trends in the kinds of expertise departments have looked for in re- Relatively few departments announce non-tenure-track posi- cent years. Table 3 presents the number of positions announced in tions in the JIL, and the number of these positions remains small. various languages. Unfortunately, the number is growing. In the field of English, non-tenure-track positions increased by 68%, from 62 in 1999 to Phyllis Franklin

Table 1 Positions Listed by Field Specialization 1997 1998 1999 2000 2000 versus 1999 2000 versus 1997 N % N % N % N % Difference % Change Difference % Change British literature 134 19.3 177 20.0 194 21.6 226 23.6 32 16.5 92 68.7 American literature 63 9.1 95 10.7 103 11.5 85 8.9 –18 –17.5 22 34.9 Multiethnic literatures by people of color 74 10.7 109 12.3 85 9.5 101 10.5 16 18.8 27 36.5 Subtotal 137 19.7 204 23.1 188 20.9 186 19.4 –2 –1.1 49 35.8 Rhetoric and composition 131 18.9 198 22.4 183 20.4 197 20.5 14 7.7 66 50.4 Technical and professional writing 30 4.3 50 5.6 45 5.0 53 5.5 8 17.8 23 76.7 Subtotal 161 23.2 248 28.0 228 25.4 250 26.1 22 9.6 89 55.3 Creative writing 59 8.5 68 7.7 72 8.0 80 8.3 8 11.1 21 35.6 English education 27 3.9 58 6.6 43 4.8 23 2.4 –20 –46.5 –4 –14.8 Media and communication 21 3.0 17 1.9 41 4.6 61 6.4 20 48.8 40 190.5 World literature 17 2.4 17 1.9 23 2.6 32 3.3 9 39.1 15 88.2 Linguistics, history of the language 22 3.2 25 2.8 30 3.3 18 1.9 –12 –40.0 –4 –18.2 Women’s studies 5 0.7 11 1.2 13 1.4 12 1.3 –1 –7.7 7 140.0 Other 111 16.0 60 6.8 67 7.5 71 7.4 4 6.0 –40 –36.0 Total 694 100.00 885 100.00 899 100.00 959 100.00 60 6.7 265 38.2 MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 5

Fig. 1 Number of Positions in the October MLA JIL, 1975–2000 1,200 1,053 ● 976 959 937 926 1,000 892 ● 899 ● ● ● 885 ● ● ● 784 ◆ 735 800 ● ◆ 863 ◆ 700 ◆ ● 679 694 ◆ 800 ● ◆ 782 756 620 624 ● 605 ● ◆ ◆ 551 544 567 723 ● ● ◆ 600 512 523 523 695 ◆ ● ◆ ◆ ◆ 672 666 ● ● ● 638 ◆ 434 440 438 ● ● ● ◆ 606 ◆ ◆ 593 603 590 381 ◆ 538 ● ● ● ◆ ◆ ◆ 499 510 508 400 ◆ ◆● ◆ ◆ 463 420 444

Number of Positions ◆ 412 373 375 385 377 323 200

0 1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000

● English ◆ Foreign languages

Fig. 2 Fig. 3 Definite Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Positions and All Definite Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Positions and All Positions in the English Edition of the October MLA JIL Positions in the Foreign Language Edition of the October MLA JIL 959 1,000 926 1,000 899 ● ● 885 900 ● ● 900 800 735 800 756 700 ● ● 679 694 672 ● 666 700 620 624 ● ● 700 638 ● 605 606 593 603 590 ● ● ● ● 544 ● 532 ● 538 ● ● ● 600 518 600 510 ● ◆ 508 ● 459 ◆ 500 463 ● ● 500 ◆ ● 344 333 400 307 400 291 299 276 ◆ 249 267 261 262 ◆ 300 ◆ 217 234 ◆ ◆ 300 239 Number of Positions 207 Number of Positions ◆ 203 205 ◆ 208 197 ◆ ◆ 175 ◆ ◆ ◆ 200 ◆ ◆ ◆ 200 ◆ ◆ ◆ 100 90 ◆ 100 ◆ 100 ◆ 0 0 1982 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 1982 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

● All positions ● All positions ◆ Definite tenure-track assistant professorships ◆ Definite tenure-track assistant professorships

Fig. 4 Number of Doctorate Recipients in English and Foreign Languages, 1970–99 1,600 1,412 1,363 ● 1,367 1,400 ● ● 1,290 1,243 ● 1,215 ● 1,200 1,093 ● 1,079 1,079 1,094 1,077 ● ● 1,027 ● 1,013 ● ● 1,024 ● 951 948 943 ● ● 1,000 911 903 ● 852 ● ● ◆ ● 816 ● 771 796 ● ◆ ◆ ◆ ● 734 800 ◆ 886 ● 714 728 721 716 720 ● 836 ● 669 ◆ 811 797 824 ◆ ● ● ● ● ● ● ◆ 728 728 ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ 600 ◆ ◆ ◆ 646 637 648 ◆ ◆ 639 653 643 ◆ 605 628 579 ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ ◆ 576 594 535 ◆ ◆ 562 504 ◆ ◆ ◆ 512 Number of Doctorate Recipients 400 491 492 498 435 445 444 430 432

200

0 1970 1971 1972 1973 1974 1975 1976 1977 1978 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

● English ◆ Foreign languages

Source: National Science Foundation, Annual Survey of Earned Doctorates (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 6

(continued from previous page)

Table 2 Positions Listed by Field Specification 1997 1998 1999 2000 2000 versus 1999 2000 versus 1997 N % N % N % N % Difference % Change Difference % Change Literature by period (all languages) 101 16.7 90 15.3 101 15.0 96 14.4 –5 –5.0 –5 –5.0 Pre-16th-century literature 9 1.5 10 1.7 7 1.0 11 1.7 4 57.1 2 22.2 16th-century literature 3 0.5 2 0.3 6 0.9 3 0.5 –3 –50.0 0 0.0 16th- and 17th-century literature 12 2.0 10 1.7 11 1.6 8 1.2 –3 –27.3 –4 –33.3 17th-century literature 2 0.3 2 0.3 2 0.3 0 0.0 –2 –100.0 –2 –100.0 17th- and 18th-century literature 1 0.2 5 0.8 1 0.1 4 0.6 3 300.0 3 300.0 18th-century literature 6 1.0 5 0.8 7 1.0 4 0.6 –3 –42.9 –2 –33.3 18th- and 19th-century literature 5 0.8 0 0.0 2 0.3 5 0.8 3 150.0 0 0.0 19th-century literature 9 1.5 4 0.7 5 0.7 5 0.8 0 0.0 –4 –44.4 19th- and 20th-century literature 13 2.2 11 1.9 6 0.9 12 1.8 6 100.0 –1 –7.7 20th-century literature 20 3.3 26 4.4 28 4.2 23 3.5 –5 –17.9 3 15.0 Period literature (period other than above) 21 3.5 15 2.5 26 3.9 21 3.2 –5 –19.2 0 0.0 General literature, culture, and civilization (all languages) 75 12.4 78 13.2 84 12.5 88 13.2 4 4.8 13 17.3 Literature 69 11.4 58 9.8 72 10.7 68 10.2 –4 –5.6 –1 –1.4 Culture and civilization 6 1.0 20 3.4 12 1.8 20 3.0 8 66.7 14 233.3 Ibero-American literature and studies 149 24.7 152 25.8 194 28.9 204 30.6 10 5.2 55 36.9 Latin American literature and studies 81 13.4 86 14.6 93 13.8 106 15.9 13 14.0 25 30.9 Peninsular literature and studies 38 6.3 49 8.3 63 9.4 59 8.9 –4 –6.3 21 55.3 Hispanic literature and studies 30 5.0 17 2.9 11 1.6 26 3.9 15 136.4 –4 –13.3 Ibero-American literature and studies 0 0.0 0 0.0 27 4.0 13 2.0 –14 –51.9 13 — Other regional literatures and studies 39 6.5 43 7.3 45 6.7 29 4.4 –16 –35.6 –10 –25.6 Ethnic literature and studies (general) 2 0.3 2 0.3 2 0.3 2 0.3 0 0.0 0 0.0 Francophone literature and studies 18 3.0 14 2.4 31 4.6 19 2.9 –12 –38.7 1 5.6 Middle Eastern literature and studies 2 0.3 1 0.2 2 0.3 0 0.0 –2 –100.0 –2 –100.0 Asian literature and studies 7 1.2 12 2.0 4 0.6 1 0.2 –3 –75.0 –6 –85.7 African literature and studies 1 0.2 0 0.0 2 0.3 2 0.3 0 0.0 1 100.0 European literature and studies 6 1.0 13 2.2 1 0.1 2 0.3 1 100.0 –4 –66.7 British or American literature and studies 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 0.1 0 0.0 –1 –100.0 0 0.0 Classics 3 0.5 1 0.2 2 0.3 3 0.5 1 50.0 0 0.0 Linguistics and comparative literature 79 13.1 86 14.6 103 15.3 109 16.4 6 5.8 30 38.0 Linguistics 64 10.6 67 11.4 85 12.6 86 12.9 1 1.2 22 34.4 Comparative literature 15 2.5 19 3.2 17 2.5 23 3.5 6 35.3 8 53.3 Philology and history of language 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 0.1 0 0.0 –1 –100.0 0 0.0 Other fields 160 26.5 141 23.9 145 21.6 140 21.0 –5 –3.4 –20 –12.5 Total 603 100.00 590 100.00 672 100.00 666 100.00 –6 –0.9 63 10.4 MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 7

GOVERNANCE Table 3 Foreign Language Positions Advertised in the October 2000 JIL Request for Comments on Language(s) Number Percentage Delegate Assembly Resolutions Spanish and Portuguese 339 50.9 MLA members are asked to comment on the three resolutions Spanish 335 50.3 that the Delegate Assembly approved at its meeting on 29 Decem- Portuguese and/or Lusophone 4 0.6 ber 2000 in Washington, DC. The comment process will be conducted in a members-only area French and Italian 112 16.8 of the Web site (http://www.mla.org). The text of each resolution French 88 13.2 will be posted at the Web site on 1 March, and members may enter French and Italian 0 0.0 signed comments at the Web site from 1 March to 15 April. Mem- Italian 24 3.6 bers who wish to comment but who do not have Web access may Germanic and Scandinavian 59 8.9 forward comments to Carol Zuses for posting at the Web site. The German and Germanic 58 8.7 Delegate Assembly Organizing Committee, which proposed the use Scandinavian 1 0.2 of the Web site for the comment process, encourages members to Slavic 20 3.0 be brief, to limit comments to the issues addressed in the resolu- Russian 16 2.4 tions, and to observe common rules of Internet etiquette. Mem- Other Slavic 4 0.6 bers’ comments will not be subject to a word limit, nor will there be a limit on the number of comments that an individual may post. Asian 25 3.8 During the balloting period, from 15 April through 1 June, addi- Japanese 10 1.5 tional comments will not be accepted but comments already Chinese 9 1.4 posted will remain available for review. Members who do not Other Asian 4 0.6 have Web access may request hard copies of the posted com- Asian (general) 2 0.3 ments from Carol Zuses. Other 21 3.2 To enter the members-only area of the Web site, you will need Arabic 3 0.5 your membership number and your password. Your membership Hebrew and Judaic studies 3 0.5 number appears in the upper right-hand corner of the mailing Other Near Eastern 0 0.0 label for all MLA mailings. Your password is your five-digit zip Classical languages 4 0.6 code if you receive mail at a United States address; if your mail is Romance languages 9 1.4 delivered outside the United States, your password is the first five Other languages 2 0.3 letters of the country on your mailing label. The resolutions approved by the Delegate Assembly are printed Not specified 90 13.5 below.* Members may reach Carol Zuses by mail (MLA, 26 Broad- Several languages 6 0.9 way, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10004-1789), e-mail (governance@ Choice of languages 20 3.0 mla.org), and fax (646 576-5107). Not specified 64 9.6 Total 666 100.0 Resolution 2000-1 Be it resolved, That the Delegate Assembly and the MLA membership formally recognize, appreciate, and congratulate the Executive Direc- tor and the MLA staff for their tireless efforts in the preparation and execution of the survey on staffing, salary, and benefits in departments of English and of the foreign languages.

Resolution 2000-2 Whereas the MLA strongly supports the teaching and scholarship of literatures by people of color in the United States and Canada, Whereas the MLA encourages faculty in colleges and universities to be sensitive to the cultures of people of color, And whereas representations of native peoples and their cultural tra- ditions are frequently used as mascots and symbols by sports teams at

JERRY FRISHMAN PHOTOGRAPHY universities, colleges, and high schools as well as by commercial teams, Whereas educational institutions’ use of these symbols and mascots can undermine their mission to educate students about the histories, cultures, and achievements of people of color, Therefore, be it resolved that the MLA condemns the use of represen- tations of native peoples and other racial and ethnic groups and their cultural traditions as sports mascots or symbols.

Resolution 2000-3 Whereas one of the effects of the increasingly globalized capitalist Participants in the forum “What’s Happening in the Humanities?” Standing (left to economy has been to accentuate not only the divide between rich and right): Paul Lauter and George Louis Scheper; seated (left to right): Gerald Graff, poor nations but also divisions between haves and have-nots within Myrna G. Goldenberg, and Bette G. Hirsch. (continued on next page) ([email protected]). office oftheExecutive Director deans andprovosts shouldcontactthe 2000 fession, 2000”(publishedin copies ofthereport“Women inthePro- Members whowishtoobtain additional the Profession Report onWomen in slightly fromthoseprintedhere. the texts postedattheWeb sitemay differ changes inthewording oftheresolutions, may authorizenonsubstantive copyediting the MLAconstitution.Sincecouncil resolutions asrequiredby article7.B.3 of Council willreview thewording ofthe *At theendofFebruary, theExecutive (continued fromprevious page) •Spring2001 •Page 8 NEWSLETTER MLA at CUNY. courses retained, andfreetuitioninstituted have openaccessrestored, developmental licly backtheeffortsofAFTLocal2334to Be itfurtherresolved thattheMLApub- voice thissupport;and tion intheU.S.anduseitsplatformto ition atpublicinstitutionsofhighereduca- principle supportopenaccessandfreetu- Be itthereforeresolved thattheMLAin CUNY inparticular; fect ofthecutbacksinremediationat tion toracismingeneralandtheracistef- support ofaffirmative actionandinopposi- Whereas theMLAhasgoneonrecordin reduced tuitionatCUNY; and of openaccess, developmental courses, and therefore stronglysupportstherestoration introduction offreecollegeeducation),and able tuition(withtheprogressive nity toobtainacollegeeducationatafford- school graduatestohave anequalopportu- strongly supportstherightofallhigh York (CUNY),affirmingthattheAFT focused ontheCityUniversity ofNew ter, hasrecentlypresentedaresolution eration ofTeachers (AFT),New York Chap- Whereas Local2334oftheAmericanFed- tive jobsthereare;and whatever stableandadequatelyremunera- ployment, isindispensabletosecuring guaranteeing itsgraduatessatisfactoryem- Whereas highereducation,whilehardly particular; and and forworking-class peopleofcolorin U.S. increasinglydifficultforallstudents, dered accesstohighereducationinthe mination ofaffirmative actionhave ren- Whereas dramatictuitionhikes andtheter- torically been,racist;and Whereas suchdivisionsare, andhave his- States; and industrialized countriessuchastheUnited ) tobringtheattentionoftheir Profession e otahta raiainsprofessional organization’s that teach to tee Commit- Development the Professional by NAP NAP selected dozen been have a to only members of one is and workshops Parliamentarians. of Institute by American certified the been also has Education She NAP’s Committee. the of member cur- a is rently and 1989 in of (NAP) Association Parliamentarians National the by status profes- sional granted was Grise years. the fifteen for past parliamentarian active an been She has literature. African anglophone in ized special- she where University, Eastern Kentucky at English of emerita professor list thecontactpersononlyonce. for paperswiththesamecontactperson Groups thatannouncetwo ormorecalls not thenameoraddressoforganizer. five words, includingthesessiontitlebut the DelegateAssembly. meetings, includingthe2000meetingof ticipated inanumberofgovernance 2000. Inherfirstyear ofservice, shepar- mentarian, beganherthree-year termin Martha S.Grise, theMLA’s new parlia- MLA Parliamentarian exploring colonial Americanlifewriting.May Life Writing inthe EarlyAmericas. Mar.; Frank Shuffelton. 1 the vox populi.1-page proposalsandvitaeby governance andcommunity organizationorof exploring colonialAmerican representationsof Civic Writing intheEarlyAmericas. AMERICAN LITERATURE TO 1800 American Literature Divisions 2000 September in the are addresses organizers’ If provided, below. not listed organizers the to writing Sep- 2000 the tember in appear which convention, the MLA for guidelines the with themselves familiarize New should in Members held Orleans. be will convention 2001 The Calls for Papers for the2001 Convention inNew Orleans CONVENTION h rga)amxmmo w meetings. two of maximum a in Program) listed the names their having way involves other that any in or participate speakers or as panelists, serve papers, read chair, organize and (i.e., in participate may inquiries. Members all to responding are for Organizers responsible 2001. April 1 MLA by be members must sessions convention in pants Calls forpapersarelimitedtothirty- parliamentary many taught has Grise is she 1978, since MLA the of member A PMLA p.458) before 475–87), (pp. PMLA l partici- All . Papers Papers Martha S.Grise Late-19th- andEarly-20th-Century EnglishLit- formations. placements, Mobilities, Exchanges, Trans- Transatlantic Crossings, 1870–1930 II:Dis- AMERICAN LITERATURE LATE-19TH- ANDEARLY-20TH-CENTURY glia andIvySchweitzer. electronic orhardcopy, by 1Mar.; Chris Casti- trade, andtransculturation.1-page abstracts, migration, creolization,expansionism, identity, specific locationtherein,andissuessuchas Explorations of19th-centuryLouisiana,orany Louisiana andtheCrossings ofCultures. and Jay Grossman. tronic orhardcopy, by 1Mar.; CarlaPeterson are beingopenedup?1-page abstracts, elec- ture? Whatnew directionsandnew methods search, in19th-centuryUSliteratureandcul- enhancing research,especiallyarchival re- How arethenew technologieschangingand Archival Research andNew Technologies. 1-page abstractsby 1Mar.; Robert K.Martin. Must biography bearejectionoftheory? opment say aboutthestateofprofession? ers ofthe19thcentury. Whatdoesthisdevel- there have beenmajorbiographiesofUSwrit- American Biographies. 19TH-CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE Mar.; Timothy Sweet. 1 natural world. 1-page proposalsandvitaeby pers exploring colonialAmericanvisionsofthe Nature Writing intheEarlyAmericas. and vitaeby 1Mar.; SusanImbarrato. which lifewritingisfound. 1-page proposals fessions, diaries, orany ofthemany formsin address biography, autobiography, letters, con- ovnino alaetr procedure. MLA parliamentary the on convention at sessions organizing by and parliamentarian the as serving membership MLA’s to forward looks She courses. development professional and qualifying Cosponsored by theDivisionon In thelastfew years Pa- OLAN MILLS MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 9 erature. This session complements Transat- (e-mail submissions accepted) by 15 Mar.; Ra- lantic Crossings, 1870–1930 I: Theorizations. jini Srikanth ([email protected]). Deadline for Audiovisual Requests Copies of proposals must be sent to each All requests for audiovisual equipment cochair. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Susan K. Harris BLACK AMERICAN LITERATURE AND must be made by the chair of the session by and Douglas Mao, Dept. of English, Harvard CULTURE 7 April. Requests must be received by mail Univ., 12 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA 02138 Black American Writers from Louisiana. or by fax by 5:00 p.m. on this date. Because ([email protected]). Novelists Ernest Gaines, Louis Edwards, the need for audiovisual equipment is a screenwriter Kasi Lemmons, and others. 1-page major factor in the scheduling of meetings 20TH-CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURE abstracts by 1 Mar.; Farah J. Griffin, English (and because the movement of equipment New Orleans I: Traffic with Havana. Papers Dept., 602 Philosophy Hall, Columbia Univ., is both costly and hazardous), the deadline on cultural exchanges, literature, and literacies. New York, NY 10025 ([email protected]). is firm. Participants who plan to use audio- New Orleans II: Miscegenation’s Traffic. visual equipment should check with the Papers on connections between New Orleans Comparative Studies chair of the session or with the MLA con- and Chicago. Traffic in music, bodies, and cul- vention office to be sure that the necessary tures. 1-page abstracts and vitae by 15 Mar.; COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL equipment has been ordered by 7 April. Sharon Holland ([email protected]). LITERATURE Food. Digestion, feasting, cookery, health, di- Why Think about Race? 20th-Century etary regimens, conspicuous display and con- American Literature and the Environ- sumption, rules for eating and not eating. ment. Race and ecocriticism; US literature discourses; performance of knowledge in rela- 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Susan Crane tion to and as consequence of interruption; in- and environmental racism; race and the envi- ([email protected]). ronment in specific texts, especially by writers terruption as figure of thought. 1-page abstracts of color; new paradigms of environmentalism. The Francophone Middle Ages. A general by 10 Mar.; David S. Ferris. 1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Elizabeth Ammons. session: all proposals welcome. Comparative Performativity III: Topogra- Performance. Reconstructions of performed phesis. How does language create the spaces AMERICAN INDIAN LITERATURES poetry from any of the vernacular medieval it purports to describe? How do representation Bridging Communications between Native traditions. Actual performances are preferred, and discourse form and deform spatial rela- and Non-Native Scholars. As Native scholars but discussions or descriptions will also be tions and architectural objects? Abstracts or enter the field, they alter the discourse sur- considered. Audio cassettes (standard format) papers by 10 Mar.; Sharon Marcus. rounding American Indian literatures. How can and/or 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; John Miles we hear and honor what has gone before and Foley ([email protected]) COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN 20TH-CENTURY what is to come? 300-word abstracts by LITERATURE 16 Mar.; Alanna K. Brown and Joyzelle Godfrey. COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN RENAISSANCE Comparing the Modern and Postmodern AND BAROQUE LITERATURE Oral and Written Narratives of Indian Arts. Theoretical or applied studies of the in- Early Modern Pedagogies. Papers concerned Boarding School Survivors in the United terrelations between the verbal arts and either with theories, institutions, and practices of early States and Canada. Papers exploring con- the musical or visual arts. Proposals by modern pedagogy in its bearing on early mod- temporary as well as classic testimonies of 15 Mar.; Linda Hutcheon. ern poetry, rhetoric, and theater. Also papers Indian boarding school residents. 1-page concerning representations of the pedagogical EUROPEAN LITERARY RELATIONS abstracts by 15 Mar.; Virginia Carney scene, particularly in its erotic manifestations. ([email protected]). The Frankfurt School in America. Histori- Renaissance Cartographies. Papers dealing cal, philosophical, or theoretical analyses of the Simon J. Ortiz: Poet, Storyteller, Educator. with practices, ideologies, techniques, and con- Frankfurt School’s years in exile; its reception Honoring Ortiz’s contributions to the develop- sequences of early modern mapmaking; rela- in the United States; its impact on literary stud- ment of American Indian literatures. Papers tions between maps and literature or maps ies and cultural theory. Abstracts by 19 Mar.; especially invited on Ortiz’s poetics, aesthetics, and the visual arts. Papers concerned with lit- Beatrice Hanssen ([email protected]). ethics, politics (tribal, regional, indigenous) in erature as a form of mapping. Women Writing History in Pre-20th- his poetry, stories, and essays. 2-page abstracts Renaissance Nationalisms and Counter- Century Europe. Earlier centuries of wom- by 16 Mar.; Susan B. Brill de Ramírez. nationalisms. Papers addressing literary form en’s historiography in its many forms, among and “national” identifications as well as them pamphlets, treatises, memoirs, nonfic- ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE counteridentifications (religious, ethnic, eco- tion prose, historical novels, poetry, drama. Asian Americans, Ethnographic Specimens, nomic, libidinal) in relation to alternative and 2-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Kari Lokke Native Informants. How have Asian Ameri- remaindered communities. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; ([email protected]). cans been implicated in (auto)ethnography, Margo Hendricks ([email protected]). whether linguistically or through travel writ- English Literature ing, life writing, tourism, science, and museum COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN 18TH-CENTURY display? Also, through what genre crossings and LITERATURE OLD ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE narrative or cinematic modes? 2-page abstracts Chasing after the Event: Journalism in the Beowulf. Any paper on Beowulf is welcome. (e-mail submissions accepted) by 15 Mar.; 18th Century. Rachel C. Lee ([email protected]). Open session. Any paper on Old English lan- Laziness and Labor. 2-page abstracts by guage and literature is welcome. 1–2-page ab- Asian American Writers and Popular Cul- 15 Mar.; Pierre Saint-Amand. stracts by 1 Mar.; Robert E. Bjork. ture. Any aspect of “popular” literary forms by Asian American writers (e.g., horror, mys- COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN ROMANTICISM MIDDLE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND tery, romance, sci-fi, detective fiction), includ- AND THE 19TH CENTURY LITERATURE, EXCLUDING CHAUCER ing their relation to Asian American literature Comparative Performativity I: Death Sen- Medieval Speech Acts: Rules, Vows, Oaths. or to other popular literatures. 2-page ab- tences. How is the death penalty represented, Treatments of the function and force of various stracts (e-mail submissions accepted) by debated, justified, combated, 1789–1914? Con- speech acts in Middle English texts, including 15 Mar.; Karen Su ([email protected]). ceptions of punishment, torture, and the body. work informed by linguistic theory (speech act Staging Asian Americanness: New Asian Two fields (legal, historical, visual, philosophi- theory, ordinary language philosophy, etc.). American Playwrights. Who are the new cal, literary studies) or two national cultures. 1–2-page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Patricia De- Asian American playwrights? What imperatives 1–2-page abstracts by e-mail (no attachments) Marco, Dept. of English, Sturges Hall, Ohio shape their productions? How does the new by 10 Mar.; Jann Matlock. Wesleyan Univ., Delaware 43015 (pdemarco@ theater echo or depart from an earlier genera- Comparative Performativity II: Poetic In- wvu.edu). tion of Asian American drama? 2-page abstracts terruptions. Interruption in poetic and other (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 10

(continued from previous page) classical republicanism as an explanatory cate- Africa, and other non-European zones, literary gory, this session seeks to examine its per- and nonliterary genres. 300–500-word ab- Monasticism and Medieval English Writ- ceived or potential limitations in terms of stracts by 15 Mar.; Alan Richardson. ing. Explorations of the interimplications of critical practice, theoretical sophistication, or Romantic Numbers. In the light of the innu- monastic institutions with the production, pub- other historical approaches. 1-page abstracts or meracy of Romantic studies, papers developing lication and dissemination, and development 8–10-page papers by 15 Mar.; Laura Lunger quantitative evidence (e.g., new publication of medieval English writing. 1–2-page abstracts Knoppers ([email protected]). data from Raven/Garside/ESTC, demographics) by 10 Mar.; Nancy Bradley Warren, Dept. of New British History and English Litera- or other meanings of “numbers,” including po- English, 3200 Old Main Hill, Utah State Univ., ture. This session encourages papers that en- etic numbers, literary-cultural uses of mathe- Logan 84322-3200 ([email protected]). gage with recent work on British history, e.g., matics, etc. Visuality and Reading. Aspects of manu- on the three kingdoms and the construction of Romanticism and the Power of Biography. script cultures in England from 1300 to 1500. “Britishness,” on revolution and republican- As biography consumes more shelf space and 1–2-page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Pamela Shein- ism, on local communities, on women in early bandwidth, we invite debate over the author- gorn, PhD Program in Theatre, Graduate Cen- modern Britain. 500-word abstracts or 8–10- ity of lives within our discipline, the media, ter, City Univ. of New York, 365 Fifth Ave., page papers by 10 Mar.; David Lowenstein, and society from Romanticism to the present. New York, NY 10016 ([email protected]). Dept. of English, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison Abstracts by 5 Mar.; ([email protected]). 53706 ([email protected]). CHAUCER Politics and Religious Difference in 17th- THE VICTORIAN PERIOD The Canterbury Tales: Shame and Pleasure. Century England. Possible topics include Victorianism Abroad. Papers examining geo- This session explores the mutually constitutive Christian-Jewish relations, the role of religion graphical displacements: 19th-century exam- and perversely unstable relation among in stimulating different forms of dissent, Ca- ples of cross-fertilization, cross-polination, shame, pleasure, and ascesis and the identifica- tholicism, radical religions and their political graftings, mutations, varieties, re-formations, tions and disidentifications, communal identi- implications. Proposals on poetry, prose, or transformations of Victorian culture outside ties, and national programs this relation makes drama welcome. 1-page abstracts or 8–10- the British Isles. 250-word abstracts by possible. Paper abstracts by 1 Mar.; Glenn page papers by 15 Mar.; Achsah Guibbory 22 Mar.; Elizabeth Langland. Burger ([email protected]). ([email protected]). Intimate Relation: What Happens in Troi- LATE-19TH- AND EARLY-20TH-CENTURY lus and Criseyde III: 1086–1337; 1555–82? RESTORATION AND EARLY-18TH-CENTURY ENGLISH LITERATURE Papers limited to 8–10 minutes to allow ample ENGLISH LITERATURE In the Heat of the Noonday Sun: Britain’s time for discussion. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Back to the Future: The 18th Century in Tropical Imaginary. The impact “at home” of H. Marshall Leicester, Jr. 21st-Century Theory. Proposals for short the traffic in objects, people, ideas, discourses Postcolonial Chaucer. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; (5-min.) comments. between and among British colonies; “contact zones” and patterns of cultural translation Sylvia Tomasch. The Implications of Spectacle. Proposals for “abroad.” Hard-copy, 500-word abstracts by 15-min. papers. 15 Mar.; Jennifer Wicke. LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH W(h)ither the 18th Century: A Cross- RENAISSANCE, EXCLUDING SHAKESPEARE Generational Assessment. Proposals for short Inventing England. How was English na- Historicizing Genre. Intersections of history (5-min.) comments; by 1 Apr.; Jean I. Marsden tional identity reconstructed in response to and genre; effect of context on interpretation ([email protected]). Graduate students such jarring forces as a waning empire, suf- and production of traditional and less traditional are especially encouraged to submit proposals. frage and socialist activism, World War I, tech- genres; incorporation of nonliterary visual and nology, social and domestic change? What textual forms within traditional literary forms. LATE-18TH-CENTURY ENGLISH LITERATURE traditions gained currency as “English”? Hard- 1-page abstracts by 7 Mar.; Elizabeth Harvey. copy, 500-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Bonnie Between Men, between Women. Papers to Kime Scott. The Politics of Form. Investigations of local, address same-sex desire, romantic and erotic domestic, ecclesiastical, or international politics friendship, love between women and between Transatlantic Crossings, 1870–1930 II: Dis- and received or invented form, including verse, men, and other forms of male-male and female- placements, Mobilities, Exchanges, Trans- prose syntactic, epigrammatic, epistolary, epic, female intercourse in the later 18th century. formations. Cosponsored by the Division on authological, sermonic, visionary, or visual. 10-page papers or 2-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Late-19th- and Early-20th-Century American 1-page abstracts by 7 Mar.; Joseph Loewenstein. George Haggerty ([email protected]). Literature. This session complements Transat- lantic Crossings, 1870–1930 I: Theorizations. Tudor Eros. Any aspect of sexuality or eroti- Historicizing the Text. Sociology and semi- Copies of proposals must be sent to each co- cism in pre-Elizabethan literature or culture. otics of the physical object (book, pamphlet, chair. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Susan K. Harris and 1-page abstracts by 7 Mar.; Richard Halpern. broadside, manuscript); anonymity and pseu- Douglas Mao, Dept. of English, Harvard Univ., donymity; attribution and canon; continua- 12 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA 02138 (dmao@ SHAKESPEARE tions and sequels; theoretical implications for fas.harvard.edu). Avenging Women in Shakespeare. Submis- author, period, or gender studies. 10-page pa- sions invited on women’s anger; relation of pers or 2-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Robert 20TH-CENTURY ENGLISH LITERATURE female revenge to masculinist structures; sub- Griffin, Fellow, Folger Shakespeare Library (as The Politics of Reviewing in 20th-Century jectivity, agency, or physicality of characters; of 1 Mar.), 201 East Capitol St., SE, Washing- English Literature. Studies of editorial and comparisons with other writers. Papers or ab- ton, DC 20003-1094 (griffi[email protected]). critical policies, politics, and conflicts in jour- stracts by 5 Mar.; Susan Frye ([email protected]). Religious Passions. Piety, devotion, enthusi- nals and journalism and of their cultural and Shakespeare and Money. The application of asm. Antireligious passions, secularization, canonical impact. Abstracts or papers by New Economic Criticism, materialist analysis, anti-Catholicism, and anti-Semitism. Papers on 7 Mar.; Jean Pickering. or other economic approaches to such issues as religion and gender, religion and politics, reli- protocapitalism, inflation, poverty, corn hoard- gion and subjectivity, religion and literary ENGLISH LITERATURE OTHER THAN ing, usury, inheritance, dowries, or the theatri- genre also welcome. 2-page abstracts or BRITISH AND AMERICAN cal marketplace in relation to Shakespeare’s 10-page papers by 15 Mar.; Charlotte Sussman Narrative and Linguistic Innovations in works. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Linda Woodbridge ([email protected]). English Literature of the Non-English ([email protected]). World. Papers addressing new narrative styles, THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC PERIOD linguistic hybridities, and the use of local color 17TH-CENTURY ENGLISH LITERATURE Creole Romanticisms: Writing from the and customs in Asian, African, and Caribbean Classical Republicanism and Its Discon- Contact Zone. Papers on anglophone writings fiction. Send abstracts by 12 Mar.; K. S. N. tents. While acknowledging the advantages of from the Americas, the Indian subcontinent, Rao. No e-mail attachments. MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 11

Postcolonial Women Writers: Orality and Representing the Disenfranchized. Out- challenge the binary of hetero- and homosexual- Performance. Papers addressing postcolonial siders, vagabonds, tramps, peddlers, downtrod- ity and the notion of fixed, static sexual identity. women writers’ use of orality and perfor- den, (Lumpen), proletariat, etc. Abstracts by 500-word proposals by 15 Mar.; Donald E. Hall. mance-based culture to create new linguistic 10 Mar.; Rae Beth Gordon, 2, rue de Fossés St. Proscribed Identities II: Cross-Class Identi- authorities and poetics. Send abstracts by Marcel, 75005 Paris, France. ties. Manifestations in prose fiction of indeter- 1 Mar.; Evelyn Hawthorne. minate or fluid class identity, multiple class 20TH-CENTURY FRENCH LITERATURE identifications, or movements among identifi- French Literature French Poetry and Poetics Today. 300-word cations that challenge standard notions of fixed abstracts by 15 Mar.; Steven Winspur (swinspur@ or singular class identity. 500-word proposals FRENCH MEDIEVAL LANGUAGE AND facstaff.wisc.edu). by 15 Mar.; Carla Kaplan. LITERATURE Portraits of Women in Contemporary History and Pseudohistory. French Cinema. Representation of the femi- LITERARY CRITICISM Prologues and Epilogues, Beginnings and nine (individual, collective, or mythical) in re- The Writer’s Study. The architectural spaces Endings. cent French films by male or female directors. and material cultures of writing: houses, Sickness, Dying, and Death. 2-page abstracts 300-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Mireille rooms, writing instruments, writing machines, by 15 Mar.; Joan Grimbert, 1418 North Nelson Rosello ([email protected]). papers, desks, design, art, mementos, books, St., Arlington, VA 22201 ([email protected]). Transatlantic Solidarity and Problems of manuscripts, collections. Abstracts or papers Globalization. Papers that locate real or imagin- by 10 Mar.; Diana Fuss. 16TH-CENTURY FRENCH LITERATURE able sites of Franco-American cooperation and METHODS OF LITERARY RESEARCH Family Matters. The representation and sig- engagement in describing and contesting the nificance of family structures. How are mothers, new liberal economy and the effects of its global Textual Criticism and Theory. Papers on ed- fathers, children, and their interrelationships reach. 300-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Rosemarie itorial theory, the theory and practice of tex- tual criticism, and the influence of critical portrayed? To what use is the myth of family Scullion ([email protected]). theory on textual scholarship. Papers or 1–2- unity put? page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Pamela Dalziel. Refiguring the Femme Fatale. In what ways FRANCOPHONE LITERATURES AND CULTURES and to what ends do writers create new im- AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BIOGRAPHY, AND LIFE ages as well as rework mythological, biblical, Cinéma. 1-page abstracts by 25 Mar.; Clarisse Zimra ([email protected]). WRITING or courtly models of the femme fatale, whose Text and Image I: Autobiography and Cin- allure and attraction are linked to death and Francophonies européennes. 1-page abstracts ema. Abstracts up to 2 pages by 16 Mar.; destruction. 500-word abstracts or completed by 25 Mar.; Jack Yeager. Regenia Gagnier. papers by 16 Mar.; Dora E. Polachek Sexualités rebelles. 1-page abstracts by ([email protected]). Text and Image II: Autobiography and Art. 25 Mar.; Thomas Spear. Abstracts up to 2 pages by 9 Mar.; Mary Ann 17TH-CENTURY FRENCH LITERATURE Caws. Filming the 17th Century: Why, How, Genre Studies Text and Image III: Autobiography and When, for Whom? E.g., Tous les matins du Comix. Abstracts up to 2 pages by 16 Mar.; DRAMA monde, La lettre, Saint Cyr, Le roi danse, etc. Hertha Sweet Wong. 250-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Jeffrey Peters Drama and History. Topics include the con- ([email protected]). tribution of drama to (revisionist) history mak- ing; dramatizing the past; periodicity and German Literature Obscenity: Concealment, Divulgence, and canons of dramatic literature; reenactments. (Self-)Censorship. How to express or avoid 300-word abstracts by 8 Mar.; Susan Bennett. GERMAN LITERATURE TO 1700 the “indecent”: images, euphemisms, circumlo- Medieval and Early Modern Literature cutions; conditions of publication; succès de FILM and History. Abstracts of 250–400 words by scandale, etc. 250-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Irony and Affect in Film and Television. 16 Mar.; Marianne Kalinke. Joan DeJean, 12, rue de Saintonge, 75003 Irony and affect are apposite structures whose Paris, France ([email protected]). interrelationships characterize many film and German Literature Social Mobility: Literary, Visual, and So- TV texts. Papers that investigate the double ciohistorical Perspectives. The dynamics of voice of irony in relation to the production of 18TH- AND EARLY-19TH-CENTURY GERMAN social organization, class, gender; urbanization, affect. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Kathleen McHugh, LITERATURE fashion, décor; values, moral and material. 2121 Princeton Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90026. Antifeminist/Conservative 18th-Century 250-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Erec Koch, Tu- Women Writers. Their literary, political, so- lane Coll., 116 Cudd Hall, Tulane Univ., New NONFICTION PROSE STUDIES, EXCLUDING cial, didactic, educational, aesthetic works; Orleans, LA 70118 ([email protected]). BIOGRAPHY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHY their writings on the role and status of women; Narratives of Science, Medicine, and Psy- their reaction to major political events; their 18TH-CENTURY FRENCH LITERATURE choanalysis: Exposition, Evidence, Sub- reception by both traditional and feminist Figuring the Foreigner in 18th-Century jectivity. How do recent publications reflect scholars. 1-page abstracts by 1 Mar. France. 300-word abstracts by e-mail by or influence contemporary theories of narra- Underground Poetologies, 1700–1830: 15 Mar.; Janie Vanpée ([email protected]). tive and culture? Abstracts to Emily Budick Poetology and Aesthetics in Alternative Les journaux de Marivaux. 300-word ab- ([email protected]). Venues. Papers invited on aesthetic- stracts by e-mail by 15 Mar.; Marie-Paule poetological writings in nontraditional forms Laden ([email protected]). POETRY (fiction, personalized writings like letters and Poetry and Pedagogy II. The goals and conse- diaries, etc.) and/or by “other” authors (women The Revolution’s Exotic Corpses. 300-word quences of teaching poetry and poetics; poetry writers, authors of “trivial” literature, satirists/ abstracts by e-mail by 15 Mar.; Anne Vila in the curriculum, historically or now; relevance lampoonists). 1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; ([email protected]). of Arnold’s “idea versus practical conveniences” Susanne Kord ([email protected]). notes on praxis; etc. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; 19TH-CENTURY FRENCH LITERATURE Lorenzo Thomas ([email protected]). 19TH- AND EARLY-20TH-CENTURY GERMAN 19th Century: The Early Years. Abstracts by LITERATURE 10 Mar.; Doris Kadish. PROSE FICTION Imagining History. How is history defined, Readers and Reading(s). Abstracts by Proscribed Identities I: Bisexual Identities. represented, “imagined” in literature and other 10 Mar.; Willa Silverman or Charles Stivale. Eruptions in prose fiction of sexual activities that (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 12

(continued from previous page) Novedad y rupture III. Provocative new cul- uses and misuses of lusotropicalism. Abstracts tural works, tendencies, or developments in (100–250 words) by 10 Mar.; Susan Quinlan. discourses? History as narrative, modes of his- 1990s Spanish America by individuals or Writing Dictatorship / Escrevendo Dita- torical writing, literary representations of his- groups. E-mail abstracts by 8 Mar.; Cynthia dura. Representation and interpretation of torical events, literary historiography, Steele ([email protected]). societies in dictatorial regimes in the nontraditional or marginalized forms. 2-page Portuguese-speaking countries. Abstracts (100– abstracts by 1 Mar.; Nancy Kaiser. SPANISH MEDIEVAL LANGUAGE AND 250 words) by 10 Mar.; Anna Klobucka. LITERATURE 20TH-CENTURY GERMAN LITERATURE The Body and Violence in Medieval Interdisciplinary Approaches Visual Culture in 20th-Century Germany. Iberia. 1-page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Louise Submissions on the politics of visual culture, gen- Vasvári. ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO der and visual culture, or the aesthetics of visual Medieval Spaces and Frontiers. Papers re- LITERATURE culture (theater, film, television, dance, musicals, lated to the policing or crossing of geographic, Ethnography and Cosmopolitanism. Ab- stand-up comedy, performance art, painting, cultural, or gender frontiers or addressing stracts required by 15 Mar.; Marc Manganaro. sculpture, or architecture). 1-page abstracts by inner or outer, private or public, masculine or 12 Mar.; Gail Finney (gefi[email protected]). The Predicament of Clifford. The ongoing feminine spaces. 1-page abstracts by 10 Mar.; impact of the work of James Clifford on “an- Michael Harney. thropological approaches” to literary studies; Hispanic Literatures Open Session. Any topic related to medieval anthropological arguments with or alternatives Spanish language or literature. 1-page abstracts to his work. Abstracts and vitae required by LITERATURE OF COLONIAL SPANISH by 10 Mar.; Barbara Weissberger, Dept. of Ro- 15 Mar.; Bradley W. Evans. AMERICA mance Languages and Literatures, Princeton Gestación del discurso nacionalista en la Univ., Princeton, NJ 08544. CHILDREN’S LITERATURE poesía colonial. This panel will explore the Lost Boys. Papers are welcome on Barrie’s beginnings of a nationalist discourse in specific 16TH- AND 17TH-CENTURY SPANISH original Lost Boys or on the image of lost boys texts of early and late colonial literature. 1–2- POETRY AND PROSE in children’s and young adult literature and page abstracts and vitae by 15 Mar.; Veronica “Textus Interruptus”: The Poetics of Inter- film. 500-word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Donna Salles-Reese. polation. The role and dynamics of interpo- White ([email protected]). Consuming America: Food as Colonial lated texts within prose fiction. Open Session. Innovative contributions to the Culture. The social and symbolic power of Visions of Utopia. An exploration of utopian theory, history, and conceptualization of chil- food: geographies of consumption, hunger and images and modes in the poetry and prose of dren’s literature. All critical perspectives wel- abundance, commensality and exclusions, the early modern Spain. Myths of the Golden Age, come; all topics and time periods admissible. religious significance of food and ritual con- Arcadia, the New World, etc. Abstracts by 1–2-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Katherine Cap- sumption, taste and colonial subjectivities, 15 Mar.; María Cristina Quintero. shaw Smith, English Dept., Florida Interna- cannibalism and the erotics of food consump- tional Univ., University Park, Miami 33199. tion. Send 1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Luis Fer- 16TH- AND 17TH-CENTURY SPANISH DRAMA The Politics and Poetics of Harry Potter. nando Restrepo. Pedagogy and Golden Age Drama. Papers Papers that explore theoretically and critically The Rhetorics of Life Writing in Colonial may deal with any topic related to teaching Rowling’s series as literary and cultural phe- Spanish America. This session will explore Golden Age drama. nomenon. Two copies of detailed abstracts by life writing as a subgenre of colonial history, as Staging and Performance. Papers may deal 15 Mar.; Daniel Hade ([email protected]). a public or private document, as a form of with any aspect of performance history of counterhistory, and how it relates to power, Golden Age Spanish plays. ETHNIC STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND authority, and politics. Send 1-page abstracts Open Topic. Preference will be given to papers; LITERATURE by 1 Mar.; Santa Arias ([email protected]). abstracts will also be considered; by 15 Mar.; Ethnic Writing in New Orleans: Beyond Patricia Kenworthy ([email protected]). the Black-White Binary. Literature in the LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE FROM Crescent City encompasses a variety of ethnic- INDEPENDENCE TO 1900 18TH- AND 19TH-CENTURY SPANISH ities, languages, possibilities; this panel wel- Bodies in 19th-Century Latin America. LITERATURE comes old and new favorites. 2-page abstracts Physical and figurative bodies: sexualized bod- Representation of War in 18th- and 19th- and vitae by 23 Mar.; Rafia Zafar. ies, textualized bodies, bodies at and of work, Century Spain. Possible topics include visual Teaching Multiethnic Literatures: Courses (inter)national bodies, transgressive bodies, bod- depictions (Goya), nonfictional works (testimo- and Syllabi. Comparativist approaches to ies of pain and pleasure, etc. 1-page abstracts in nials, diaries, documents), and literature. Ab- teaching multiethnic literature courses. After a English or Spanish by 12 Mar.; Lee Skinner. stracts by 15 Mar.; Francisco LaRubia-Prado. presentation, panelist will share syllabi and discuss pedagogy. Abstracts and syllabi by Textos ficticios en el periodismo dec- 20TH-CENTURY SPANISH LITERATURE 15 Mar.; James Ruppert ([email protected]). imónico latinoamericano. The influence of Refigurations of Tradition in Contemporary the press; expressions of social action and liter- Spanish Culture. The concept of “tradition” is GAY STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND ary individuality through different manifesta- reemerging in Spanish film and literature as a LITERATURE tions of fictive texts. 1-page abstracts in English symptom of individual and social instability, Taking Sodomy Literally. Considering liter- or Spanish by 12 Mar.; Flor Maria Rodriguez- particularly as seen in the representation of the ary, cultural, cinematic, or mass-media repre- Arenas ([email protected]). “pueblo.” 2-page abstracts by 9 Mar.; José M. del sentations of sodomy. 2-page abstracts by Theater and Performance in 19th-Century Pino ([email protected]). 15 Mar.; Ann Pellegrini. Latin America. All aspects of theater: plays, playwrights, theater companies, actors and ac- LUSO-BRAZILIAN LANGUAGE AND LINGUISTIC APPROACHES TO LITERATURE tresses, staging, alternative and popular theaters, LITERATURE Iconicities. etc. 1-page abstracts in English or Spanish by Cem anos de Os Sertões. Focus on the tradi- New Philologies. 12 Mar.; María A. Salgado. tions and legacies of Euclides da Cunha’s work Nonsense. 1–2-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Paula and its relation to the lusophone world. Abstracts Blank. 20TH-CENTURY LATIN AMERICAN (100–250 words) by 10 Mar.; Renata Wasserman. LITERATURE O Luso e O Trópico. 2001 marks the 40th an- LITERATURE AND OTHER ARTS Novedad y rupture I. niversary of the publication of Gilberto Freyre’s The Arts of (Making) Money. Narrative, Novedad y rupture II. influential work. This session will focus on filmic, visual, or acoustical texts; fictionality and Their Favorite Poems.”

JERRY FRISHMAN PHOTOGRAPHY ieaue n eiiu tde nthe 1960s. in Studies Religious and Literature, US Postmodernity, Apostasy: of Specters Horn ([email protected]). (as e-mailtext message)by 10 Mar.; Bernard shua, Diamond).Vitaeand1-page proposals Faulkner, Morrison,Hamilton, Roth, Yeho- biblical texts on20th-century fiction(e.g., readings, strongmisreadings, influencesof ern Fiction. Burden oftheBible:BibleStories inMod- LITERATURE ANDRELIGION Pinkus. Karen Boggs, Mar.; 10 G. by S. J. abstracts 1-page era; etc. digital the in money counter- feiting; alchemy; minting, metal, money; paper Terry Castle, above left,Robert Pinsky, ClaireKramsch,andM.H.Abramsinthesession ujcie agnl eetrdforms decentered marginal, Subjective, Appropriations, adaptations, mis- Thomas Lawrence Long([email protected]). abstracts (postal mail ore-mail)by 15Mar.; tural criticism.Vitae and1-page proposal els, detective fiction,film,andpostcolonialcul- syncretism, inregionalliterature, gothicnov- Santeria, Creole, andAfro-Caribbeanreligious Voodoo inNew Orleans. oas(otlmi remi)b 0Mr;Paul Mar.; 10 by ([email protected]). e-mail) Reifenheiser or mail (postal pro- 1-page posals and Vitae Vonnegut. Pynchon, Snyder, X, Reed, Malcolm LeGuin, Oates, Ginsberg, Kesey, Kerouac, Daly, Bur- Cox, Barth, Coover, Atwood, roughs, as such writers mysti- cism; and syncretism religious renunciation); complete nor conversion (nei- conventional discourses ther liminal authority; spiritual of “ L Members Read MLA Voudou, hoodoo, L ESETR•Spring2001 •Page 13 NEWSLETTER MLA .cc.sunysb.edu). only by 1Mar.; IraLivingston(ilivingston@notes lar culture, andsubcultures. Abstractsby e-mail tions ofdifferenceinrecentsciencefiction, Sex withAliens. POPULAR CULTURE Univ. ofCalifornia,Berkeley 94720. Murray, Dept.ofRhetoric, 7403Dwinelle, Agamben welcome. 2-pageabstracts;Stuart undergoing, ecstasy?SubmissionsonBlanchot, ure? Isexperience relatedtopassivity, silence, place throughlanguage, atitslimits, asitsfail- cance ofexperience inwriting?Doesittake Experience. LITERATURE PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACHES TO stracts by 1Mar.; JamesJ. Paxson. Science’s Rhetorical Figures. HughCrawford. T. Open Topic. stracts by 1Mar.; BruceClarke. Literature andSystems Theory. LITERATURE ANDSCIENCE yti opis([email protected]). Tompkins Cynthia abstracts; 250-word ex- or of/in Papers theory perimentalism. and Women eth- etc.): (racial, sexual, nic, marginality and reception of III. Issues Theory and Performance, Art Film, Writing, in Experimentalism and Women and performance. nic, sexual, etc.): Experimentalism infilm,art, sues ofreceptionandmarginality (racial,eth- Film, ArtPerformance, andTheoryII. Women andExperimentalisminWriting, etc.). Eltit, Diamela Stein, Gertrude Barnes, Djuna Wittig, Monique Cixous, Hélène Lispector, (Clarice writers women Experimental etc.): sex- ual, ethnic, (racial, marginality and reception of I. Theory and Performance, Art Film, Writing, in Experimentalism and Women LITERATURE WOMEN’S STUDIESINLANGUAGE AND ([email protected]). Abstracts by 15Mar.; Timothy Brennan libidos-for-sale? WhatisThirdWorld value? persuasion)? Orisitfreedomfrommodernity’s threatening imageofdevastation (anegative (Kaplan, Rorty). IstheThirdWorld onlya theorists findtheThirdWorld expendable Who NeedstheThird World? LITERATURE SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO Massé ([email protected]). Mar.; Michelle stracts and2-pagevitaeby 1 etc. E-mailasattachmentorfax500-word ab- politics, philosophy, cross-cultural perspectives, theology, biomedicine, historicism, Marxism, age, feminism,queertheory, postcolonialism, via gendersorsexualities, race, class, ethnicity, ing limitationsorstrengthsofpsychoanalysis Critiques ofPsychoanalysis. LITERATURE PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO What isthephilosophicalsignifi- 1–2-page abstractsby 1Mar.; Papers exploring reeroticiza- (continued onnext page) Papers explor- 1–2-page ab- Increasingly, 1–2-page ab- Issues popu- Is- MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 14

LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY of diasporas, focusing on the articulations of (continued from previous page) The Language of Family Interaction. Analy- experiences of displacement, desire, and sis of conversational and literary examples in- (dis)identification, particularly by authors of Italian Literature cluding arguments, identity, gender ideology, Slavic and East European backgrounds. Ab- MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE ITALIAN cultural patterning among children or adult fam- stracts by 15 Mar.; Vitaly Chernetsky (fax: 212 LITERATURE ily members (siblings, mothers, spouses, etc.). 854-5009; [email protected]). Open Session. 500-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Deborah Tannen. Rewriting Texts. Examines revisions of cultural texts in any genre (verbal, visual, behavioral), by Petrarch, Inc. The institutionalization of Pe- LANGUAGE CHANGE trarch and the Petrarchan corpus; Petrarch’s individuals or groups, in any geographic area, Issues of Use of Literary Evidence of Lan- imitators and detractors; publishing history of for any purpose. Focus on motivation for revi- guage Change. Topics include changes in sys- Petrarch; long-term echoes; new directions on sion, nature or consequences of revision. Ab- tems of versification in situations of linguistic the eve of his eighth century. stracts to Helena Goscilo ([email protected]). contact. Abstracts by 10 Mar.; Kristin Hanson. Performance and Theatricality. Theatrical texts and theatrical aspects of nontheater texts; Language Change and the Media and In- Teaching onstage and offstage performance. Abstracts ternet. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Florencia Cortes- by 23 Mar.; Michael Sherberg. Conde ([email protected]) or Henry Biggs TEACHING AS A PROFESSION ([email protected]). Development for Teaching Roles. Focus on 17TH-, 18TH-, AND 19TH-CENTURY ITALIAN Open Topic. Topics include “low” languages, developing graduate students and faculty mem- LITERATURE slang, and canting languages in relation to a bers as teachers. What practices demonstrate the The Idea of Italy from Seicento to Otto- “standard” language. Literary (and other) rep- centrality of teaching and learning? the value of cento. E-mail abstracts by 15 Mar.; Ernesto resentations of “vulgar” language and language teaching as scholarly work? Interactive formats Livorni ([email protected]). change. Historical approaches welcome. Ab- encouraged. 1–2-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Pat Literature and Science in Italy from Sei- stracts by 10 Mar.; Janet Sorensen. Hutchings ([email protected]). cento to Ottocento. E-mail abstracts by 15 Mar.; Massimo Lollini. LANGUAGE THEORY THE TEACHING OF LANGUAGE Topics or Issues in Language Theory. Pa- Ethical Issues in the Teaching of Language. Representing Passions in Italian Culture pers invited on language theory; any area, Linguistic and cultural variations; heritage ver- from Seicento to Ottocento. E-mail abstracts open to different theoretical approaches. Cur- sus native language challenges; language regis- by 15 Mar.; David Del Principe. rent issues encouraged. 1-page abstracts by ters according to race, gender; definitions of 15 Mar.; Domnita Dumitrescu (ddumitr@ “standard” language; exploration of what is ap- 20TH-CENTURY ITALIAN LITERATURE exchange.calstatela.edu). propriate, acceptable, useful language. Current Trends in Italian Cinema. Ab- Teaching Language with Technology. Inter- stracts by 15 Mar.; Giancarlo Lombardi. Other Languages and Literatures net resources; resources for technology train- Existential Force and Political Discourse in ing for faculty members and GTAs; supporting Italian Diaspora Writing. Abstracts with ex- AFRICAN LITERATURES multimedia development; theorizing tech- amples of creative writing to be presented by Gender and Sexuality in African Literatures. nology; informational versus instructional 15 Mar.; Justin Vitiello. Literature in African Languages: Theory technology; lifelong learning; language main- Italian and Italian American Women Writ- and Practice. May include discussion of the tenance; technological literacies. ing. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Gabriella Romani, “Asmara Declaration.” Who Prepares Graduate Students for Barnard Coll., New York, NY 10027. Panel in Honor of Bernth Lindfors. Diverse Teaching Language? Graduate faculty mem- contributions encouraged. Detailed 2-page ab- bers’ responsibility for teaching preparation; Language Studies stracts or papers by 15 Mar.; Aliko Songolo. writing about teaching; Standards-based teach- ing, teaching visibility; reward systems, assess- APPLIED LINGUISTICS EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES ment, peer evaluation, student evaluation, On the Cultural Divide: Studies in NNS-NS Cross-Cultural Postmodernity: Eastern and mentoring. 1–2-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Interaction. Issues related to the interaction of Western Thought and Theory. Continuities Diane Birckbichler ([email protected]). nonnative and native speakers, e.g., solicitations and oppositions in and across traditions; exem- of help and negotiation of meaning. Papers plary authors (Salman Rushdie, Hak Kyung THE TEACHING OF LITERATURE must be grounded in a theoretical framework. Cha, Haruki Murakami); intellectual influences Globalization in Literature Teaching: Out of Class: Language Acquisition in (e.g., Zen and Lacan). 8-page drafts by 15 Mar.; Borges, Gao, Kafka. The question of global- Nontraditional Settings. Language acquisi- Yoshinobu Hakutani ([email protected]). ization as well as cultural and language trans- tion beyond the framework of the traditional Diasporas and Exchanges in Contemporary lation is critical in understanding present-day language classroom, e.g., immersion, individ- East Asia. Recent depictions and theorizations issues of teaching. Resolving the “translation” ual instruction, distance learning. Papers must of migration, border crossings, dislocation, dilemma is a particular challenge in the teach- be grounded in a theoretical framework. relocation of people, economies, and cultural ing of literature. Technology and Language Acquisition. The imaginaries among Asian countries as well as Representations of the English Language: role of technology in language gain, e.g., stud- between East Asia and the “West.” 1-page The Postcolonial Legacy. Postcolonial texts ies of online discourse and interaction pat- abstracts by 1 Mar.; Jung-Soon Shim (jsshim@ often embody alternative representations of terns. Papers should be theoretically grounded saint.soongsil.ac.kr) and Laikwan Pang the English language. What should literature rather than merely descriptive of teaching ([email protected]). teachers know about these representations practice. Abstracts only by e-mail by 1 Mar.; Utopian and Dystopian Visions in East and their implications for humanism, nation- Rafael Salaberry ([email protected]). Asian Literatures. Images, tropes, loci, narra- alism, and multiculturalism? 500-word ab- tives, and genres in the expression (through stracts by 19 Mar.; Louise Z. Smith (louise HISTORY AND THEORY OF RHETORIC AND distinct cultural matrices) of ideal human com- [email protected]). COMPOSITION munities and their opposites; comparative and The Future of the History of Rhetoric and regional perspectives. 2-page proposals by THE TEACHING OF WRITING Composition. 15 Mar.; Chung-Hei Yun, 6109 Partridge Lane, Ethical Issues in the Teaching of Writing. Rhetorics and Poetics: Historical and The- Midland, MI 48640 ([email protected]). Alternatives to the ethic of rights, such as femi- oretical Relationships. nist, collective, postcolonial, or the ethic of care. Rhetoric as Cultural Studies, Cultural SLAVIC AND EAST EUROPEAN LITERATURES Preparing Graduate Students for Teaching Studies as Rhetoric. E-mail abstracts by Diasporic Desires. Interventions into the cur- Writing. Disciplinary, institutional, and politi- 1 Mar.; Catherine Hobbs ([email protected]). rent discursive explosion around the concept cal challenges and strategies involved in MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 15 preparing graduate students to teach writing. in stylistics, authorship, linguistics, pedagogy, ana. Literature and documents portraying the 1–2-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Christine Farris. quantitative, and qualitative analysis. Particu- Portuguese in India and Luso-Indian society from lar interest in new directions and the state of the end of the 15th century to the present. Ab- Discussion Groups the art. E-mail abstracts by 1 Mar.; Henry stracts, short bibliographies, and vitae by 16 Mar. Biggs ([email protected]). (papers in Portuguese, English, or both); Maria de ANGLO-IRISH LITERATURE Deus Beites Manso ([email protected]). The Celtic Twilight and Modernism. Sub- GENERAL LINGUISTICS missions that explore the relation between Topics in Linguistics. All theoretical frame- MEDIA AND LITERATURE modernism and the Celtic Twilight (Yeats, AE, works are welcome. 1-page abstracts and que- Adaptation. Papers discussing adaptations of the Nineties, folklore, second sight, and the ries by 15 Mar.; Richard Page ([email protected]). literary works for radio, film, television: histor- other world). 250-word abstracts by 1 Mar.; ical implications, theoretical implications, gains Daniel Albright ([email protected]). GERMANIC PHILOLOGY and losses, effects on work and/or on the me- Germanic Philology. 1-page abstracts of pa- dia. E-mail abstracts by 1 Mar.; Everett Frost. ARABIC LITERATURE AND CULTURE pers on topics in Germanic philology or Ger- Arabic Media Culture. Theoretical papers ad- manic linguistics. Abstracts and queries by NETHERLANDIC LANGUAGE AND dressing East-West encounters between media 15 Mar.; Richard Page ([email protected]). LITERATURE culture and politics: democracy and Internet; International Perspectives on Dutch Litera- gender and sexuality; language and globalization. HEBREW LITERATURE ture. Interdisciplinary and theoretically in- Also, how does virtual discourse imagine and History, Politics, and Hebrew Literature, formed approaches to Dutch literature; e.g., disseminate Arab subjectivity? Abstracts and vi- 1880s–2000. Literary studies engage history gender studies, Jewish studies, postcolonial stud- tae by 10 Mar.; Tarek El Ariss ([email protected]). again. Recent fiction reflects Israeli new histori- ies, ethnic approaches, etc. E-mail abstracts by ography, but the preoccupation with politics, di- 15 Mar.; Carl Niekerk ([email protected]). BIBLIOGRAPHY AND TEXTUAL STUDIES asporism, and revolution originates in the 19th OLD NORSE LITERATURE AND LANGUAGE Bibliography, Textual Studies, and the century. Preference to historical or political lit- Electronic Environment. 1-page abstracts by erary discussions. Abstracts by 1 Apr.; Rachel The Relation between Old Norse and Old 23 Mar.; Robin G. Schulze ([email protected]). Feldhay Brenner ([email protected]). English Poetics. 250–400-word abstracts by 16 Mar.; Judy Quinn, Dept. of Anglo-Saxon, HUNGARIAN LITERATURE Norse, and Celtic, Cambridge Univ., Cam- CANADIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH Dreams and Nostalgia in Postmodern bridge CB3 9DP, England ([email protected]). Ca(na)jun Representations. Proposals for Hungary. Detailed abstracts with brief vitae short papers designed to provoke discussion by 15 Mar.; Eva L. Corredor, 4 Horizon Road, OPERA AS A LITERARY AND DRAMATIC and dialogue, focused on literature and other 627, Fort Lee, NJ 07024 ([email protected]). FORM media, and especially concerned with themes The Subject of Opera. 250–500-word ab- of homeland/exile, belonging/solitude, and ITALIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE stracts by 15 Mar.; Richard Dellamora (fax: community/diaspora: the musics of Canada. 705 748-1826 ([email protected]). 15 Mar.; Shannon Hengen (shengen@nickel Lynchings and Linkings: Italian Americans .laurentian.ca). in Hybrid America. Looking for dynamic in- terpretations of Italian American identities in PART-TIME FACULTY MEMBERS Unions. Writing activities within unions. CELTIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES literature and film explored by race, class, or in relation to other ethnic groups. 1-page ab- Unions in literature. Unionization and aca- Mother Tongues, Other Tongues: Language, stracts, biographies by 15 Mar.; Fred Gardaphe. demic labor. Strategies for unionization of part- Bilingualism, and Translation in Celtic Lit- time faculty members. Abstracts by 10 Mar.; erature. Papers addressing any topic related to JEWISH AMERICAN LITERATURE Carl Whithaus, 339 8th St., Jersey City, NJ dialect or language choice, bilingualism, and Jewish American Literature: New Voices. 07302 ([email protected]). translation pertaining to the readership, teach- Themes include religious return, bicultural ing, politics, and/or publication of Celtic litera- identity, changing gender roles, imagining Is- POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES IN LITERATURE ture. Send proposals by 10 Mar.; C. A. Prettiman. rael, diaspora and Israeli Jewish identities, AND CULTURE Jewish history, intertextual readings, second- Digital Diaspora: New Media, Indigenous CLASSICAL STUDIES AND MODERN and third-generation Holocaust response. Spaces, and Postcoloniality. How do elec- LITERATURE 1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; S. Lillian Kremer. tronic media reconceptualize identity and space, Gender and Classicism. 15-min. papers con- proposing a visual aesthetics of postcoloniality? sidering practical and theoretical uses of gender JEWISH CULTURAL STUDIES Abstracts on Africa, the Caribbean, and Latin disciplines (feminisms, queer studies, gender Spacializing Jewish Cultural Studies. In- America especially welcome; deadline 24 Mar.; studies) in analysis of relations between ancient cluding, for example, media, private and pub- Lynn Houston ([email protected]). and modern literatures. Send abstracts by 1 Mar.; lic spaces, institutional spaces, exhibitions, Theresa Krier, Dept. of English, Univ.of Notre home, homeland, geographies, political spaces. PROVENÇAL AND CATALAN LANGUAGE Dame, Notre Dame, IN 46556 ([email protected]). Abstracts or papers by 15 Mar.; Michelle AND LITERATURE Ephraim ([email protected]). Catalan and Occitan Literature, 1500–2000. COGNITIVE APPROACHES TO LITERATURE Abstracts (hard copy only) by 16 Mar.; William Narrative. 2-page abstracts or full papers by LITERATURE OF THE UNITED STATES IN Calin. 2 Mar.; Lisa Zunshine ([email protected]) LANGUAGES OTHER THAN ENGLISH and Alan Richardson ([email protected]). Language Diversity and National Litera- PUERTO RICAN LITERATURE AND CULTURE tures. Comparative approaches to works Entrelazos caribeños / Caribbean Interre- COMPARATIVE ROMANCE LINGUISTICS whose language challenges their status in lations: Homage to Nilita Vientós Gastón. 20-min. talks in all areas of Romance linguis- monolingually conceived national literatures. Proposals for papers on relations (literary and tics. 1-page blind abstracts accompanied by US literature as multilingual literature and gen- cultural) between the Caribbean nations and card with presenter’s name, title of paper, ad- eral issues of bilingualism, translingualism, and Puerto Rico and papers honoring the interdis- dress, telephone number, fax number, and code switching in world literature. Abstracts ciplinary work of Nilita Vientós Gastón, by e-mail address by 15 Mar.; Holly J. Nibert (or 12-page papers) by e-mail by 31 Mar.; 15 Mar.; Lúzma Umpierre, PO Box 568, ([email protected]). Werner Sollors ([email protected]). Auburn, ME 04212 ([email protected]).

COMPUTER STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND LUSOPHONE LITERATURES AND CULTURES ROMANIAN STUDIES LITERATURE OUTSIDE PORTUGAL AND BRAZIL The Disenchanted Lyric Muse: Romania Digital Approaches to Language and Text: Imagens da Índia: Ontem e hoje—Análises and Its Neighbors. A comparative discussion Words, Images, and Beyond. Current studies da presença portuguesa na sociedade Indi- (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 16

(continued from previous page) composition. Critical theory for students in the ing for undergraduates? Proposals by 2 Mar.; first two years. Literature and critical thinking. Geraldine Cleary Nichols. of trends in poetry and poetics of the 20th cen- Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Douglas Eisner. Teaching Literature to Today’s Students. tury, in Romania and neighboring countries. Explore ways to link the visual to the textual in 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Domnica Radu- WEST ASIAN LANGUAGES AND order to draw students, raised in an environ- lescu ([email protected]). LITERATURES ment emphasizing image, speed, and action, to Postcolonialism and Pedagogical Mission: the study of literature. Abstracts to Phyllis Lar- SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES AND Approaches to Teaching West Asian Litera- son, Asian Studies Dept., Saint Olaf Coll., 1520 LITERATURES tures. Strategies for the inclusion and teaching Saint Olaf Ave., Northfield, MN 55057. Performance in Scandinavian Culture. Pa- of West Asian literatures in college and univer- pers on any aspect of performance in Scandi- sity curricula. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Zjaleh Ha- COMMITTEE ON ACADEMIC FREEDOM navian culture from the Middle Ages to the jibashi, Dept. of Middle Eastern Languages and AND PROFESSIONAL RIGHTS AND present. 200-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Cultures, PO Box 400781, Univ. of Virginia, RESPONSIBILITIES Lynn R. Wilkinson. Charlottesville 22904-4781 ([email protected]). Electronic Media and Intellectual Property. Ideas of intellectual property in relation to SCIENCE FICTION AND UTOPIAN AND YIDDISH LITERATURE modes of realization (oral, print, electronic). FANTASTIC LITERATURE The Self in Yiddish Literature: Old and Ethics, etiquette of posting class notes on the 2001, a Cultural Studies Odyssey: Science New, Public and Private. Considerations of Web, borrowing online syllabi, quoting List- Fiction and Techno-Cultural Fact. Now, dur- how Yiddish writers construct subjectivity. serv posts, etc. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Marie- ing the culturally auspicious year 2001, this panel Open to all genres and periods of Yiddish Laure Ryan ([email protected]). will take a cultural studies approach to discussing writing. Abstracts, preferably by e-mail, by science fiction in terms of the real techno-culture 16 Mar.; Jan Schwarz ([email protected]) and COMMITTEE ON COMMUNITY COLLEGES we currently inhabit. Marleen Barr, 62-60 99th Kathryn Hellerstein ([email protected]). Is There a Community in This College? De- St., Apt. 1707, Rego Park, NY 11374. fining community; addressing diverse students; MLA Committees protecting constituencies and values in human- SEPHARDIC STUDIES ities; negotiating administrative agendas and Sephardic Scribes and Manuscripts, Print- AD HOC COMMITTEE ON THE faculty and student needs; community college ers and Presses, Bookmen and Readers. PROFESSIONALIZATION OF PHDS image in the community. 250-word abstracts Papers addressing commercial, sociological, How I Got My Job. Recent assistant professors by 15 Mar.; James Papp ([email protected]). ideological, and other aspects of the production, to assess which aspects of their training were The Market and the College. Papers on the distribution, and commerce in Sephardic man- most helpful in securing a tenure-track position effect of market forces, real or rhetorical, on uscripts and books, holy as well as secular. (roundtable format). Abstracts by e-mail only by changing pedagogies and systems, including 16 Mar.; John Zemke ([email protected]). 30 Mar.; John Lyon ([email protected]) and applied programs and certification replacing Anne Donadey ([email protected]). general education. Abstracts by 10 Mar.; Fé SLAVIC LITERATURES AND CULTURES Pressed for Success: A Roundtable. Is a var- Brittain and Douglas Eisner. Theories of Representation: Frames and ied teaching portfolio the key to a tenure-track Tools of the Trade: Literature Skills. Beyond Form. Picturing likeness or distinction moves position, or does a “magic” number of publica- themes and theories, what skills do we teach the lens of the theorist through different fields tions do the trick? Ideas and best practices of when we teach literature? How? How do they al- and comparisons. Particularly welcome are grad programs and job seekers. Abstracts, brief low access to the life of the mind for student and submissions including central and Eastern Eu- vitae to Rafia Zafar. teacher? Abstracts by 10 Mar.; Melissa Sue Kort. ropean focus. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Christine Tomei, 6409 Lone Oak Dr., Bethesda, MD ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN COMMITTEE ON COMPUTERS AND 20817 ([email protected]). LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN TEACHING The Academic Career: Research, Teaching, AND RESEARCH SOUTH ASIAN LANGUAGES AND Family, Achievement, Burnout? Identifying Teaching Languages Online. The Internet LITERATURES and coping with the pressures, conflicts, and provides new resources and environments for South Asian Writing in Comparative moral dilemmas of academic life, both pre- teaching. The CCET seeks examples of new Contexts. Comparative readings of South and posttenure. Proposals or abstracts by possibilities, successful strategies, and caution- Asian texts and texts from other back- 15 Mar.; Judith Liskin-Gasparro. ary tales for teaching languages in the elec- grounds, especially African and Caribbean. tronic environment. Issues of colonialism, hybridity, language, ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON THE MLA Teaching Literature Online. The Internet and aesthetics; theoretical and pedagogical INTERNATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHY provides new resources and environments for perspectives welcome. 500-word abstracts by When Is a Web Site Scholarship? How to teaching. The CCET seeks examples of new 19 Mar.; Amritjit Singh. define “scholarship” on the Internet? Implica- possibilities, successful strategies, and caution- tions for bibliography, tenure, promotion, peer ary tales for teaching literature in the elec- SOUTHERN LITERATURE review, documentation. 250-word proposals by tronic environment. Proposals by 22 Feb.; New Research in Southern Literature. Pa- 15 Mar.; Todd Taylor ([email protected]). James Noblitt ([email protected]). pers invited on regionalism and the South, cul- tural studies in and of the South, new contexts ASSOCIATION OF DEPARTMENTS OF COMMITTEE ON DISABILITY ISSUES IN THE for the study of southern literatures. 1-page ab- FOREIGN LANGUAGES PROFESSION stracts by 1 Mar.; Barbara Ladd. Interactive Technology in Foreign Lan- Corporealities. Disability studies has gener- guages, Linguistics, and Literatures. Papers ally rejected the “medical model” of disability. TRANSLATION on how to evaluate the efficacy of new tech- But does the social-constructionist account ad- Translation and Reception. Talks on how nologies and their relevance to pedagogical ob- equately describe lived, embodied experi- translations are read, published, edited, mar- jectives of academic departments and ences? Can medical science contribute to new keted, reviewed, performed, or adapted by the institutions; by 2 Mar.; Alex Chapin, Sunder- theories of corporeality? 1–2-page abstracts by target culture or on the influence of translations land Language Center, Middlebury Coll., Mid- 1 Apr.; Tobin Siebers. on that culture. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Rachel May. dlebury, VT 05753 ([email protected]). Preparing Graduate Students to Teach Lit- COMMITTEE ON THE LITERATURES OF THE TWO-YEAR COLLEGE erature in Foreign Languages. Papers from PEOPLE OF COLOR IN THE UNITED STATES Literature, Theory, and Composition. The re- graduate students and faculty members on AND CANADA lation between literary-theoretical training and preparation to teach literature in target lan- Asian American Literature and Postcolonial composition pedagogy. Narrative as a model for guages. Can graduate programs model teach- Diasporas: Intersections and Interventions. MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 17

Exploring convergences and conflicts between AMERICAN FOLKLORE SOCIETY pers by 16 Mar.; Eric Gary Anderson (ericag@ Asian American, postcolonial, and diasporic lit- Folklore and Children’s Literature. Papers osuunx.ucc.okstate.edu). eratures and theories. Detailed abstracts or and abstracts by 15 Mar.; Debbie A. Hanson, complete papers by 15 Mar.; Lavina D. Shankar. Dept. of English, Augustana Coll., Sioux Falls, ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF DADA SD 57197 ([email protected]). AND SURREALISM COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF Surrealism in Latin America. 1-page ab- GRADUATE STUDENTS IN THE AMERICAN HUMOR STUDIES ASSOCIATION stracts by 15 Mar.; Rudolf Kuenzli PROFESSION Ethnic Humor: Racial or Racist? Topics in- ([email protected]). Papers addressing how issues of identity (in- clude racial, ethnic, and other stereotyping; cluding race, gender, class, sexuality, age, dis- historic uses of humor; theory as it relates to ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF ability) figure in the graduate school experience. humor and aggression; individual authors and LITERATURE AND ENVIRONMENT 1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Saundra Liggins, c/o performers. 10–12-page papers or substantial The Presence of the Social in Wild Places. Phyllis Franklin ([email protected]). abstracts by 15 Jan.; Joseph McCullough, En- How do writers and environmentalists bring so- glish Dept., Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas 89154 cial assumptions into wild places and land- COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF WOMEN ([email protected]). scapes? How do writers represent work and IN THE PROFESSION day-to-day living in the wilderness or less inhab- Presentations Responding to the CSWP AMERICAN NAME SOCIETY ited places? How do these questions relate to the Report Published in Profession 2000. Possi- Two Open MLA Sessions. Fields include lit- larger issues of how human culture and wildness ble topics: administrative (re)action on your erature, literary theory, philosophy, linguistics, interact? 1-page abstracts and vitae by 1 Mar. campus; from problems to solutions; specific geography, social-historical usage. Panels on Representing Subjectivity in Animals. How analyses of the report. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; single authors or subjects invited. 150-word are animals represented by such varying meth- Rosemary Feal or Dana Dragunoiu. abstracts by 5 Mar.; Christine De Vinne odologies as natural history, environmental ([email protected]). ethics, animal rights, wildlife conservation? OFFICE OF ENGLISH PROGRAMS What is the role of anecdote, narrative, science, The Small College Department: Ambigui- AMERICAN THEATRE AND DRAMA SOCIETY anthropomorphism in animal representation? ties of Intellectual Life. 12-min. presentations Global Influence on United States Theater What role do inherent value, consciousness, in- addressing the distinctive forms of collegiality and Drama I: Africa, Asia, Middle East. dividual life, subjectivity, or wildness play in and diplomacy small departments may require, Global Influence on United States Theater the representing of animals as individuals or as these affect innovation, tradition, dissent, and Drama II: South and Central America. species? 1-page abstracts and vitae by 1 Mar.; disagreement, and intellectual vitality. 250- Open to any period, genre, conventions, inno- Bonney MacDonald. No e-mail submissions. word abstracts by 10 Mar.; Lawrence Moe. vations, rituals, themes, tropes, theatricalities, acting styles, production elements. 250-word ab- ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS OF SLAVIC stracts by 16 Mar.; Bob Vorlicky ([email protected]). AND EAST EUROPEAN LANGUAGES Allied and Affiliate Organizations The Icon. Theoretical implications of the ASSOCIATION DES AMIS D’ANDRE GIDE “icon”—religious, cultural, representational, or AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR ITALIAN aesthetic. Papers considering the convergence STUDIES Pour ou contre André Gide? On the occa- sion of the 50th anniversary of Gide’s death, or divergence of understandings of the icon be- Italian Humor across Genres. 1-page ab- the AAAG welcomes papers dealing with tween Slavic and non-Slavic cultures particu- stracts by 15 Mar.; Ernesto Livorni (elivorni@ Gide’s legacy and his political supporters/ad- larly welcome. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Catharine facstaff.wisc.edu). versaries and literary friends/enemies. 2-page Nepomnyashchy ([email protected]). Mediterranean Crossroads. 1-page abstracts abstracts in French or English and brief vitae Impostors and Pretenders. How have im- by 15 Mar.; Daniela Bini ([email protected]). by 10 Mar.; Frédéric Canovas (frederic postors and pretenders been represented and [email protected]). represented themselves and their legitimating AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIAN claims in history, culture, and literature? Inter- LITERARY STUDIES ASSOCIATION FOR BUSINESS disciplinary, comparative approaches and inno- Australia and Multiculturalism. Discus- COMMUNICATION vative presentation formats welcome. 1–2-page sions of historical or current issues. Abstracts Transforming Technology: E-Writing, Dis- abstracts by 15 Mar.; George Gutsche by 15 Mar.; Robert Zeller (rzeller@semovm tance Learning, and Digital Discourse. ([email protected]). .semo.edu). How have changes in technology affected the teaching of professional communication? How MARGARET ATWOOD SOCIETY Peter Carey and Australia. Abstracts by have theory and practice responded to digital Margaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin. Open 15 Mar.; James F. Hoy, Div. of English, Empo- discourse? What are the implications for re- topic on any aspect of the novel. 2–3-page ab- ria State Univ., Emporia, KS 66801. search? 1-page abstracts (e-mail submissions stracts by 15 Mar.; Shuli Barzilai and Ruth O. preferred), brief biographical statements, and Saxton ([email protected] and rsaxton@ AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSORS proof of MLA membership by 26 Feb.; to mills.edu). OF YIDDISH Melinda Knight ([email protected]). Religion, Ethnic Identity in American Jew- Comedy and Humor in Atwood. Papers that ish Literature. Proposals by 20 Mar.; Michael examine the roles and the constructions of ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF varieties of comedy and humor in the novels, Taub, 3001 Henry Hudson Pkwy., W Apt., AMERICAN INDIAN LITERATURES Bronx, NY 10463-4717 ([email protected]). poetry, essays, performance pieces, or adapta- American Indian Protest Literatures. Papers tions of works of Margaret Atwood. 250-word Rural and Urban Experience in Yiddish that critically engage the work of American In- abstracts or completed 10–12-page papers by Literature. Proposals by 20 Mar.; Alan Astro dian and First Nations activists and writers (“lit- 16 Mar.; to both chairs: Alice M. Palumbo ([email protected]). eratures” broadly conceived). Proposals by ([email protected]) and Charlotte 23 Mar.; Malea Powell ([email protected]). Sturgess ([email protected]). AMERICAN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE Teaching American Indian Literatures in ASSOCIATION Multicultural Contexts. How, why, where, SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR SOCIETY Open Call for Two Sessions: A New Gener- and to whom, working with broad, open- Open Session. Topics related to the work and ation of Comparatists. Proposals may address ended definitions of “multicultural contexts.” life of Simone de Beauvoir. 1-page abstracts questions of method, emergent topics, new re- Multitribal, intertribal, multiracial, multieth- and brief biographies by 1 Mar.; Yolanda As- search, and evolving models of the discipline, nic, transnational approaches; Native litera- tarita Patterson, 440 La Mesa Dr., Menlo Park, in teaching or research. Proposals by 20 Mar.; tures across curricula; diverse student CA 94028-7455 ([email protected]). Steven Ungar ([email protected]). populations; etc. 1-page proposals or brief pa- (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 18

(continued from previous page) or abstracts by 1 Mar.; George L. Scheper (fax: any aspect of the relation between “nerve dis- 410 523-1341; [email protected]). course” and technology or mechanization in BYRON SOCIETY OF AMERICA texts by Glasgow or others. 1–2-page abstracts Byron as Muse. How have English and Euro- JOSEPH CONRAD SOCIETY by 15 Mar.; Barbara Will (barbara.e.will@ pean painters (e.g., Turner, Delacroix), musicians Conrad and the Reader: Implied, Histori- dartmouth.edu). (e.g., Berlioz), and writers (e.g., Lermontov, cal, and “Other” Audiences. Papers sought Pushkin) been inspired by and, in turn, shaped on all aspects of reader relations, including GOETHE SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA interpretations of Byron’s poetry? 500-word ab- Conrad’s ideal or excluded readers, gender and Goethe and the Idea of Truth. What impli- stracts or 8-page papers by 23 Mar.; Jonathan reading, characters as readers, postcolonial cations does Goethe’s way or style of thinking David Gross ([email protected]). readers, rereading Conrad intertextually, etc. about the truth and truthfulness have for his 1–2-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Brian Richard- literary and scientific work? What historical, CERVANTES SOCIETY OF AMERICA son ([email protected]). conceptual, practical, and rhetorical considera- Open Topic. Preference for papers that treat Conrad’s Sexualities. How is sexuality repre- tions present themselves? 1–2-page abstracts texts within the context of literature per se sented in Conrad’s works? Such questions as by 10 Mar.; Karen I. Pagel ([email protected]). (taken to include literary tradition, intertextu- how same-sex male relationships affect our un- ality, genre issues, etc.). Abstracts and bibli- derstanding of Conrad’s representations of NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE SOCIETY ographies by 15 Mar.; James A. Parr women and conventional courtship and mar- Hawthorne and 19th-Century Emotional ([email protected]). riage might be productively addressed. 1–2- Life. Papers discussing such topics as Haw- page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Richard Ruppel thorne’s evocation and suppression of reader CHILDREN’S LITERATURE ASSOCIATION ([email protected]). emotion, use or critique of literary genres Children’s Literature That Explores the predicated on emotional/sensational response, South. Stereotypes, undertones, environment, COUNCIL OF WRITING PROGRAM treatment of middle-class emotional repertoire culture, social and economic structure; works ADMINISTRATORS (shame, sympathy, love, ennui). 500-word ab- by Southern authors, with Southern settings, Rethinking the Relation between Writing stracts by 1 Mar.; Kristie Hamilton. or involved in Southern culture. 8-10 pages by Programs and English Departments. Transatlantic Hawthorne. Papers about a 15 Mar.; Sylvia Iskander (sylvia.iskander@ The Role of Theory in First-Year Composi- writer who, developing an American idiom, juno.com). tion. 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Duane Roen rewrites foreign contemporaries and rivals, Women as Gatekeepers of Children’s Liter- ([email protected]). whether English Romantics—e.g., Byron, ature. How have female authors, editors, and Keats, Wordsworth—or Victorians—e.g., Dick- publishers and women’s issues molded juve- JOHN DONNE SOCIETY ens, Mayhew, Lamb—or Continental authors— nile literature? 200–500-word abstracts or Donne and Others. 8–11-page, 20-min. pa- e.g., Balzac, Hugo. 500-word abstracts by 8–10-page papers by 15 Mar.; Diana Chlebek pers by 1 Mar.; Judith Hertz. 1 Mar.; Brenda Wineapple. ([email protected]). Donne: An Open Session. 8–11-page, 20- min. papers by 1 Mar.; Noralyn Masselink. HEMINGWAY SOCIETY JOHN CLARE SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICA Hemingway’s Cultural Afterlife: Four De- Open Session. With special interest in papers FEMINISTAS UNIDAS cades of Posthumous Productivity. The that relate Clare to other laboring-class and Workshop: Pedagogy in Solidarity. Femini- posthumous narratives and attendant contro- rustic poets. 1-page proposals by 15 Mar.; Scott stas Unidas session on practices of political and versies; yet-unpublished manuscripts and frag- McEathron ([email protected]). social commitment and service learning in His- ments; revisionary theories of Hemingway’s panic literatures and cultures courses. Workshop later career. Papers, proposals, and inquiries by PAUL CLAUDEL SOCIETY format: syllabi, teaching strategies, internships, 15 Mar.; J. Gerald Kennedy ([email protected]). Le poème en prose de Paul Claudel. community outreach. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Paul Claudel et André Gide: Confluences Beth E. Jorgensen ([email protected]). LANGSTON HUGHES SOCIETY et divergences. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Sergio Langston Hughes and the American Villani ([email protected]). ROBERT FROST SOCIETY South. How the American South informs the Frost in History, History in Frost. Consider- art and imagination of Langston Hughes. COLLEGE LANGUAGE ASSOCIATION ations of Frost’s earlier work as a registration 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Dolan Hubbard Literature and the Americas: Roots and of changing New England economies between ([email protected]). Routes I. Submissions on literature and lan- 1890 and 1914 or the late work as an engage- guages of the Americas: literary theory; Afri- ment with the Cold War. Abstracts and vitae INTERNATIONAL ARTHUR SCHNITZLER can, Asian, and European influences; historical by 30 April; Mark Richardson (mark RESEARCH ASSOCIATION literature; cross-cultural representation; liter- [email protected]). Seriously Funny: Humor, Comedy, and ary and critical trends in United States, South Satire in Austrian Literature, Film, and American, and Caribbean writing. MARGARET FULLER SOCIETY Performance. Papers from various theoretical Literature and the Americas: Roots and Margaret Fuller’s America. Visions of Ameri- perspectives comparing texts, periods, cul- Routes II. Submissions on the literature and can society, people, and places. Interpretation of tures, and subcultures, Enlightenment to the languages of the Americas: literary theory; his- specific political and historical events. Responses present. 250–500-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; torical literature; African Francophone, His- to demographic and social changes in America. Geoffrey C. Howes ([email protected]). panophone, and Lusophone critical theory and 2–3-page proposals and vitae by 15 Mar.; Jeffrey influences; cross-cultural representation; liter- Steele ([email protected]). INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GALDOS SCHOLARS ary and critical trends in language studies and Open Topic. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Larry J. pedagogy. 1–2-page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Reynolds ([email protected]). Galdós clásico y moderno. Galdós as a Yakini B. Kemp, Dept. of English, Florida canonical classic and modern novelist. Papers A&M Univ., Tallahassee 32307 (yakini.kemp@ GAY AND LESBIAN CAUCUS FOR THE could discuss his use of the classics and my- mail.famu.edu). MODERN LANGUAGES thology, his role as innovator and precursor to Race-ing and Engendering Queer Pedagogy later literary developments. Papers may be the- COMMUNITY COLLEGE HUMANITIES and Scholarship. 1-page abstracts by 10 Mar.; oretical, intertextual, or both. Abstracts by ASSOCIATION Douglas Steward ([email protected]). 16 Mar.; Theodore A. Sackett ([email protected]). Teaching Local Culture: New Orleans. Papers Galdós y sus contemporáneos. Contempo- on any aspect of teaching the culture of New Or- ELLEN GLASGOW SOCIETY rary theorists, journalists, novelists, historians, leans, especially interdisciplinary approaches in- Neurasthenia and Technology in Turn-of- literary relations, or intertextuality, inside of volving literature, art, religion, or music. Papers the-Century America. Papers welcome on Spain or in Europe and Latin America. Ab- MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 19 stracts or 20-min. papers by 16 Mar.; Alan E. a theoretician; ethics in and of James’s writ- Technologies of Song. Inquiries and proposals Smith ([email protected]). ings; relations between pedagogy and mastery. by 20 Mar.; Leslie Dunn ([email protected]). Specters of James. The ghostly tales; the INTERNATIONAL BRECHT SOCIETY spectral, liminal, or uncanny; bodies and spir- MARLOWE SOCIETY OF AMERICA John Willett: Politics, Theater, Criticism. its; temporal anachronies; intertextual haunt- Open Topic. Any aspect of Marlowe’s life and Submissions that address any aspect of John ings in and of James. Abstracts and vitae by work. Abstracts, proposals, or 8-page papers by Willett’s scholarly contributions on Weimar 15 Mar.; Sheila Teahan ([email protected]). 1 Mar.; Robert A. Logan, 23 Dockerel Road, Tol- Germany or Bertolt Brecht. By 18 Mar.; Marc land, CT 06084-3602 ([email protected]). Silberman ([email protected]). KAFKA SOCIETY OF AMERICA Brecht Cineast: Scripting and Making Films. Kafka and Architecture. MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE DRAMA The new German Brecht edition documents in Kafka and the City. Abstracts by 25 Mar.; SOCIETY vols. 19 and 20 Brecht’s lifelong interest in the M. Luise Caputo-Mayr ([email protected] Catherine of Aragon and Tudor Drama. Pa- cinema. Submissions engaging this new material .edu). pers assessing records of Catherine’s marriage or new aspects of Brecht’s fascination with the festival (1501), its influence on Tudor dramatic cinema are welcome. By 18 Mar.; Dorothee Ost- KEATS-SHELLEY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA forms, or Catherine as sponsor, actor, and sub- ject in dramatic performance. meier ([email protected]). Labor and Romanticism. Topics include re- lations between Romanticism and working- Saint Michael Is a Sissy: The Popularity of INTERNATIONAL COURTLY LITERATURE class experiences, aesthetics, portrayals of Demons and Dragons in Early Drama. SOCIETY workers, canon expansion, questions of audi- Papers assessing the compelling nature of evil Performance and the Romance Manu- ence, and differences between industrial, arti- entities in early drama, their portrayal, and so- script. Papers by 15 Mar.; Mark Cruse, 18, rue san, agricultural, and domestic writers. 1-page ciocultural significance. 1-page abstracts by Corvisart, Pte. 214, 75013 Paris, France abstracts by 1 Mar.; Kevin Binfield (kevin 9 Mar.; Gloria J. Betcher ([email protected]). ([email protected]). .binfi[email protected]). MELVILLE SOCIETY Early Modern Courtly Spectacle. Papers by Romantic-Era Periodicals. Aesthetic, politi- New Perspectives on Melville and Ethnic- 15 Mar.; Sara Maddox ([email protected] cal, sociological, or commercial aspects of peri- ity. Papers should analyze Melville’s creative .edu). odical culture; periodicals and the experience and critical engagement with human diversity of reading; the role of periodicals in the “age of and difference. 3-page proposals and vitae by INTERNATIONAL SPENSER SOCIETY personality.” 1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Kim 20 Mar.; Timothy Marr, Curriculum in Ameri- Teach the Faerie Queene in a Week? Wheatley ([email protected]). can Studies, CB 3520, Greenlaw Hall, Univ. of Spenser in Today’s Curriculum. Panel dis- North Carolina, Chapel Hill 27599-3520 cussion abstracts by 15 Mar.; Sheila Cavanagh D. H. LAWRENCE SOCIETY OF NORTH ([email protected]). ([email protected]). AMERICA Edmund Spenser: Open Session. Papers on D. H. Lawrence: The Sacred and the Pro- MELUS: THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF any aspect of the works of Edmund Spenser. fane. Papers invited on Lawrence’s representa- THE MULTI-ETHNIC LITERATURE OF THE Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Roland Greene, Dept. of tion and opinion of the sacred and the profane UNITED STATES English, Stanford Univ. Stanford, CA 94305- in any of his works. 150-word abstracts or pa- The Book Cooks! Multiethnic Recipes for 2087 ([email protected]). pers by 15 Mar.; Elizabeth M. Fox, 2 Sparks American Literature. Papers should explore Place, Cambridge, MA 02138 ([email protected]). the relation between food and artistic perfor- INTERNATIONAL VIRGINIA WOOLF SOCIETY mance in multiethnic literature of the United Women Who Ran with the Woolfs. Women DORIS LESSING SOCIETY States. Presenters must be MELUS members. associated (intimately, professionally, as sup- Doris Lessing and Kate Chopin: Affinities 1-page abstracts and brief biographies by porters, as threats) with Leonard or Virginia or and Differences. 2-page proposals by 15 Mar.; Fred Gardaphe ([email protected]). both (e.g., Ethel Smythe, Trekkie Parsons, the 15 Mar.; Brenda Bryant ([email protected]). Viscontess Rhondda, Beatrice Webb). 1-page Doris Lessing: Fairy Tales, Mythology, and MILTON SOCIETY OF AMERICA abstracts or completed papers by 5 March.; Other Folklore. Allusions and intertexts, in- John Milton: A General Session I. 8-page Molly Hite ([email protected]). cluding creation and journey myths, mon- papers by 15 Mar.; Achsah Guibbory Woolf and the Unsayable. How Woolf repre- strous birth legends, fairy-tale motifs, and ([email protected]). sents the unsayable; what the dominant cul- other “old stories,” in any of her work. 1–2- John Milton: A General Session II. Recep- ture renders taboo or incommunicable; page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Sharon Wilson tive to newer voices in Milton studies. 8-page experiences of body and spirit that seem be- ([email protected]). papers by 15 Mar.; Diana Trevino Benet yond or before words; the nonhuman world, ([email protected]). animate or inanimate. 250–500-word abstracts G. E. LESSING SOCIETY by 15 Mar.; Diana L. Swanson, Women’s Stud- Lessing and the Seven Years’ War. Papers MODERN GREEK STUDIES ASSOCIATION ies Program, Dept. of English, Northern Illinois on 18th-century responses to (the) war by Transnational Fields of Neo-Hellenism: Univ., DeKalb 60115 ([email protected]). Gleim, Ramler, Bräker, and others; Minna von Greek Culture and Diaspora Studies. Schol- Barnhelm, Philotas; Lessing in Breslau; Lessing ars working within the field of Modern Greek INTERNATIONAL VLADIMIR NABOKOV and Tauentzien, Frederick II, etc. 1–2-page ab- studies are invited to submit papers exploring SOCIETY stracts by 15 Mar.; Anne Schmiesing Greek diaspora from a variety of perspectives. Nabokov Imitating, Imitating Nabokov. ([email protected]). 500-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Georgios Anag- His hoaxes and parodies; fiction and poetry by Reading in the 18th Century. The 18th cen- nostu ([email protected]). others that imitated or responded to his work. tury has been called the age of the “reading Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Charles Nicol (fax: 812 revolution.” Who was reading, when, where, WILLIAM MORRIS SOCIETY 237-3156; [email protected]). what, and how? How did reading influence the Morris and the Pre-Raphaelites: Science Open Session. Abstracts on any topic dealing self-fashioning of the individual? 1–2-page ab- and the Natural World. with the author’s work, life, literary relations stracts by 25 Mar.; Barbara Becker-Cantarino The Pre-Raphaelite Circle and Early Mod- by 1 Mar.; Zoran Kuzmanovich, Dept. of En- ([email protected]). ernism. Proposals by 15 Mar.; Florence Boos glish, Davidson Coll., Davidson, NC 28036 (fl[email protected]). ([email protected]). LYRICA SOCIETY FOR WORD-MUSIC RELATIONS NORTH AMERICAN CATALAN SOCIETY HENRY JAMES SOCIETY Jazz Forms in Literature and Music. Inqui- Multipolar Constructions: Relations Lessons of the Master. James and pedagogy; ries and proposals by 20 Mar.; Denise Gallo among the Cultural Systems of Iberia. scenes of instruction; queer tutelage; James as ([email protected]). (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 20

(continued from previous page) by 1 Mar.; Valentina Glajar (glajar.1@ the same poem, or did his work evolve to chal- osu.edu). lenge changing critical theories and cultural Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Thomas S. Harrington values? Abstracts or 10-page papers by ([email protected]). GEORGE SAND ASSOCIATION 15 Mar.; Maureen Kravec ([email protected]). George Sand and Her Artistic Circle. NORTH AMERICAN HEINE SOCIETY Artists, writers, friends, lovers, and their influ- EDITH WHARTON SOCIETY Heine and Modernity. Papers on any aspect ence on Sand’s life and works. Sand’s represen- Edith Wharton Goes Goth! “Being Goth is of Heine’s role as a writer on the threshold to tations of harmony, tension, inspiration based seeing beauty, and its coming destruction, at modernity. Topics may include tradition and on her relationships with other artists. Propos- the same time.”—Beatgrrl. Abstracts that con- modernity, a paradigmatic shift in German po- als by 25 Mar.; Claire Marrone (marronec@ sider Wharton’s work as it relates to this some- etry, Heine and the city, modern conceptions sacredheart.edu). what idiosyncratic definition or more of religion or philosophy. 1-page abstracts by traditional notions of the gothic, by 13 Mar.; Préfaces de George Sand. Sand n’a pas 1 Mar.; Roger Cook ([email protected]). Augusta Rohrbach ([email protected]). échappé à la pratique de la préface, accompag- natrice obligée du roman au XIXe siècle. Cette War Writing by Wharton and Other War HAROLD PINTER SOCIETY session s’intéressera aux marques distinctives, Writers. Comparison of Wharton’s war writing Transliterations: Pinter for the Screen. Ab- tant formelles que thématiques, de la préface with other writers’, especially to men’s writ- stracts on any aspect of Pinter and film, espe- sandienne. Proposals by 25 Mar.; Eric Paquin, ing, e.g., Hemingway. 1–2-page proposals by cially screenplays and adaptations, by 15 Mar.; 6800, ave. de Lorimier, Montréal, PQ H2G 2P9 1 Mar.; Harriet Gold ([email protected]). Judith Roof ([email protected]). Canada ([email protected]). WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS SOCIETY PIRANDELLO SOCIETY OF AMERICA SOCIETE RENCESVALS, AMERICAN- Williams and British Poetry. Interested in Luigi Pirandello: The Marta Abba Plays. CANADIAN BRANCH proposals discussing Williams’s comments on Papers sought for two sessions exploring the The Romance Epic I. or response to any aspect of British poetry or evolution of Pirandello’s style, subject matter, The Romance Epic II. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; examining an illuminating relationship covered and vision in the final plays written specifi- Catherine Jones ([email protected]). by the topic. Abstracts by 7 Mar.; Chris Mac- cally for Marta Abba, his leading lady. 500- Gowan ([email protected]). word abstracts and short vitae by 15 Mar.; THE SOCIETY FOR CRITICAL EXCHANGE Rose Fichera McAloon ([email protected]). WOMEN IN FRENCH Men in Feminism Revisited. Evaluating Femmes voyageuses, femmes déplacées. 1980s debates about sexual politics and iden- POE STUDIES ASSOCIATION An investigation into the effects of displace- tity politics; institutional places of masculinity Poe and the Art of Violence. Revenge, en- ment and travel on French and Francophone studies, gender studies, women’s studies; tombment, crime, catastrophes, apocalypti- women’s voices. How do women write them- racial, class, ethnic valences of men in femi- cism, hatred, death, or the death of a beautiful selves abroad? Can these texts find a place in nism; theoretical, pedagogical, activist dilem- woman in Poe’s literary and critical works. the literary canon? 1-page abstracts by 10 Mar.; mas. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Sally Robinson Comparative and contextual approaches are Kimberley Healey ([email protected]). ([email protected]). especially welcome. Les femmes écrivent leur pays. Sujets possi- Secrets and Lies in Poe. Duplicity, secret Writing Jazz. Historically and theoretically in- bles: le pays écrit du dedans, du dehors ou lors codes, cryptography, hidden messages, verisi- formed papers on jazz aesthetics, poetics, com- du retour; écrire le pays colonisé ou postcolo- militude, or hoaxing in Poe’s life and works. position, improvisation; heroism, masculinity, nial; métaphores utilisées; écriture différente The significance and documentation of the ar- sexuality; race, marginality, demonization; in- de celle des hommes? 1-page abstracts by gument is more important than the critical ap- dividualism versus collectivism; art versus 10 Mar.; Michèle Bacholle (bachollem@ proach. Papers by 1 Mar.; Terence Whalen, commerce. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Mark Osteen easternct.edu). English Dept., Univ. of Illinois, 601 South Mor- ([email protected]; [email protected]). gan St., Chicago 60607 ([email protected]). WOMEN’S CAUCUS FOR THE MODERN SOCIETY FOR GERMAN RENAISSANCE AND LANGUAGES BAROQUE LITERATURE EZRA POUND SOCIETY Changing Climates: Feminist Models for In- Ezra Pound in the Thirties. Pound’s response Definitions of Sex and Gender in Early stitutional Change. 2-page abstracts by 5 Mar.; to literary or political developments in the 1930s. Modern Germany. Constructions of gender Magali Cornier Michael ([email protected]) Ezra Pound and Translation. Papers on identity, definitions of biological sexes, androg- and Naomi Yavneh ([email protected]). Pound’s translations or his influence on trans- yny, homosexuality, cross-dressing, deviant lators. Proposals by 15 Mar.; Alec Marsh sexual practices. 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; WORDSWORTH-COLERIDGE ASSOCIATION ([email protected]). Peter Hess ([email protected]). The Joseph Johnson Circle. Papers on any of the writers, artists, scientists, and political ac- RADICAL CAUCUS IN ENGLISH AND THE SOUTH ASIAN LITERARY ASSOCIATION tivists associated with Joseph Johnson, includ- MODERN LANGUAGES Radical Renegotiations: South Asians and ing Wordsworth, Priestley, Malthus, Godwin, An Unwanted Guest: Class in Bourgeois African Americans. Despite sharing the same Fuseli, Blake, Wollstonecraft, Barbauld, Dar- Literature. Class analysis plays an obvious urban spaces, writers, filmmakers, and intellec- win, and Paine. Papers should examine how role in the study of proletarian literature. How tuals, on both sides, have not often addressed Johnson provided a vital center for intellectual can radical teachers apply such analysis to interethnic issues. Theoretical, pedagogical, collaboration. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; James bourgeois literature, when class is an un- cultural, and historical issues defining these McKusick ([email protected]). wanted guest in the drawing room? two communities. 500-word abstracts by 19 Mar.; Lopamudra Basu ([email protected]). Using the Master’s Tools? The Role of Radi- Special Sessions cals in Academic Organizations. What role South Asians in Public Culture. Papers that can radicals play in the institutions that shape ac- explore the situated presence of South Asians These proposed topics for special sessions ademic life? How, in particular, can we influence in public spaces, media, popular culture. A cri- at the convention have not been ap- unions and accrediting agencies and what form tique of their visibility and ethnic and gen- proved; the announcements are intended might that influence take? 1–2-page abstracts by dered representation is encouraged. 350-word to bring potential organizers and panelists 12 Mar.; Michael Bennett ([email protected]). abstracts by 15 Mar.; Shailja Sharma together before organizers send in their ([email protected]). ROMANIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION OF final proposals. Organizers and panelists AMERICA WALLACE STEVENS SOCIETY should note the 1 April deadline for mem- The Hapsburg Myth in East Central Early versus Late Stevens. Did Stevens bership and the 7 April deadline for sub- European Literature and Film. Abstracts spend his entire career essentially rewriting mission of final proposals. MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 21

Aberrant Women. Papers addressing issues ing from 1492 until today in Spanish American heterosexuality: their structural continuities of female “aberrance” in any genre of women’s documents. 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Rocio and discontinuities, anxious proximities, strate- literature. Papers may focus on any period and Quispe-Agnoli ([email protected]). gic interdependence, specific historical mani- include treatment of any deviance from tradi- The Art of Henry and Thomas Vaughan. festations. 1–2-page abstracts (e-mail preferred) tional gender roles or cultural norms. Ab- Contextual studies; focused readings of poetry by 15 Mar.; Mason Stokes. stracts by 10 Mar. to Carol Osborne (carol and prose. Abstracts or papers by 10 Mar.; Body and Marginality at the Fin de Siècle. [email protected]) or Sarah Aguiar Jonathan Nauman, Usk Valley Vaughan Associ- Which bodies have come under suspicion at the ([email protected]). ation ([email protected]). fin de siècle? This panel seeks proposals that Acting and Performance in the Films of Arthurian Tradition in Children’s Litera- engage literary and medical renderings of the David Mamet. The David Mamet Society in- ture. Issues related to Arthurian literature marginalized body. 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; vites papers addressing acting/performance in written for children. Various critical perspec- Milla Rosenberg, Program in Intercultural Stud- films scripted by or scripted and directed by tives, genres, periods, age levels. Approaches ies, Franklin Univ., 201 South Grant Ave., Co- Mamet, particularly with Mamet as director. include cultural, historical, social, gender- lumbus, OH 43215 ([email protected]). 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Karen C. Blans- oriented, interdisciplinary, comparative. Papers Borges: His Prose and Fiction in Our Time. field ([email protected]). or 1–2-page abstracts by 31 Mar.; Judith Kel- 1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Joseph Tyler Adoption Fiction and Nation Building. logg ([email protected]). ([email protected]). Narratives of adoption, child-exchange/ Aspects of Punctuation. General considera- Paul Bowles. Papers on any aspect of Paul relinquishment, or adoptees’ discoveries of an- tions of punctuation in writing, literature, or Bowles’s work, both his own writing and his cestry in relation to nation building, national linguistics. Papers exploring punctuation in dif- facilitation of other writers. 1–2-page abstracts identity, national fantasy, acculturation, impe- ferent literary genres or in the work of a spe- by 5 Mar.; David Racker. rialism, decolonization, multicultural hybrid- cific literary figure are welcome. Abstracts by Brantlinger’s Critical and Pedagogical Im- ity. Proposals or abstracts by 20 Mar.; 1 Mar.; Albert E. Krahn (krahn@ pact. For 25th anniversary of Patrick Marianne Novy. punctuation.org). Brantlinger’s The Spirit of Reform, session Alexandria. Seeking papers investigating rep- Avant-Garde Intersections of Modern or weighs influence, pros and cons of all his pub- resentations of the modern city of Alexandria Postmodern Literature and Film. 2-page lications in critical and economic theory, cul- from English, French, Arabic, Greek, Italian, proposal abstracts by 1 Mar.; Laura Hinton tural studies, imperialism, literacy, reform or other literary and filmic traditions. Intercul- ([email protected]) and Susan McCabe literature and politics, Victorian studies. 1-page tural or interdisciplinary analyses encouraged. ([email protected]). abstracts and vitae (hard copies, no e-mail sub- Abstracts and vitae by 10 Mar.; Deborah Starr William Barnes at 200. Revisit William missions) by 9 Mar.; William B. Thesing. ([email protected]). Barnes in the year of his 200th birthday. Papers Building and Busting Comics Canons: Alternatives to the Adversarial Academy, or abstracts examining Barnes’s life, career, or Teaching American Comics. Is there (or Revisited. Let’s build on the 2000 Presidential critical reception as a poet, wood engraver, lin- should there be) a canon of American comics? Forum by examining ways changes in concep- guist, and ordained minister. Don Ulin (ulin@ What core texts should an American comics tual assumptions lead to applicable changes in pitt.edu). course include? What problems (political, pro- scholarly practice. Queries or abstracts by Georges Bataille: Virility and the Critique fessional, pedagogical) must one overcome to 10 Mar.; Kathleen McConnell (kathymac@ of Idealism. Essays invited exploring Bataille’s teach a course in American comics? Edward A. is2.dal.ca). aesthetics of subversion, especially in the light Shannon ([email protected]). The American Empire Writes Back. Papers of a critique of idealism and his construction of “Camp” in Contemporary Spain. The aes- invited on literary texts that explore the work- virility. Marthe Aponte ([email protected]). thetics and politics of camp in contemporary ings of the American empire at home and Bayou Voices: African American Writers of Spanish literature, film, and culture; its viabil- abroad since 1945. Topics include internal col- Louisiana. Specific concentration on literary ity as a critical, political, or cultural term. In- onization, imperial interventions, proxies, depictions of Louisiana life, folklore, and cul- novative approaches are encouraged. Abstracts “American Advisor,” and others. 1–2-page ab- ture in the writings of Gaines, Komunyakaa, by 1 Mar.; H. Rosi Song ([email protected]). stracts and vitae by 1 Mar.; Brady Harrison Bontemps, Gordon-Lane, and others. Abstracts ([email protected]). Canon Formation in 19th-Century Spain: by 28 Mar.; Pearlie Peters ([email protected]). Constructions of High Culture from Ro- American Indian Women’s Love Poetry and Alan Bennett’s Critical Reputation in manticism to Realism. Papers addressing the Erotics. The past thirty years have seen abun- Britain and America. Why hasn’t Alan Ben- interaction of gender, social class, cultural con- dant expressions of desire and sexuality by na- nett’s standing as a public favorite in Britain text, and genre are particularly welcome. tive women, without critical acknowledgment translated into critical acclaim at home? Why 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Iñigo Sánchez- or treatment. Why? What is the work of such is his work so unfamiliar in America? Send Llama ([email protected]). an erotics? Abstracts by 16 Mar.; Deborah A. 1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Joseph H. O’Mealy. Caribbean Literature and the Environ- Miranda, 1102 North Sheridan Ave., C, Tacoma, ment. Proposals invited for ecocritical inter- WA 98403. Beyond the Metropole: Writing in French outside of France during the Colonial Pe- pretations of 20th-century Caribbean American Literature and the Social Sci- riod. Writing in French from the colonies, literature. Send 1-page abstracts and brief bio- ences, 1870–1914. Authors as readers of so- postcolonial venues like Louisiana, Canada, graphical statements by 15 Mar.; William Slay- cial sciences, or social scientists as readers of and others that differentiates itself from maker ([email protected]). literature, in the US. Case studies or analyses French metropolitan writing. 1-page abstracts Chairing Small Departments: Politics, Pro- of paradigmatic continuity and change. Ab- by 10 Mar.; Leonard R. Koos ([email protected]). tocol, and Pampering. When the department stracts by 15 Mar.; Michaela Giesenkirchen. Beyond Uncle Tom’s Cabin: Reevaluating is family-sized, (how) can we keep it together? American Socialist Literature at One Hun- Harriet Beecher Stowe. Examinations of un- Open discussion to follow. 1-page abstracts of dred. From its founding in 1901 the Socialist expected departures, reversals, or continuities 10-minute papers by 1 Mar.; Thom D. Chesney Party attracted left-wing writers. Who were in Stowe’s post-1852 writing. Readings of later ([email protected]). they, and how were they “socialist”? After novels, essays, poems, juvenile fiction that Raymond Chandler. New readings, important American socialism’s supposed failure, what challenge current evaluations of Stowe’s poli- questions: movies, technique, style, short and are its literary legacies? 1–2-page abstracts by tics, artistry. 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Jen- long fiction, letters and essays; origins; genre, 12 Mar.; Mark Van Wienen. nifer Mason, UCLA Humanities Consortium, plot construction; how other writers (e.g., Oates, Amerindian Literacies versus Western 310 Royce Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1461 Parker) view Chandler; Chandler in context; Writing in Spanish American Texts. Papers ([email protected]). Chandler in cultural studies. Papers, abstracts, invited on Amerindian communication sys- Blackness and Heterosexuality. Papers ex- proposals by 31 Mar.; Mervyn Nicholson. tems and their combination with western writ- ploring the relation between blackness and (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 22

(continued from previous page) author-hero relations, heroic self-conscious- Dislocation: Exile, Expatriation, and ness, intertextual memory as modes of creative Transnationalism at the End of the Millen- Character Readings. Long after close reading copying in foundational narratives (Gogol, nium. Papers on German-language texts dis- of literary characters has become “traditional,” a Dostoevsky, Melville, Flaubert, etc.), and 20th- cussing representations and discourses of loss; “new analysis” of the personalities and tempera- century revisions (Nabokov, Borges, Saramago, of the privileged expatriate position; of cross- ments of author, character, critic, and reader etc.). Detailed abstracts by 1 Mar.; Sharon L. cultural identity formation and postmodern no- may (help to) elucidate how these figures collab- Allen ([email protected]). madism. 1–2-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Helga G. orate to produce texts. Abstracts before 31 Mar.; Counter-Orientalism in French Culture. Braunbeck ([email protected]). Paul Dambowic ([email protected]). Since Said’s Orientalism, numerous studies Drama in the Academy. Studies of recent Charisma and Criticism. The scholarly per- have been published on French literary texts, plays that attempt to critique the academy sona; the philological personality; or what Lisa denounced as Orientalist. This panel examines from within. Topics might include problems of Jardine calls “the construction of charisma in how some writers and artists succeeded in re- representation, pieties on the left and right, print.” Emphasis on medieval and early mod- sisting this ideology. 2-page abstracts by 2 April; and potential transformation. 500-word ab- ern studies. 1-page abstracts and vitae (e-mail Cris Reyns-Chikuma ([email protected]). stracts by 10 Mar.; Kelly M. Cresap. preferred) by 1 Mar.; Deanne Williams, En- glish Dept., York Univ., 4700 Keele St., Toronto, Abraham Cowley and the English Revolu- Early Modern Letter Writing, 1500–1800 ON M3J 1P3, Canada ([email protected]). tion. This proposed special session welcomes (excluding Epistolary Fiction). Papers on research that illuminates the controversies sur- any aspect of early modern letter writing, in- Hélène Cixous: Toward a New Political rounding Abraham Cowley’s civil war era po- cluding historical, psychological, linguistic, Language for the Postcolonial World. Ab- etry or prose. 8–10-page papers preferred, material, transmissive, and theoretical compo- stracts by 7 Mar.; Janice H. Kaufman, Dept. of abstracts considered; send with vitae by nents. 1-page abstracts and vitae by 15 Mar.; Foreign Languages and Literatures, 517 Fitzelle 15 Mar.; Hugh Wilson, Dept. of English, State Gary Schneider ([email protected]). Hall, State Univ. of New York, Coll. at Univ. of New York, Plattsburgh 12901 Oneonta, Oneonta 13820. Eastern Mysticism and Western Writers. ([email protected]). Examining mysticism and Western writers The Class Structure of the Higher Learn- Amanda Cross Mysteries: Detective in a circa the 1930s, possible topics include essays ing in America. A roundtable on the causes Tenured Position. Any aspect of the novels of on particular writers or prominent exponents and effects of hierarchy in higher education. Amanda Cross (a.k.a. Carolyn G. Heilbrun). of mysticism (e.g., Krishnamurti or Gerald Proposals welcome from tenured and tenure- 1-page abstracts and short vitae by 15 Mar.; Heard). Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Paul Eros track faculty members as well as from non- Lydia Tonic Gooch ([email protected]). ([email protected]). tenure-track faculty members, adjuncts, and graduate students. Vitae and proposals by Cross-Cultural Poetics of the Sufi Mystics. The Emergence of Race in British Dis- 15 Mar.; Sharon O’Dair. Appeal and accessibility of the language of course, circa 1650–1750: Representing mysticism across cultural boundaries in Sufi Africa and Africans. Imagining Africa, slav- Colonizers, Cajuns, and Creoles: Literature poetry (e.g., Rumi and Iqbal) and its philosoph- ery and “the Origins debate,” articulating of French Louisiana, 1680–1900. From the ical legacy in American literature (e.g., Emer- whiteness, race and piracy, transatlantic reso- LaSalle expeditions to George Washington son and Whitman). Mabel Khawaja (mabel nances, race beyond black and white. George Cable, New Orleans became the center of a [email protected]). Boulukos ([email protected]). unique culture. Papers on exploration narra- tive, colonial history, poetry, or fiction. Gordon Cuban American Studies in the 21st Cen- English Renaissance Literature and Sexual Sayre ([email protected]). tury: Challenging Existing Paradigms. The Behavior. Relation of Renaissance literature session features three panels. (1) The Litera- to the control of sexual behavior through legal The Confluence of Popular Music and Lit- ture of the Republic: Text, Context, and and cultural practices, especially those con- erature in Contemporary Germany. Papers Transnationality; (2) The Cuban Diaspora: sought that explore the impact of popular cerning the “moral” Reformation, codes gov- music on literary culture (and vice versa) in Theory, Continuity, and Change; (3) Reassess- erning marriage, pre- and extramarital sex, contemporary Germany. Send 1-page abstracts ing 19th-Century Cuban Literature: Iconogra- bigamy, prostitution, sodomy, intimacy. Send by 15 Mar.; Sabine von Dirke. phy and Independence. Patricia Pardiñas- proposals. ([email protected]). Barnes ([email protected]). Constructions of Womanhood and Man- Enlightenment Sexualities. Retheorizings of hood in Early America. Papers examining Decolonization and Pedagogy. Beyond scientific rationality and Enlightenment the construction of womanhood and manhood, teaching dominant texts on the margins, pa- canons; links among sex, gender, and tropes of femininity and masculinity in early American pers should elaborate on strategies for reveal- exploration and discovery; Diderot; Marquis texts. Interdisciplinary or comparative ap- ing colonial dimensions of the contemporary de Sade; Montesquieu; Rousseau; Swift; oth- proaches are particularly welcome. Abstracts academy: innovative classroom methods, texts, ers. 500-word abstracts by 10 Mar.; Julie Chun and vitae (hard copy or e-mail) by 15 Mar.; institutional histories, etc. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Kim ([email protected]). Mary McAleer Balkun ([email protected]). Rob Canfield (canfi[email protected]) or Gordon Envelope-ing Genres. Since the 1800s, the Bigelow. Contemporary Adoption Narratives. How epistolary genre has become virtually obsolete. do contemporary narrative or theoretical ac- Deterritorialization. This session will explore Letters, however, continually infiltrate a vari- counts of adoption transform familial models of both utopia as a prospective conception of the ety of genres. What are the cultural and narra- social connectedness along international, gen- future and exile as a painful remembrance of the tological or generic politics behind this dered, or class-conflicted lines? How is public past. Papers on Hispanic authors of all periods persistence? 1-page abstracts and vitae by responsibility for unaffiliated children recast by acceptable. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; José Antonio 15 Mar.; Laura Rotunno ([email protected]). “organizational” adoptions (school, state, corpo- Giménez Micó ([email protected]). Ex Libris: Britain, circa 1770–1880. Liter- ration)? Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Lisa Fluet, En- Deviance and Early Modern Culture. What ary representations (in prose or rhyme) of ex- glish Dept., 22 McCosh Hall, Princeton Univ., role do literature and popular culture serve in perience in the library (private or public). Princeton, NJ 08544 (ljfl[email protected]). regulating deviance or promoting pleasurable What happens in the library during the time Contemporary Multicultural Detective Fic- interest in deviant behaviors? Particular inter- when modern print culture comes to be? tion. This session will explore literary, histori- est in sociological and anthropological ap- 1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; William McKelvy. cal, and political contexts for the proliferation proaches. 1–2-page proposals by 15 Mar.; Julia Exploring the Range of Life Writing in of nonwhite, especially African American, pro- Garrett ([email protected]). British Romanticism. 15-minute papers on tagonists in recent detective fiction. 1-page ab- Discrimination in the Teaching of Foreign autobiographies, memoirs, confessions, poetry, stracts and vitae by 5 Mar.; Daylanne English Languages. Papers should illustrate actual letters, journals, essays. 1–2-page abstracts by ([email protected]). cases of discrimination at the college level. 15 Mar.; Eugene Stelzig, English Dept., State Copying/Creating: The Copy Clerk and Preferred submissions: papers. Contact Andríıˇ Univ. of New York, Geneseo 14454 (stelzig@ Novelistic Consciousness. Papers exploring Mal´yc’kyıˇ. geneseo.edu). MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 23

The Female Epic: Texts, Histories, Theories. From Cult Author to Classic: DeLillo and by 16 Mar.; Kevin R. Swafford (swaffokr@ The focus is on female epics in English, but the Canon. Has DeLillo achieved canonical jmu.edu). consideration will be given to any well-argued status? What does recurrent critical interest in Histories of 19th-Century Popular French discussion of epic texts written by women of and curricular inclusion of DeLillo’s works Literature. The field of popular literary pro- all periods and nationalities. Proposals and suggest about the politics of canon formation? duction, democracy and literature, the “repre- vitae by 10 Mar.; Bernard Schweizer 500-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Jeremy F. sentativeness” of literature for different ([email protected]). Green ([email protected]). readerships, alternative uses and contested val- Fetishism in/and the Victorian Novel. Ab- Carmen Martín Gaite, in Memoriam. This ues for literature, etc. 1-page abstracts by stracts accompanied by vitae by 26 Mar.; Eva panel will explore women’s condition in Spain 10 Mar.; Mark Wolff ([email protected]). Badowska ([email protected]). as seen in Gaite’s novels and essays. 1-page History, Memory, and Literature: French abstracts by 10 Mar.; José L. Murillo Amo Fictional and Autobiographical Works of Intellectuals Remember World War II. Ses- ([email protected]). Albert Cohen: An Open Session. Send 1- sion will focus on literary memories and the page proposals and vitae before 10 Mar.; Nell Georgian Poets and Their Public. Papers experience of WWII in all genres. Papers that Kupper, Dept. of Languages, Northern Michi- that consider the reception of individual poets focus on the teaching of these texts are encour- gan University, 1401 Presque Isle Ave., Mar- and poems included in the Georgian poetry aged. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Mary McCullough, quette 49855-5375 ([email protected]). anthologies or the Georgians as a group. 500- Dept. of Modern Foreign Languages, Baylor word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Steven Woodward Univ., Box 97391, Waco, TX 76798 (254 710- Film and the Problem Body. Submissions ([email protected]). 4425; fax: 254 710-3799). that look critically at the normative body. We’re particularly interested in papers that theorize Germanies 1977. Terror in the FRG, civil lib- El iberismo en la literatura. La relación the body in all its problematic constructions: as erties dismantled. Biermann expatriated by the entre España y Portugal a través de los siglos. ill, obese, aged, disabled, etc. Biographies and GDR, many others to follow. “Hamletma- Álvaro A. Ayo. abstracts electronically by 15 Mar.; Sally schine,” “Kein Ort. Nirgends,” “Maennerphan- Images of Latinas in 21st-Century Amer- Chivers ([email protected]) and tasien,” queer writing degree zero, and Kleist ican Literature. Papers on the images of Nicole Markotic ([email protected]). 200. Papers welcome that take into account Hispanic women in literary works by contem- French influences. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Arnd porary authors. Nicolás Kanellos. Fin de Siècle Marriages. What is the state of Wedemeyer ([email protected]). marriage at the end of the 19th century? Papers Imagining German Masculinities: German on the institution itself, literary depictions of “Get Cash for Your Papers!”: A Roundtable Men’s Studies in the American and Ger- or specific “real-life” marriages. 1–2-page ab- Discussion. Is the buying and selling of stu- man Academy. Papers addressing the form, stracts and vitae by 1 Mar.; Molly Youngkin dent essays a problem? What, if anything, can effect, validity, feasibility of men’s studies in ([email protected]). or should we do about it? Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Germanic studies in the US and Germany. Pa- Marcy Tanter ([email protected]). pers or 250-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Roy Food, Literature, and Culture. Importance Jerome ([email protected]). of food for issues of identity, memory, global- Global Fiction. Are we beyond the postcolo- ization, postcoloniality, cultural theory, or “the nial moment? Any approaches and works wel- The Impact of the Journalist-Critic, 1900– practice of everyday life.” How do recipes or come. 1-page extracts by 15 Mar.; Sangita 40. Papers that address the powerful influence images of food function narratologically? Inter- Gopal ([email protected]). of nonacademic critics writing in magazines and newspapers on modern American letters disciplinary approaches welcome. Abstracts by Great Books and Canonicity: Great Books and criticism—including Mencken, Wilson, 24 Mar.; Lynn Houston, 2025 South Forrest Programs, Politics, Power, Pedagogies. Van Doren, Mumford, Rascoe, Monroe. Com- Ave., 4, Tempe, AZ 85282 (lynnhouston@ What do Great Books programs look like in the yahoo.com). plete papers by 15 Mar.; Gail Shivel (shivel@ academy today? Are they reactionary or pro- earthlink.net). Francophone Voiceovers: Negotiating Iden- gressive? 2-page abstracts or 6–8-page papers tity in Another(‘s) Tongue. Aporia and tan- by 15 Mar.; Cathy Milton, Norwalk Commu- Indefinable Boundaries: Rachel Carson be- fore Silent Spring. Any aspect of Carson’s “ma- gentiality inherent in writing in French as an nity Coll., Norwalk, CT 06854 (nk_milton@ rine” science writing, from Under the Sea Wind adopted language, particularly for women writ- commnet.edu). to The Edge of the Sea, with possible influences ers struggling with the issues of self-translation Haiku as International Culture. How haiku on Silent Spring. Interdisciplinary approaches and secondary status. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; influenced world cultures. 8-page drafts by especially welcome. 1–2-page abstracts by Deborah Gaensbauer ([email protected]). 15 Mar.; Toru Kiuchi, Nihon Univ., Narashino, 1 Mar.; Christoph Irmscher, English Dept., Anne Frank at the New Millennium. Rep- Japan 2750005 (fax: 81-474-73-1227; tkiuchi@ Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore County, Balti- resentations of Anne Frank in theater, film, bi- sta.att.ne.jp). more 21250 ([email protected]). ography. As Holocaust and universal symbol, Haunting, Suspense, and the Confusion of The Information Super-Railway. Literary has her Jewishness been forfeited in a half Tongues: Film, Literature, Gender, and and cultural relations of the 19th century’s century? Theoretical, political, historical con- Psychoanalysis. Session explores relations be- media and information systems: e.g., penny siderations of Anne as diarist, symbol, text, tween haunting and gender identification, sus- post, photograph, electric telegraph, phono- Jew. Papers or 2-page abstracts by 20 Mar.; pense and transference, “confusion of graph, motion picture, bureaucracy. Literature Sandra K. Stanley or Marilyn Moss, 6065 tongues,” and psychoanalytical healing. 500- in the 19th-century media ecology. Proposals, Cashio, Los Angeles, CA 90035. word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Lance Duerfahrd brief vitae by 15 Mar.; Richard Menke French Masculinities. Papers on construc- ([email protected] and luc.kinsch@ ([email protected]). aya.yale.edu [copy]). tions of hegemonic or marginalized masculini- Innovations in Spanish Epistolary Fiction. ties in France from the Middle Ages to the 21st Healing and Literature. Interdisciplinary pa- The aesthetic and political uses of letter writ- century. 2-page abstracts or papers before pers that engage the dialogue between healing ing; evolution of the genre of epistolary fiction. 20 Mar.; Todd Reeser, Dept. of Languages and and literature in the Americas and in Africa. Innovative approaches to epistolarity such as Literature, Univ. of Utah, 1400 LNCO, Salt Send 250-word abstracts and vitae by 9 Mar.; e-mail are particularly encouraged. 1–2-page Lake City 84112 ([email protected]). Cécile Accilien ([email protected]) or Claudia abstracts by 1 Mar.; Patrick Paul Garlinger Fright and Melville. Herman Melville often Nadine, Dept. of Languages and Literatures, ([email protected]). Pacific Lutheran Univ., Tacoma, WA 98403 represents encounters with the colonial other, Intertextualité durassienne. La session se ([email protected]). with disease, and with sexual “deviance” propose d’explorer les modalités de l’emprunt, through the experience of fright. Presentations Hellenism in 19th-Century Britain. Papers de la citation ainsi que les procédés de réécrit- invited exploring fright and othering in on both scholarly and popular interest in Hel- ure dans l’oeuvre de Marguerite Duras. 2-page Melville’s works. Proposals by 15 Mar.; Ken- lenism in 19th-century British writing and abstracts before 15 Mar.; Cécile Hanania. neth Speirs ([email protected]). culture. Detailed abstracts or papers and vitae (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 24

(continued from previous page) Lenz in 2001: Storm and Stress Re- The Meaning(s) of History in the Scottish assessed. 1-page abstracts; Helga Madland. Enlightenment. Papers on the articulation of Irritable Tension in Postcolonial Contexts. Le transcolonialisme dans les textes models of modernity, the primitive, history Intellectuals’ strategies to connect with the maghrébins. Send a 1-page abstract in French writing itself, and the relation of history to “social ground” (Jameson); “modesty” of theory or English. Yolande Aline Helm (helm@ other genres, including philosophy, fiction, (Hall); area-specific historical considerations of oak.cats.ohiou.edu). travel writing, and journals. 1-page abstracts literature in/and society; “organic” moments in by 5 Mar.; Maureen Harkin (harkin@ writing, theoretical work, pedagogy, academy. The Literacy Narrative. Papers invited on leland.stanford.edu). Detailed abstracts by 10 Mar.; Anjali Prabhu. historical or contemporary “literacy narratives” (F. Douglass, R. Wright, K. Gilyard, L. Brodkey, Medicine in a World Gone Mad, 1914–45. The Italian Avant-Garde. Papers examining etc.) that explore race, class, gender issues in Examination of works by European writers aesthetics, politics, or gender in representative education or define the genre. Also, original that explore the physical, sociopolitical, and works of the Italian avant-garde. Comparisons narratives. Send 1–2-page proposals with brief ethical challenges of medicine from WWI to between the Italian and other avant-garde move- biographies by 10 Mar.; Caroline Pari (cpari@ the Holocaust. 1-page proposals by 10 Mar.; ments are welcome. 1-page abstracts and vitae bmcc.cuny.edu). Melanie G. Krob ([email protected]). by 1 Mar.; Paola Sica ([email protected]). Literature and the Bible in Early Modern Medieval Textual and Political Communi- Kabbalism and British Romaniticism. Ap- France. Literary representations of biblical ties. This panel invites papers on communities proaching Kabbalism rather broadly, papers subjects, accounts of the creation of the world, as defined by late medieval writers and read- can be about either Jewish or Christian modes exploration of the interconnections between ers, particularly where ideas of political com- and can take a contemplative, speculative, or the literary and the biblical. Proposals (in En- munity overlap with reading communities. practical approach. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; glish or French) by 15 Mar.; Andrzej Dziedzic Abstracts by 30 Mar.; George Shuffelton Sheila Spector ([email protected]). ([email protected]). ([email protected]). Labored Texts: Social Class Theory and Local Englishes. Papers describing how local Melodrama and Popular Culture, 1790– Literature. Examinations of poverty-class and forms of language and literature in English 1930: Theater, Opera, Operetta, Novel, working-class experience against canonical lit- persist and emerge because or in spite of 20th- Film. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Anastasia Niko- erary portrayals of poverty, labor, unionism, century trends toward globalization. E-mail lopoulou, Dept. of Foreign Languages and and social-class theory. Abstracts and vitae by abstracts and vitae by 10 Mar.; John Marx Literatures, Univ. of Cyprus, Kallipoleos 75, 2 Mar.; Sandra L. Dahlberg (dahlberg@ ([email protected]). POB 20537, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus ([email protected]). zeus.dt.uh.edu). Locating the Self inside the Vesalian Body. Lacanian Approaches to Contemporary Construction of private spaces for the early Minority Criticism and International Or- American Culture. Papers invited that em- modern self inside the new post-Vesalian ganizations. Examinations of the relation be- ploy Lacan’s psychoanalytic concepts to explore anatomy. Abstracts and brief vitae by 15 Mar.; tween minority issues in literary and cultural issues such as identity (race, gender, class), de- Enrique Fernandez (enrique_fernandez@ studies and the discourses and policies of in- ternational organizations such as the United sire, and aggression in film, art, and literature. umanitoba.ca). Nations and the World Trade Organization. 1–2-page abstracts and vitae by 15 Mar.; Erik The Lost Voices of Our Hispanic Heritage: Perspectives from non-Western nations partic- Redling ([email protected]). Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Her- ularly welcome. 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Languages of Neoliberalism. Papers consid- itage. Papers on recovered Hispanic literature Steven Venturino ([email protected]). ering specific literary or theoretical engage- (written between the colonial period and 1960) S. Weir Mitchell and Pain: Civil War to ments with any aspect of contemporary that reflect the Hispanic contribution to Amer- Rest Cure. Papers addressing Civil War medi- free-market discourse: financial journalism, ican literature and history. Alejandra Balestra cine, including such topics as gunshot trade policy, “development,” neoclassical eco- ([email protected]). wounds, causalgia, and phantom limbs and nomics, financial services, choice, “flexibility,” Magical Practices in Medieval and Renais- their representations in medical and literary etc. Brief proposals by 9 Mar.; Gordon Bigelow. sance Literature. Literary representations of discourse. Proposals by 15 Mar.; Nancy Late Colonial British Novels. How do post- objects and activities connected to the practice Cervetti ([email protected]). of magic and the occult. Proposals (in English WWII British colonial novels (e.g., Burgess’s, or German) by 15 Mar.; Elizabeth Wade Modernism, Partition, and the End of Em- Durrell’s, Greene’s) relate to the crisis of decol- ([email protected]). pire. How do modernist texts account for pres- onization in Britain? to previous colonial nov- sures on metropolitan culture from the els? to postcolonialism? 1–2-page abstracts by Making Pedagogy Visible. Calls to document imperium? To what extent do modernist texts teaching make new demands on scholar-teach- 15 Mar.; Ken Seigneurie (kseigneurie@ register the spatial disjunction between the ers. How can (complex) teaching practices be lau.edu.lb). colony and the metropole? E-mail 1–2-page ab- made visible? How should such “visibility” be stracts and short vitae by 15 Mar.; Andrew Law and Native American Literatures: Ne- theorized? What are the implications (for indi- Rubin ([email protected]). gotiating Tribal Sovereignty. Considering viduals, for the profession) of such demands? both Native and non-Native systems of law, E-mail proposals by 10 Mar.; Margaret Willard- Modernist Materiality: Aestheticizing the how have notions of tribal sovereignty or fed- Traub ([email protected]). Commodity. The ideological valences and ten- eral Indian policies shaped Native literary ex- sions of aestheticized representation of the ma- Mann in the New Millennium. Critical pression? Detailed abstracts, bibliographies, terial. Emphasis on modernist narratives that reevaluations of Thomas Mann invited in the and brief vitae by 15 Mar.; David Lewis Moore engage commodified culture. 1-page abstracts light of recent theoretical debates. Topics en- ([email protected]). and vitae by 5 Mar.; John Hilgart (hilgart@ couraged include the body and technology, dis- rhodes.edu). Law as Literature. Papers sought for panel ease, medical discourse and the clinic, gender, exploring law as literature, e.g., language of dandies, national identity, and fascism. Julian Toni Morrison’s Paradise and the Ameri- law, literary criticism of legal writing, literary Nelson, Modern Languages and Literatures, can Canon. Morrison’s revision, appropria- influences on legal writing. 1-page abstracts by Catholic Univ. of America, Washington, DC tion, or reclamation of “controlling narratives,” 15 Mar.; Bruce Carolan ([email protected]). 20064 ([email protected]). dominant tropes, and formal devices from the classic American literary canon. 2-page ab- T. E. Lawrence: Myth and Genre. Evalua- Harriet Martineau: Spirit of the Victorian stracts or drafted papers by 1 Mar.; Michael tions of Lawrence as writer (autobiography, Age. In honor of Martineau’s bicentenary in travel writing, translation, letter writing, 2002, proposals are invited for papers addressing Nowlin ([email protected]). etc.); relation between his life and his life her impact on Victorian culture. Topics reflecting Multiculturalism and the Gothic. How does writing. 1-page e-mail abstracts (no attach- the interdisciplinary aspects of Martineau’s literary multiculturalism turn to the Gothic for ments) by 15 Mar.; Mary Bryden (lfsbrydn@ work especially welcome. By 15 Mar.; Deborah a critique and (re)articulation of resistance and reading.ac.uk). Logan ([email protected]). identity? Papers on any area of 19th- or 20th- MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 25 century literature are welcome. Dana Luciano New Paradigms for Fiction-Film Study. Parody, Popular Culture, and the Contem- ([email protected]) or Yung-Hsing Wu What kinds of “crossovers” between fiction and porary Latin American Novel. This panel ([email protected]). film can we envision for our writing and teach- welcomes new, critical inquiries into how con- temporary Latin American novels use parody Mystical Convulsions and Hysterical Con- ing? Theoretical and text-oriented submissions as a strategy to critique commodity culture. version in the Age of Charcot. This panel welcome. 1–2-page submissions by 1 Mar.; Gavriel Reisner ([email protected]). Rachel Aponte ([email protected]). invites interdisciplinary investigations on the continuities and discontinuities of the divine New Research in English Literature, Performing DeLillo. Papers sought on any as- and the pathological in literary, iconographi- 1660–1840. Emphasis on primary documents pect of performance and performativity in cal, and/or historical discourses of 19th- research rather than critical spin or pedagogic ap- DeLillo’s fiction or theater works. 500-word century France. Send 1–2-page proposals by proaches. Airmail papers or 1–2-page abstracts, abstracts by 15 Mar.; Jeremy F. Green (jg@ 1 Mar.; Nancy I. Rubino, Univ. of Washing- plus concise vitae, by 5 Mar.; Helene Solheim. stripe.colorado.edu). ton, Box 354361, Seattle 98195 (nirubino@ The New Transatlantic Novel. Papers on Perspectives on 15th-Century England. We u.washington.edu). contemporary novelists writing in English invite papers on any aspect of 15th-century Narrative and Gay Liberation. The relation whose fiction transgresses Anglo-American poetry or drama for a panel that will explore between a lesbian-gay movement aesthetic and cultural, national, and textual boundaries to literary and material culture in late medieval such formal concerns as narrative syntax, speak, in some significant way, of “France.” England. 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Seeta voice, structural (in)coherence, and closure in 2-page abstracts by 8 Mar.; Carolyn Durham. Chaganti ([email protected]) or Rob- ert J. Meyer Lee ([email protected]). texts of the 1970s. 2-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Nonspeaking Characters. Speech and lan- Matthew Bell. guage disorders in literature and other dis- Phantom Bodies in the Enlightened Public Narrative Ethics: Approaches to Literary courses, from early modern to contemporary. Sphere. Abstracts on the persistence of the Theory. How do the discussion and use of Especially interested in cultural status of non- corporeal in 18th-century discussions of pub- narrative ethics in philosophy, medicine, and verbal conditions and individuals and in rela- licness. Why or how the disembodiment that produces a disinterested “public spirit” is im- law intersect and inform literary theory? Can tions between aesthetic and scientific-medical aged in terms associated with haunting. 10 Mar.; we distinguish between “narrative ethics” and representations. 10 Mar.; James Berger. Deidre Lynch (e-mail only) or Janet Sorensen. the ethics of fiction? 1–2-page abstracts by Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin Novels. 23 Mar.; Rebecca Potter ([email protected]). Papers requested, addressing genre questions Philosophical Approaches to Literature after Cultural Studies: German Romanti- Narratives of Return: Exile, Expatriation, (aesthetics, traditions, relation to historical fic- cism. What are the best approaches to Ger- Homecoming. Examinations of narratives of tion), literary antecedents, contexts (historical, scientific, or political), or theories of popularity. man Romanticism today, and what is their real, projected, or imagined homecoming, relation to the philosophical? What speaks for exploring how the end of exile challenges, 350 words before 15 Mar.; Michael Sinowitz ([email protected]). or against philosophical approaches to litera- changes, ratifies the terms in which it is con- ture? Abstracts by 20 Mar.; Laurie Johnson ceived. Abstracts by 10 Mar.; Susan Winnett The Oedipus Family and Modern Kinship. ([email protected]). ([email protected]). Reinterpretations or rewritings of Oedipus, The Physicality of Literary Labor. How and Antigone, etc., in relation to family and kin- The Native American South: New Constel- why do authors call attention to their own la- ship issues. Proposals or abstracts by 15 Mar.; lations. Papers addressing intersections be- boring bodies? What significance has been or Marianne Novy. tween Native American and Southern studies, should be ascribed to physical components of i.e., the role of Indians in the Southern imagi- Of All Sorts and Conditions: Class and the act of literary creation? 500-word abstracts nation (and vice versa), the politics of canon in- Class Consciousness in Late Victorian and by 15 Mar.; Daniel Hack. clusion and exclusion, etc. 1-page abstracts and Edwardian Narrative. Analysis of the coding The Poetics and Politics of Fashion in Latin vitae by 1 Mar.; Annette Trefzer (atrefzer@ of class in late-19th- and early-20th-century Brit- olemiss.edu). America. Will explore 19th- and 20th-century ish literature. Abstracts and vitae by 16 Mar.; Latin American fashion narratives and theories. Negotiating Masculinities in the Works of Kevin R. Swafford ([email protected]). What role do fashion, excess, and disguise play Robert Penn Warren. Topical papers sought Orientalist Representation in Latin Ameri- in literature? Abstracts by 20 Feb.; Regina Root on critical applications lacking in previous ex- can Literature. Concept of Orientalism has ([email protected]). plorations of Warren’s works: manhood and been useful as a tool to examine literary repre- Pokémon: Rethinking (American) Cultural masculinity, identity performativity, queerness, sentation, to uncover discourses of domina- Imperialism. How does it read as a text in the miscegenation, feminism, trauma, simulacra, tion, production of knowledge, configurations age of commercial capitalism? What is its sexual- or the postmodern “self.” 250-word abstracts by of self/other, etc. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Silvia cultural politics? How does it compare with 1 Mar.; Nathan G. Tipton (ntipton@postoffice Nagy-Zekmi ([email protected]). Disney or other (jap-)animations? Perspectives .memphis.edu) or Aaron Shaheen (ashaheen@ The Overhearing of Lyric. After Mill, Eliot, of non-Japanologists welcome. 1–2-page ab- arches.uga.edu). Frye, after critiques of subjectivity, voice, posi- stracts by 15 Mar.; Takayuki Yokota-Murakami New Approaches to Elizabeth Stuart tionality, how do we conceptualize lyric utter- ([email protected]). Phelps. This panel seeks papers that contextu- ances’ position vis-á-vis readers? Theorizing The Politics of Mobility in 19th-Century alize works by Phelps other than the three and qualifying the unconscious nearness Mill’s American Literature. Papers are sought that Gates novels. Papers considering Phelps’s aes- metaphor pointed to. Abstracts and vitae by investigate the intersections between geo- thetic concerns are especially welcome. 15 Mar.; William Waters. graphic mobility, movement, displacement, 250–500-word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Naomi Paris-Vienna. Papers will treat aspects of the and other “mobilities” (i.e., social, economic, Sofer ([email protected]). cultural intersections between Paris and Vienna. legal, political, creative, subjective). 2-page ab- New Historicism and the “Novela Histórica Possible topics include decadence, aestheticism, stracts by 10 Mar.; Susan L. Roberson. Española.” Evolution of the genre, time psychoanalysis, symbolism, the flaneur, archi- Politics of Power, Identity, and Perfor- frame, settings, and theoretical perspectives. tectonics, sexuality. Papers or abstracts by mance in the Humanities. How is one’s 1–2-page abstracts by 12 Mar.; Julia Bordiga 1 Mar.; Peter Schulman ([email protected]) identity constructed and defined in relation to Grinstein ([email protected]). or Heidi Schlipphacke ([email protected]). power dynamics and “performance (anxiety)” New Media Art. How does new media art— Parisian Thoroughfare: Jazz and French in the profession? E-mail 1–2-page proposals by Web-based textuality, interactive CD-ROMs, Culture. This panel will explore the impor- 10 Mar.; Barbara Tilley ([email protected]fl.edu). digital and virtual reality environments, etc.— tance and influence of jazz on French culture Pop Watanna: Winnifred Eaton in Context. impact the materiality of the signifier? Both in terms of reception, film, literature, or dis- Possible topics include Eaton’s negotiations theoretical and practical explorations welcome. course. Papers or abstracts by 1 Mar.; Peter with the literary marketplace and Hollywood; 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Mark Hansen. Schulman or Terri Gordon. (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 26

(continued from previous page) addressing class, gender, and national identity. Reading Sexual Violence. What’s at stake? 1–2-page proposals and vitae by 10 Mar.; How is interpretation impacted by feminist and fanzine articles on Maurice Chevalier, etc.; Christine Roth ([email protected]fl.edu). other activist agendas? Issues of historical and collaborative culinary projects with her sister. geographical specificity, feminist or antifemi- Queer Reason. Reassessing the Frankfurt Send 1-page abstracts and brief vitae by 23 Mar.; nist history. Various critical approaches wel- School. Queer theory and individual thinkers Lisa Botshon ([email protected]). come. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Sondra Guttman (Adorno, Benjamin, Bloch, Habermas, etc.); re- ([email protected]). The Portuguese Diaspora in the Indian visiting Enlightenment legacies through queer Ocean and Beyond. Portuguese presence from thought; problematics of critical theory, moral- Reciprocating Rhetorics of Identity. Papers Mozambique and “O Estado de India” to Ma- ity, culture industry, social integration, etc.; and invited exploring formations of identity cross- cao, East Timor, and Malacca, from the end of queer politics and culture. 1–2-page abstracts ing lines of nation, gender, or sexuality in late the 15th century to the present day. Abstracts, by 1 Mar.; Eric Clarke ([email protected]). medieval and early Renaissance cultures. How short bibliographies, and vitae by 16 Mar. (pa- do performances of identity seek to persuade pers in Portuguese, English, or both); Joseph Race and Identity in Postwar European through reflection, situation, or appropria- Abraham Levi ([email protected] or Cinema. 500-word abstracts electronically tion? 1–2-page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Holly A. [email protected] [with attachments]). by 1 Mar.; Colleen Ryan-Scheutz (ryan.104@ Crocker, English Dept., Saint Lawrence Univ., nd.edu). Postcolonial Pynchon and the Re-vision of Canton, NY 13617. History. Pynchon’s works in terms of dramati- Racing and E-race-ing: Multiraciality in “Red Blues”: Jazzy Natives. Rural Delta zation of historiography, imperialism and nar- Literature, Film, and Performance. In an blues and roots of American jazz have influ- rative form, Western adventurism versus era preoccupied with racial classifications, how enced aesthetic forms of expression and liter- ethnic Otherness, recycling or parodying his- do the various experiences and representations ary focuses of Native American writers such tory to question Western sociopolitical as- of multiraciality operate within and against as Alexie, Harjo, and Welburn. Papers linking sumptions. E-mail abstracts by 1 Mar.; Victoria such classifications? Proposals by 15 Mar.; Native oral traditions and folk blues and jazz Ramirez ([email protected]). SanSan Kwan ([email protected]). musical traditions especially welcome. Ab- Postmodern Freaks: Disability, Metaphor, Radical Poetics and the Writing of History. stracts by 16 Mar.; Susan Scarberry-García. and Performance. This panel invites investi- We seek to challenge in diverse ways the notion Redefining Graduate Studies. This panel gations of the tension between disability repre- that radical formalism in 20th-century literature seeks papers about the graduate school experi- sentations as metaphors for the postmodern is necessarily ahistorical or counterhistorical and ence and professionalization. Issues to be con- condition and the depiction of lived experience to redefine how the avant-garde constructs his- sidered include job preparation; interviews and in contemporary films and performances. tory.Georgette Fleischer ([email protected]) résumés; balancing classes and teaching, pub- 1-page abstracts and vitae by 1 Mar.; Petra and Barrett Watten ([email protected]). lishing, conferences; economic impact and fu- Kuppers ([email protected]). Reading Contemporary South Asian En- ture of graduate studies. Cécile Accilien Postuniversal Aesthetics. What aesthetics glish Literature, 1980–2000. What critical ([email protected]) and Katherine Gracki have emerged from the ashes of postmod- challenges does this new writing present? How ([email protected]). ernism and its so-called dismantling of the uni- can we attend to both the literariness and poli- Reimagining English Renaissance Poetic versal? What has taken the place of irony and tics of individual writers and trends? Proposals Subjectivity. Complicate the period’s theoriza- pastiche? Why the “return” for formalism? and vitae by 15 Mar.; Ambreen Hai (fax: 413 tion of poetic subjectivity beyond Freudian, 1-page extracts by 15 Mar.; Sangita Gopal 585-3339; [email protected]). Foucauldian, Marxist formulations. Explore ([email protected]). Probing the Limits of Genre: Depicting Catastrophes in Recent Theoretical De- bates. Deconstruction and new historicism raise questions about generic fault lines be- tween different narratives of catastrophes: what sorts of disciplinary, historical, ethical, and political implications result from alterna- tive lines of emplotment? Amir Eshel. JERRY FRISHMAN PHOTOGRAPHY Provincial Playing in Early Modern En- gland. This session aims to balance London- based drama studies with a panel of papers on public and popular entertainments in provin- cial towns of England. Of particular interest are papers making connections such as those between performing, playing, and punish- ment; music, oration, and drama; English and foreign performers; tricks, freaks, and won- ders; local and national acts; England versus Wales, Scotland, Ireland, or the Continent. Pa- pers or abstracts by 15 Mar.; Lloyd Edward Kermode ([email protected]). Psychoanalytic Ambivalence, Subjective Pain Effacement, Ontological Ethics. Pa- pers dealing with shame, trauma (especially in- terdependency), masochism (especially Wurmser and Lacan) using Butler, Bourdieu, Caruth, Deleuze (and Guattari), Derrida, Jame- son, Levinas, Wittgenstein, Ziˇˇ zek. Papers by 1 Mar.; William Alejandro Martin (martinwa@ mcmail.cis.mcmaster.ca). The Pub. The political, social, literary, and cultural space of pubs in 19th- and 20th- century Britain. Especially welcome are papers MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 27 ideological, rhetorical, phenomenological, and Central Campus Dr., Room 3700, Salt Lake heart, etc. Comparisons across arts welcome. aesthetic pressure on interiority. 1-page ab- City 84112 ([email protected]). 1–2-page proposals by 15 Mar.; Aden Evens, 76 stracts and vitae by 1 Mar.; Gary Ettari, Dept. of Romanticisms in Translation. Translation Brantwood Road, Arlington, MA 02476-8004 English, Box 354330, Univ. of Washington, Seat- has moved from the periphery to the center of ([email protected]). tle 98195-4330 ([email protected]) the humanist curriculum. Session devoted to Southern Africa, North America: Atlantic and Joseph Tate ([email protected]). translation, in any language or tradition, as it Crossings and Encounters. Abstracts wel- The Reinvention of Jean-Paul Sartre. On was practiced or theorized during the Romantic comed on mutual ties and exchanges in fiction, the twentieth anniversary of his death, new period. By mid-Mar.; George Rueckert, V. Or- nonfiction (history, philosophy, politics, trade, books reevaluating Sartre’s career were pub- missoni 1, Tartu 51011, Estonia (rueckert@ etc.), arts and cultural studies between Southern lished in France. How is Sartre rewritten, and u.washington.edu). Africa and North America. 300-word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Thomas Olver, Dept. of English, Zu- what is his significance in the intellectual cli- Edward Said’s Modernism. The significance rich Univ., Plattenstrasse 47, CH–8032, Zurich, mate of contemporary France? Abstracts by of Said’s provocative appeal to high modern- Switzerland ([email protected]) and 23 Mar.; Martha Kuhlman (mbk6409@ ism (Joyce, Freud, Woolf, et al.) as the source Stephan Meyer ([email protected]). is.nyu.edu). of heroic renewal of contemporary intellectual Re-placing Social Conscience: Politics, So- life. Tensions between political commitment Madame de Staël in International Perspec- cial Justice, and Contemporary United and mental self-reliance. Proposals by 10 Mar.; tive. Staël’s widespread literary and political rep- States Fiction. Seeking papers that analyze David Heckerl ([email protected]). utation left a lasting impact on the intellectuals any aspect of social justice and contemporary of her age, especially women. Papers welcome Self-Assessment: Theory, Practice, Prob- on any comparative aspect of Staël’s influence, US fiction. 1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; lems. This panel seeks to present a faculty Stephanie Girard ([email protected]). literary or extraliterary. 1-page abstracts by perspective on the challenges of assessing pro- 1 Mar.; Judith Martin ([email protected]). Rethinking Genres for Medieval Drama. grams, including creating appropriate methods The question of the utility of generic classifica- of assessment, implementing assessment re- Staging the Academy: Theatrical Represen- tion; generic blending and bending; prolegom- quirements of university administration and tations of Academic Life. How do contempo- ena to new approaches; English and other responding to the results of a completed as- rary stage representations of academics and the traditions. E-mail 500-word abstracts by sessment. Ted Hovet ([email protected]) or academy support, challenge, or complicate pub- 10 Mar.; Ruth Sternglanz ([email protected]) Karen Schneider ([email protected]). lic opinion? How do they differ from treatment or Erick Kelemen ([email protected]). in other genres? 1-page abstracts by 20 Mar.; Self-Reflexive Cinema. This panel will ex- Janet E. Gardner ([email protected]). Rethinking the “Spätaufklärung.” Innova- plore narrative and thematic issues in self- tive approaches to German literature, referential films (Hollywood, indie, or Stalking the Mouse: Doing Disney Studies. 1770–1800. Theories of Enlightenment; interdis- otherwise). Papers treating individual films, Why “do Disney”? Papers that explore new di- ciplinary readings of texts focusing on the prob- genres, and directors welcome. E-mail full es- rections for this field of critical inquiry. Inter- disciplinary projects encouraged. Abstracts or lematic legacy of the Enlightenment. Selected says or 1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Christopher papers with brief vitae by 16 Mar.; D. K. Peter- papers will be published. E-mail abstracts by Ames ([email protected]) and Benjamin son ([email protected]). 15 Mar.; Carl Niekerk ([email protected]). Schneider ([email protected]). Stoppard and Shakespeare, Coward, Revisiting Stephen Henderson. Seeking pa- Sexual Difference, Encore. Sexual difference Gleick, et Al. Postmodern parody? Pastiche? pers on the historical and theoretical signifi- versus “gender” in Anglo-American and French Pointless pyrotechnics? Papers addressing the cance of Understanding the New Black Poetry. feminisms; sexual difference and homosexual- changing relations of Stoppard’s plays to their Also seeking fresh applications of Henderson’s ity; nature, culture, and the real; identification and object choice in the clinic; Lacan with fem- array of sources and ongoing critical contro- theories. Abstracts and 2-page vitae by 9 Mar.; versy concerning this signature feature of his Kevin Meehan. inism and queer theory. 400-word abstracts by 1 work. 1–2-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Leigh 9 Mar.; James Penney, 201 ⁄2 Wycoff Ave., Rhetoric of Postcoloniality in America. Pa- Ithaca, NY 14850 ([email protected]). Harbin ([email protected]). pers on the rise of postcoloniality; its rhetorical The Surrealist Journals: Literature, Art, transference. How does postcolonial discourse Sexuality and Subjectivity. What is the rela- tion between a period’s sex-gender-marriage and Politics. This panel will explore the become localized, domesticated, and translated major role played by the various Surrealist within American literary, political, and aca- system and its representations of inwardness? How are the sexual and domestic codes of, say, journals in the ongoing expression of the demic dimensions? Abstracts and vitae by movement. It will focus on both their aesthetic 10 Mar.; Moneera Al-Ghadeer (moneera7@ Christianity, the Reformation, or capitalism connected to models of subjective depth? Pro- and their political dimensions. 1-page abstracts aol.com) and Moustafa Bayoumi (bayoumi@ by 15 Mar.; Pierre Taminiaux (taminiap@ brooklyn.cuny.edu). posals to Philip Mirabelli (philmirabelli@ aol.com). gunet.georgetown.edu). The Rise of the “Public Sphere” in 18th- Tea. Representations of tea during the period Century Spain. Analysis of 18th-century in- Shadow, Foil, and Doppelgänger: Reading Psychological Fiction in a Post-Jungian of the East India Co., 1600–1858. Circulations tellectual discourses confronting print culture of this commodity within imperial economies, World. 250-word abstracts by 1 Mar.; E. Flynn or feminist approaches on the 18th-century especially British and American. Travel writ- (510 723-6816 [info]; lfl[email protected]). Spanish “public sphere” are particularly wel- ings, Sinophilia, missionary societies, domestic come. 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Iñigo Slavery and the Contemporary Literary rituals, China trade, Orientalist critiques. Sánchez-Llama ([email protected]). Imagination. Why do so many contemporary 1-page abstracts by 9 Mar.; Brigitte Bailey and Rituals, Tradition, and Contemporary Af- writers of the African diaspora place their sto- Rachel Trubowitz. ries in settings that depict slavery? Single- rican Literature. Discussion of rituals and tra- Teaching Composition and Literature in author or comparative essays. Proposals with ditions in African cultures introduced in Proprietary Colleges. How does teaching in vitae by 15 Mar.; Renee Schatteman original or modified form in contemporary lit- for-profit, higher-education institutions reflect ([email protected]). erature. Papers in English, but seeking pan- the impact of business interests on the human- elists representing different languages of Slavery: History and Memory in Postcolo- ities? 5–7-page papers or 1-page abstracts and Africa. 1-page abstracts; Cheryl Toman. nial Francophone Literatures. Doris Garra- vitae by 15 Mar.; Michael Gooch (mgooch@ Romantic Geopoetics. Papers concerning the way, Dept. of French and Italian, Kresge 152, ny.devry.edu). ways poets such as Smith, Williams, Southey, Northwestern Univ., 1859 Sheridan Road, Teaching Smarter. Short papers on princi- Wordsworth, and Coleridge synthesize georgic, Evanston, IL 60208-2204 (d-garraway@ ples and practicalities of improving teaching pastoral, and sentimental topoi and develop a northwestern.edu). in literature, languages, and writing without poetics that speaks to their geographical and The Sound of Writing. The role of sound in increasing workload. Analyses rather than geopolitical circumstances. Abstracts by literature: writing about music, reading aloud demonstrations; should lead to discussion. 10 Mar.; Jack Vespa, Univ. of Utah, 255 South or in silence, nib meets paper, the telltale (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 28

250-word abstracts by e-mail by 22 Feb.; pline-specific challenges and explore innova- precocious Welty’s modernist disguises for James Papp ([email protected]). tive approaches to Holocaust pedagogy. 1-page postmodern salvage and critique. Queries Teaching Writing in and across the Disci- abstracts by 1 Mar.; Amir Eshel. ASAP; proposals by 20 Mar.; Jo Ellyn Clarey pline: A Roundtable Discussion on Teach- Untouchable! Caste and Postcoloniality. ([email protected]). ing Writing. An opportunity for us instructors Papers may deal with the occlusion or elabora- When Hate Groups Target Campus News- to compare experiences (theory and practice) tion of caste and class in postcolonial theory or papers. Practical and theoretical approaches; and envision future models of writing courses. in the construction of the normative citizen case histories; First Amendment considerations; Abstracts by early March; Li-Ping Geng. subject in postcolonial fiction pertaining to students’ rights; the role of the faculty adviser. South Asia. Karni Bhati ([email protected]). Textual Constructions of Authorial Myth Proposals by 1 Mar.; Laraine Fergenson. in Latin America. Deduction from fictional Unveiling the Middle East in the West: Women and Class in Contemporary Fic- and poetic texts of authors’ efforts to manipu- Reading and Teaching the Literature of tion. Issues of class broadly construed: urban, late reputation and biography toward their Women and Islam. Formal papers or other rural, regional, environmental, prison. Recep- own mythification. Preference for postinde- creative presentations addressing pedagogical tion analysis: tension between political and pendence authors. 250-word abstracts and and interpretative problems in reading and aesthetic critiques. Examples: Chute, Allison, vitae by 9 Mar.; Todd S. Garth, Language Stud- teaching literary and media representations of Wozencraft, Bambara. 250-word abstracts by ies Dept., US Naval Acad., 589 McNair Road, Islamic culture and the role of women and 15 Mar.; Sandra Baringer ([email protected]). gender. Of particular interest are presentations Annapolis, MD 21402-5530 ([email protected]). Women Artists in 18th- and 19th-Century that could suggest strategies for interrogating Literature. Representations of female cre- Theater in the Digital Age. Papers discussing the role of literature and media in explaining ativity in literature (by women or men). Have multiple aspects of theater productions involv- Islamic culture to the West. Detailed 1-page ing new technology. Contribution to the role of abstracts for 15-minute presentations by women authors successfully depicted female internet and live Internet performance are 15 Mar.; Khani Begum ([email protected]). creativity? Can femininity and genius be rep- welcome. 1-page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Johan- resented as anything but incompatible? nes Schmidt ([email protected]). Utopia and Technology: French Novelists 1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Judith Martin and the New Millennium. How do you ([email protected]). The Theater of Beth Henley. Send abstracts write novels in a world of total illusion? A and vitae by 23 Mar.; Gene A. Plunka. reading of postmodern times and spaces in the Women at Teaching Institutions. What Traveling Literature: American Literary texts of Dantec, Echenoz, Houellebecq, and problems and possibilities do women en- Studies Abroad. Presentations investigating others. 250-word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Frédéric counter at teaching institutions? What’s life the ways American literature “travels” to other Pallez ([email protected]). like for women under a heavy teaching load? How do women balance academic careers and cultures. How is it received globally? How can Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural we apprehend the multicultural dimensions of living a life? Abstracts and vitae by 15 Mar.; Anxiety and Its Afterlife Ten Years Later. Lit- Ann E. Green ([email protected]). American literature? Proposals by 15 Mar.; erary or theoretical influences of this text regard- Kenneth Speirs ([email protected]). ing traditional English studies (Renaissance); Women’s Literary Tradition. Does women’s “The Troubles” on Stage: Performance and cultural, gender, or gay and lesbian studies wel- literary tradition exclude or distort marginal- Oral Interpretations of the Northern Ire- come. Where are we now in relation to this text? ized women? Does the mother-daughter con- land Conflict. Formal papers on theatrical 1–2-page abstracts by 30 Mar.; W. Reginald Ram- struct prevent multiple subjects and arts, individual or group performances in the pone, Jr., English Dept., Univ. of Connecticut, social-situated knowledge? Should the tradition form of monologues, dramatic readings, etc., 337 Mansfield Road, Storrs 06269-1025. be dismantled? If not, how can it be reenvi- or multimedia presentations that could include sioned for the twenty-first century? Lucindy Victorian Heroines, Queer Readers. Papers Willis ([email protected]). original video or creative composites of docu- exploring relations and disjunctions between mentary footage, film clips, etc. that engage is- women in Victorian novels and poetry and Women’s Speculative Fiction. “Alternative” sues relating to the Northern Ireland conflict. their queer audiences, including (dis)identifica- fiction by, for, and about women. What con- Detailed 1-page abstracts for 15-minute presen- tions with or desire for fictional heroines and cerns (political, pedagogical, professional) re- tations by 15 Mar.; Khani Begum (khani@ other alternatives to heteronormative reading. side within the study of these texts? Papers on bgnet.bgsu.edu). 1-page abstracts (e-mail preferred) by 15 Mar.; utopianism, transgression, and noncanonical A True Religious Alchemy. The role and uses Vincent Lankewish ([email protected]). works appreciated. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Michelle M. Sauer ([email protected]). of alchemy and hermetic philosophy in the lit- Victorian Music and Literature. Papers that erature and scientific thought of the early 17th historicize Victorian musical culture and subse- John Woolman Speaks to Our Time. This century. An interdisciplinary discussion on the quent literary responses. Papers might address 18th-century Quaker can speak to students in role played by alchemy and occultism in the issues of sexuality, morality, spectacle, consum- ways that today are underappreciated. How English rise of scientific empiricism. Yaakov erism, or spirituality. 1-page proposals by 5 Mar.; can his life and journal be explained and un- Akiva Mascetti ([email protected]). Alisa Clapp-Itnyre ([email protected]). derstood? 1-page abstracts; Allan Kohrman. “Turning Pro”: Sex, Scandal, and the 18th- Victorian Poetry of Self. “The selfless self of Writers, Politics, and Occultism. Examples Century Stage. “She-males,” transvestitism, self, most strange, most still” (Hopkins). “And include Bulwer-Lytton’s influence on proto- incest, prostitution, murder, and divorce scan- ah for a man to arise in me, / That the man I Nazi ideologues; Yeats’s occultism as an impe- dals, in life and in fiction; the prominence of am may cease to be!” (Tennyson). Abstracts by tus for cultural nationalism; Aleister Crowley women authors and actors; audience appetite 1 Mar.; Paul Beidler ([email protected]). as poet/spy; Dion Fortune’s Magical Battle of and outrage. Abstracts by 9 Mar.; Nora Britain. 1-page abstracts by 9 Mar.; Susan John- Virtual Embodiments. Consider relations Nachumi, Stern Coll., 245 Lexington Ave., ston Graf ([email protected]). between “virtual” and “real” body states; im- New York, NY 10016 ([email protected]). pact of technologies (cyber-, genetic, prothetic, Writing the Student Body: Narratives of (Un)Covering Lost Voices: Serialized Fiction hormonal, imaging) on subjectivity, sexuality, College Life. Novels, memoirs, or films dealing for the 19th-Century Working Class. Exami- (trans)gender, race, (dis)ability; technoroman- with academia’s student side as it relates to so- nations of discourses within fiction for British or ticism, technoimaginary; digital citizenship ciopolitical, sexual, or moral issues. Abstracts American working-class audiences. Any aspect and community, MUDs; “natural” versus “arti- or papers by 27 Mar.; Gene H. Bell-Villada or approach. 1–2-page proposals and vitae by ficial” embodiments. 2-page abstracts and ([email protected]). 5 Mar.; Juliette Berning Schaefer, 1697 Sheffield vitae by 1 Mar.; Kim Surkan (virtualbodies@ You Can’t Kick Me Out; I’m Leaving. If Dr., Ypsilanti, MI 48198 ([email protected]). netscape.net). exile is inherently a social act committed by (Un)Covering the Holocaust? How can an Eudora Welty’s and Our Usable Pasts: the many against the one, isn’t “self-exile” an “unspeakable” event such as the Holocaust ef- Scribbling Female Forebears. Route/root au- oxymoron? Field, period, and perspective fectively and appropriately be presented in the thorizing tradition of 19th-century popular ad- open. Send vitae and proposals; Joseph M. Sul- classroom? Papers invited that examine disci- venturesses and angels through and in livan ([email protected]). (646 576-5133;[email protected]). JERRY FRISHMAN PHOTOGRAPHY Samuel BeckettSociety. Actor Bill Irwininaprogramarranged by the will take placefrom12to15July2001. ADE SummerSeminarEast.Theseminar Newsletter Seminars intheWinter2000 An articleonthe2001ADESummer Correction Roycontact ChustekattheMLA ments’ 2000–01membershipstatusshould forms orinformationabouttheirdepart- Chairs whowould like membership give themthebestopportunitytodoso. job candidatesattheconvention, itdoes be abletoreserve asuiteforinterviewing not guaranteethatdepartmentchairswill Whiletheearlynotificationdoes vention. hotel roomreservations fortheMLAcon- 2001 earlyinformationaboutmaking paid membersofADEorADFLby 1May will mailchairsofdepartmentsthatare In August 2001theMLAconvention office Reserving HotelRooms Receive EarlyNoticeabout Department Chairs to andADFL ADE CONVENTION included thewrongdatesfor MLA office at www.mla.org. TheMLAaccepts Visa,MasterCard, andAmericanExpress. 576-5161), fax your order(646576-5160), orplaceyour orderthroughtheMLAWeb site cloth and$22.00(members$17.60) inpaperback. to thenoticeofscholars. Thevolume is433pages;itcosts$40.00 (members $32.00)in Sidney, andMaryWroth aswell asthewritingsofwomen whohave onlyrecently come quently anthologizedpiecesby suchauthorsasMargaretCavendish, ElizabethI,Mary strategies forpresentingtheir works intheclassroom.Thirty-sixessays discussfre- ship onBritishwomen writerswholived fromroughly1500to1700 andsuggests teenth volume intheMLA’s Optionsfor Teaching seriessummarizesthelatestscholar- To purchasethesebooksor otherMLApublications, pleasecallcustomer services(646 MLA office(646576-5132;adfl@mla.org). early spring. F brochure detailinghousing,meals, andexcursions willbemailedtoADFLmembersin announcedinthe be Juneandwillbehosted Austin, on 21–23 MichaelKatz.SummerSeminarWest willbe by hosted 2001 ADE andADFLSummerSeminars MEETINGS in paperback. and researchaidsaredescribed. Thebookis105 pages;itcosts$10.00 (members $8.00) the printandelectronicresearchtoolsavailable tostudents. Nearlyfiftyreferenceworks clear andconcisetourofthetypicalcollegelibraryeasy-to-understand summariesof Huling, referencelibrariansforover thirtyyears, draw ontheirexperience toprovide a ates: English andAmericanLiterature $14.40) inpaperback. volume is203pages;itcosts$37.50(members$30.00)inclothand$18.00 (members have proved successfulforteachingBalzac’s work inavariety ofcoursesettings. The visual materials. Inthesecondpart,“Approaches,” instructorsdescribestrategiesthat French editionsandEnglishtranslationsof Teaching World Literatureseries, contains two parts. Thefirst,“Materials,” reviews Goriot (editedby MichalPeled Ginsburg), like allbooksintheMLA’s Approachesto The MLApublishedthreenew titlesinwinter2000. TitlesPublished Three New MLA BOOK NEWS office by 15March([email protected]; fax:646835-4043). ther volume, pleasesendyour nameandmailingaddresstoSoniaKaneattheMLA son the novels ofSamuelRichardson( land’s Approaches toTeaching World Literature. Thefirstvolume, The PublicationsCommitteehasapproved development oftwo new titlesin theseries Call for ContributionsinApproaches Series BOOK NEWS 576-5130; [email protected]). site (www.ade.org) orcontactDavid Laurence, Director, ADE, attheMLAoffice(646 Linda Morris(Univ. ofCalifornia,Davis). For furtherinformation,consulttheADEWeb nia, andwillbehostedby MarkHennelly(CaliforniaStateUniv., Sacramento)and West willtake place28Juneto1JulyattheMonterey BeachHotel,Monterey, Califor- Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, andwillbehostedby BarryKroll(LehighUniv.). Seminar ADE SummerSeminarEastwilltake place12–15 JulyattheRadisson HotelBethlehem, Teaching Tudor andStuartWomen Writers In December, theupdatedandrevised fiftheditionof East ADFL Seminar ), willbeeditedby JocelynHarris andLisaZunshine. Ifyou wishtocontributeei- Piers Plowman, willbeeditedby ThomasA.Goodmann.Thesecond, devoted to or additionalinformation,contactElizabethWelles, ADFL Bulletin will be held at Middlebury College on 7–9 Juneandwillbe will beheldatMiddleburyCollegeon7–9 Pamela and ontheADFLWeb site(www.adfl.org), anda was published. Authors NancyL.Baker andNancy was alsopublishedinDecember. Thisseven- , by JanetSwaffar. Clarissa L ESETR•Spring2001 •Page 29 NEWSLETTER MLA Old Goriot , and Approaches toTeaching Balzac’s , backgroundreadings, andaudio- held attheUniversity ofTexas, The HistoryofSirCharlesGrandi- A Research GuideforUndergradu- Speakers andtopicswill Approaches toTeaching Lang- Director, ADFL, atthe Old MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 30

Table 1 Findings from the MLA Survey of Percentage of Instructional Staff by Category of Instructor, Based on the Total Number of Instructors Reported by Staffing in English and Foreign Language Responding Departments Departments, Fall 1999 Foreign Category of Instructor English Language A recently completed MLA survey provides timely information about staffing practices in college and university English and for- All responding departments eign language departments in the United States and Canada. The Full-time tenured or tenure-track 36.3 35.5 survey collected information about the numbers of tenured and Full-time non-tenure-track 9.5 12.4 tenure-track faculty members, full- and part-time non-tenure-track Part-time 32.0 28.9 faculty members, and graduate student teaching assistants who Graduate student TA 22.2 23.3 taught undergraduate courses in fall 1999. Information was also Number of departments 673 889 collected about the salaries, benefits, and professional support Doctorate-granting departments available to teachers holding full- and part-time non-tenure-track Full-time tenured or tenure-track 30.5 28.4 appointments. Full-time non-tenure-track 8.1 11.7 The survey was designed as a census of all modern language Part-time 16.9 12.1 departments in the United States and Canada. Accordingly, in Graduate student TA 44.6 47.9 November 1999 the MLA contacted the 5,245 two- and four-year Number of departments 106 161 college and university departments included in its database of de- partmental administrators. Overall, 2,182 of the departments re- Master’s-granting departments turned questionnaires, a 42% response rate. Findings presented Full-time tenured or tenure-track 39.9 38.5 here are for the 673 responding English departments and the 889 Full-time non-tenure-track 10.9 11.6 responding foreign language departments. Because the survey was Part-time 33.9 27.2 designed as a census, collective findings such as those reported Graduate student TA 15.3 22.8 here are most accurately regarded as indicative of conditions in Number of departments 155 112 the responding departments rather than as a statistically verified Bachelor’s-granting departments sample intended as a basis for broader generalization. Full-time tenured or tenure-track 53.6 46.3 The survey’s design as a census of all departments in the United Full-time non-tenure-track 10.5 14.8 States and Canada originated in a motion that the MLA Delegate Part-time 35.8 35.4 Assembly approved at its meeting in December 1998. The motion Graduate student TA 0.2 3.5 also provided for the MLA to make results available in a report Number of departments 260 468 that identifies departments and institutions by name, along with the information the departments provided. The information reported Associate’s-granting departments by individual departments and institutions can be accessed at Full-time tenured or tenure-track 31.8 26.2 www.mla.org, the MLA’s site on the World Wide Web. Full-time non-tenure-track 6.3 4.9 Table 1 shows the makeup of the fall 1999 corps of instructors Part-time 61.8 68.8 in the responding English and foreign language departments, by Graduate student TA 0.1 0.0 head-count percentage and the highest degree the departments Number of departments 76 51 grant. Almost all (98%) the responding English and foreign lan- guage departments in four-year institutions reported employing tenured or tenure-track faculty members. The percentages are Table 2 lower for two-year associate’s-granting departments—79% for Average Per-Course Pay for Part-Time Faculty Members Paid by English and 84% for foreign languages. Part-time non-tenure-track the Course, by the Highest Degree Granted by the Department faculty members were employed by 91% of the responding En- Foreign glish departments and 83% of the responding foreign language English Language departments. Whether full-time non-tenure-track faculty members All responding departments were employed varied considerably depending on the highest de- Average per-course pay $2,428 $2,951 gree the responding departments grant. Eighty-six percent of the responding doctorate-granting departments and 81% of the re- Number of departments 572 647 sponding master’s-granting departments reported employing full-time Doctorate departments non-tenure-track faculty members in fall 1999, in comparison Average per-course pay $3,492 $4,742 with 59% of the bachelor’s-granting and 34% of the associate’s- Number of departments 87 94 granting departments. Master’s departments Table 2 shows average per-course pay reported for part-time Average per-course pay $2,273 $2,826 faculty members who are paid by the course. Table 3 and table 4 show average annual salaries reported for full-time non-tenure- Number of departments 134 94 track faculty members and part-time faculty members who are Bachelor’s departments paid on a fractional basis, respectively. Annual salaries are for ac- Average per-course pay $2,438 $2,768 ademic year 1999–2000; per-course pay rates are for fall 1999. Number of departments 216 342 Table 5 shows the significant differences in benefits offered Associate’s departments full-time non-tenure-track faculty members and part-time faculty Average per-course pay $1,715 $1,953 members. No more than 20% of the responding English and for- eign language departments reported that health benefits were of- Number of departments 73 42 fered to part-time faculty members who were paid by the course, MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 31 and 70% of the English departments and 65% of the foreign lan- the responding English and foreign language departments enjoy a guage departments reported that these faculty members were of- private office and private computer access, whereas more than fered no health, retirement, or life insurance benefits at all. By three-quarters of part-time faculty members who are paid on a contrast, three-quarters or more of the responding English and per-course basis must share office space and two-thirds must foreign language departments reported offering health, retirement, share computer access. and life insurance benefits to full-time non-tenure-track faculty Nine of the other disciplinary societies participating in the members, and fewer than 2% of the departments reported that Coalition on the Academic Workforce (CAW) also did surveys par- these faculty members were offered no benefits. Percentages of allel to the one the MLA conducted, including societies represent- the responding departments reporting that benefits were offered ing the fields of anthropology, art history, cinema studies, to part-time faculty members paid by the fraction fall between independent composition programs (conducted by the Conference those reported for full-time non-tenure-track faculty members and on College Composition and Communication), history, linguistics, part-time faculty members who are paid on a per-course basis. philology (classics), and philosophy. Comparative data for all ten Instructors of all categories and across all degree-granting types disciplines can be accessed at the American Historical Associa- of departments generally receive basic professional support such tion’s Web site (www.theaha.org). For further information about as office space; access to a computer, a telephone, a mailbox, and the MLA’s fall 1999 staffing survey, contact David Laurence (646 photocopying; and library privileges. The quality of the support, 576-5130; [email protected]). however, differs markedly with the category of instructor. Three- quarters or more of full-time non-tenure-track faculty members in David Laurence

Table 3 Table 4 Average Annual Salary for Full-Time Non-Tenure Track Faculty Average Annual Salary for Part-Time Faculty Members Paid by Members, by the Highest Degree Granted by the Department Fraction, by the Highest Degree Granted by the Department Foreign Foreign English Language English Language All responding departments All responding departments Average annual salary $33,832 $34,303 Average annual salary $22,352 $21,267 Number of departments 429 521 Number of departments 112 114 Doctorate departments Doctorate departments Average annual salary $32,874 $35,246 Average annual salary $23,274 $23,951 Number of departments 89 132 Number of departments 30 35 Master’s departments Master’s departments Average annual salary $31,865 $32,684 Average annual salary $19,208 $20,491 Number of departments 128 84 Number of departments 40 54 Bachelor’s departments Bachelor’s departments Average annual salary $35,506 $33,739 Average annual salary $24,876 $19,436 Number of departments 139 256 Number of departments 40 54 Associate’s departments Associate’s departments Average annual salary $34,562 $35,092 Average annual salary * * Number of departments 25 14 Number of departments 2 1 *Too few departments reporting part-time paid-by-fraction faculty mem- bers for averages to be calculated.

Table 5 Percentage of Responding Departments Reporting Benefits for Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Members Full-time non-tenure-track Part-time paid by the course Part-time paid by a fraction English Foreign Languages English Foreign Languages English Foreign Languages Health plan paid by both 75.5 77.3 17.1 20.1 58.3 65.2 Health plan paid by the school 29.3 28.2 4.7 6.4 20.8 22.2 Health plan paid by staff 3.6 4.3 5.9 7.3 3.3 6.7 Retirement plan 81.1 82.7 15.9 16.6 62.5 51.9 Life insurance 75.7 78.9 9.5 13.2 54.2 46.7 No benefits offered 1.8 1.1 70.1 64.8 20.0 18.5 Minimum requirement* 37.3 37.9 20.2 24.4 55.0 62.2 Number of departments 440 560 579 657 120 135 *Benefits depend on some minimum such as class load, length of service, percentage of full-time salary, etc. MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 32

GOVERNANCE Summary of Delegate Assembly Actions in Washington, DC At its meeting on 29 December 2000 in Washington, DC, the Del- mented, the terms of the resolution will never be met. The assem- egate Assembly took the following actions. bly therefore voted to rescind the 1994 resolution and lift the ban The assembly conducted four elections. In the balloting for the on holding conventions in California. Delegate Assembly Organizing Committee, Miriam Balboa Echever- In other business, the assembly approved thirteen motions. The ría (Spanish, Southwest Texas State Univ.) and Anne Ruggles Gere text of each motion appears below. All the motions will be for- (English, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor) were elected to three-year warded to the Executive Council in February, and the council will terms (2001–03). Rosemary G. Feal (Spanish, State Univ. of New consider their implementation. York, Buffalo), John Guillory (English, New YorkUniv.), John W. Kronik (Spanish, Cornell Univ.), and Andrea A. Lunsford (English, Motion 1999-11 Stanford Univ.) won two-year terms (2001–02) on the Nominating Whereas dramatic cutbacks in government funding for higher educa- Committee. Elected to the Elections Committee for two-year terms tion continue despite a very strong economy, a huge budget surplus, (2001–02) were Frances R. Aparicio (Univ. of Illinois, Chicago), and high corporate profit levels, and have accompanied a decline in Margaret Maurer (Colgate Univ.), and Kristen Poole (Univ. of Dela- the number and quality of educational resources in all affected institu- ware, Newark). Finally, John Willett was elected an honorary tions, among full-time, tenured and tenure-track faculty, and higher member of the association and Griselda Gambaro and José Emilio tuition at virtually all of them; and Pacheco were elected honorary fellows. The assembly’s election of Whereas, without regard to funding levels, institutions of higher edu- honorary members and fellows is subject to ratification by the cation continue to increase the employment of underpaid adjunct, membership. This ratification vote will be conducted in the spring. part-time, graduate- and teaching-assistant faculty, a large and growing In addition to annual reports from the association’s standing minority of the members of the MLA, at less than a living wage; and committees, the assembly received a number of reports that did Whereas salaries, benefits, and working conditions for full-time, not require action: the report of the Delegate Assembly Organiz- tenured and tenure-track faculty are directly threatened both by fund- ing Committee (DAOC); reports on staffing standards from the ing cutbacks and by increasing reliance upon superexploited part-time, ADE Executive Committee, the ADFL Executive Committee, and adjunct, and graduate- and teaching-assistant faculty; and the Graduate Student Caucus; the executive director’s report, and Whereas a nationwide political movement exists which claims that the the Finance Committee’s report. crisis in higher education stems not from the denial of resources but The assembly also received a report from the Committee on from the admission of “unqualified” students to higher education; and Amendments to the Constitution that required action. The report Whereas this political movement seeks to pit middle-class students contained the four constitutional amendments published in the Sep- against working-class students, and especially to pit white students tember 2000 issue of PMLA (495–97). The assembly approved three against nonwhite, and especially against African American students, of the four proposed amendments. The first approved amendment concurrent with an upsurge of racist incidents at institutions of higher ensures representation of regular members, student members, and education; and life members on the Nominating Committee. The second amend- Whereas, in contrast, the academy has witnessed a dramatic upsurge ment consisted of two sentences, which the assembly discussed and in unionization in the profession which has the potential to help re- voted on separately. The first sentence, which was approved, limits verse the erosion of educational quality, lack of equal opportunity, service as second vice president to one term. The second sentence, growth of racism, and decline in educational facilities, faculty and staff security, pay, and benefits; and which was also approved, prohibits the nomination of sitting mem- bers of the Executive Council for second vice president. The last Whereas, therefore, unionization represents one essential step in approved amendment ensures representation of people of color on struggling to arrest the decline of our profession, the erosion of educa- the Executive Council. In accordance with article 7.B.3 of the MLA tional opportunity and facilities, constitution, the Executive Council must review the amendments We, therefore, move that the MLA shall before forwarding them to the membership for the required ratifi- (1) Encourage its members, and all those employed in teaching and re- cation vote, which will be conducted in the spring. search in the modern languages and literature, to unionize as an essential step toward defending decent teaching and learning condi- The Executive Council presented two recommendations to the tions where they exist, and fighting to gain them where they do not, assembly. The first recommendation was based on a member’s re- and to encourage faculty or professional staff, and all other campus quest “that the MLA give consideration to the establishment of workers, when already represented by a union, to join that union; additional dues brackets past the $80,000 level, or at the very (2) Organize and publish in Profession a forum or roundtable encourag- least an $80–90K bracket.” In the current dues structure, the final ing such unionization; category covers incomes above $80,000, for which the dues (3) Issue public statements of support for part-time and full-time fac- amount is $125. The council asked the Delegate Assembly to con- ulty, teaching and graduate assistants in their efforts to form unions sider the following extension of the dues structure: dues of $125 and caucuses within existing unions and thereby improve the con- for incomes ranging from $80,000–$100,000; dues of $145 for in- ditions of work for teachers of English and the Modern Languages. comes ranging from $100,000–$120,000; dues of $165 for incomes Such activity could include, wherever practicable, expert testimony before legislative bodies on the compatibility of unionization and ranging from $120,000–$140,000; dues of $175 for incomes over the professional needs of MLA members; letters of support; press $140,000. The assembly approved the extension, which will go releases; and, submission of amicus curiae briefs on the compatibil- into effect for the 2002 membership year. ity of unionization and the professional needs of MLA members The council’s second recommendation dealt with holding con- during adjudication before government labor bodies such as NLRB ventions in California. In 1994, the assembly approved a resolu- and PERB. tion calling for a ban on holding conventions in California if California’s Proposition 187 were implemented. In 1999, the state Motion 2000-1 agreed not to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that Proposition 187 Whereas various economic forces have had a deleterious impact on is unconstitutional. Since Proposition 187 will never be imple- U.S. higher education in terms of budget cuts, work speedups, the MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 33

elimination of full-time jobs, and, in some cases, of entire depart- Be it resolved that the MLA will cooperate with other learned socie- ments; and ties and ACLS to encourage research libraries to rethink their interli- brary loan policies to lend materials more broadly (such as out-of-state Whereas the increasing use of part-time and adjunct faculty, combined and to public libraries) especially in light of the new possibilities for with reliance on undercompensated graduate student labor, perpetu- economies from electronic systems. ates exploitative practices that undermine our profession; and Whereas there is an urgent need for an activist movement on cam- Motion 2000-4 puses that unites tenured and untenured professors, adjunct and part- time faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and other campus Whereas the Delegate Assembly, at the 1996 national convention, workers to resist this trend; voted, by an overwhelming majority, to establish an ad hoc Committee against Campus Bigotry as a result of alarming bias incidents at We move that the MLA establish a minimum 50/50 ratio of sections United States colleges and universities, involving both verbal and taught by tenured or tenure-track/non-tenured or non-tenure track physical attacks on students in various minority groups and the target- labor, with the expectation that we should work towards a 75/25 ratio ing of students for recruitment by racist groups; or better, and that, beginning in 2001, the MLA publish and publicize Whereas in response to this vote, the MLA established a Task Force a list of institutions that meet or exceed this minimum in their modern against Campus Bigotry, which was listed in the 1998 MLA Directory, language departments, including a notation in the Job Information List, but has not been listed in the last two directories; as reported through surveys or by other means. Whereas the Task Force has made a good start by issuing a report that We further move that the association build on this minimum by fulfill- calls for an ongoing effort by which the MLA can act to help to create ing the charge of the 1997 Delegate Assembly to establish appropriate on American campuses “an environment in which acts of bigotry can full-time/part-time staffing ratios in modern language departments by neither thrive nor survive”; institutional circumstances, creating a new Committee on Staffing Standards to be appointed by the Graduate Student Caucus, Radical Whereas the MLA Delegate Assembly in December 1999 approved Caucus, and Executive Council in equal parts.* by a vote of 97 to 3 a motion to maintain the Task Force against Cam- pus Bigotry; We further move that the MLA encourages the ADE, ADFL, Profession, other professional organizations interested in this issue (e.g., the AAUP Whereas the establishment of a more permanent body on campus di- and the Coalition of Graduate Employee Unions), and our members to versity and tolerance would be a sign of the MLA’s continuing com- promote discussion of and activism aimed at establishing acceptable ra- mitment to the struggle against prejudice; tios of full-time/part-time labor that meet or exceed this minimum 50/50 Whereas the MLA has established committees on Disability Issues in standard while continuing to advocate that non-graduate student teach- the Profession and the Status of Women in the Profession and has sus- ing positions should whenever possible be full-time, with full benefits, at tained these committees over time, thereby showing its ongoing com- a living wage, and carrying reasonable expectations of job security and mitment to these important issues; that teaching assistants should receive a living wage and full benefits; and Whereas the MLA represents thousands of professors on campuses all We further move that the MLA make every effort to bring these same across America and abroad and has the resources to reach thousands issues to the attention of various accrediting agencies, while encourag- of people in order to spread a message of resistance to campus bigotry; ing our membership to work with these agencies to insure that they Whereas the MLA can work cooperatively with other bodies such as address the exploitation of part-time, adjunct, and graduate student the Southern Poverty Law Center, which has established a “Teaching labor as part of the accrediting process. Tolerance” project and whose director has recently underscored the *The parliamentarian advised the assembly that the provision for ap- importance of “recognizing and reversing thoughts and acts of preju- pointing the proposed committee could only be considered advisory dice among college students”; because it violates article 11.D of the MLA constitution, according to Whereas the Modern Language Association as a body of educators has which the Executive Council determines the membership of all com- a clear responsibility to become involved in a moral issue that directly mittees of the association not provided for in the constitution itself. affects large numbers of students and faculty; Whereas the Modern Language Association has a clear responsibility Motion 2000-2 to respond to bigotry when it involves the misuse of language; Whereas many research materials are located in restricted databases Therefore, we move that the Modern Language Association establish a or other digitized form—for example the MLA biblio database, MAGS, special Committee on Campus Diversity and Tolerance that will take Current Contents etc.—that require a password that is provided only into account the important work of the former Task Force against to current faculty, staff, and students at institutions of higher learning. Campus Bigotry; and Whereas the proprietary nature of such databases and digitized mate- We move that this committee be charged with working to establish a rials means that independent scholars, as well as academically unaffili- climate in which all students, faculty, and other college employees, no ated or unemployed MLA members, do not have access to critical matter what their religion, race, ethnic identity, gender, sexual orienta- research tools. tion, socioeconomic status, or disability status, can work, learn, and Be it resolved that the MLA will investigate the possibility of providing develop together in harmony; and access for independent scholars who are MLA members to its own We move that this committee continue to function and to be listed in databases; will urge other restricted databases to provide reasonable ac- the MLA Directory from 2001 until 2005, when it will report to the cess for independent scholars; and urge university and other research Delegate Assembly. libraries to consider independent scholars as their natural constituency who should have access to electronic databases and digitized materials. Motion 2000-5

Motion 2000-3 Whereas the vital nature of higher education in the development, un- derstanding, and dissemination of ideas makes it essential that our Whereas many independent scholars and academically unaffiliated or profession maintain the highest standards of accountability and ac- unemployed MLA members reside in locations that are at a great dis- complishment; tance from research libraries at which they might secure privileges; Whereas, meanwhile, the speed and variety of technological develop- Whereas these scholars must rely in some cases on small public teach- ment is changing the fundamental nature of work and the relationships ing institutions or local public libraries to secure research materials; (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 34

(continued from previous page) Whereas the trustees of the University of Texas are calling for stan- dardized tests to measure student competency in general education of intellectuals and the institutions through which they address the and for assessments of students’ competency in their majors; and broader public; Whereas many other trustees of colleges and universities, and state leg- Whereas in responding to these changes in the nature of intellectual islatures of public universities are attempting to determine what courses work, the American Association of University Professors and The students must take and what must be taught in those courses; and Newspaper Guild-CWA on June 11, 2000, jointly issued a “Statement on Whereas by taking these actions trustees and regents not only violate Intellectual Workers & Essential Freedoms” which delineates principles, the tenets of faculty governance and academic freedom established by goals, and commitments to guide their actions in the coming years; the AAUP and the MLA, but compromise sound educational practice; Therefore be it moved that the MLA endorses the principles set forth Moved that the MLA affirms that one of the basic tenets of academic in the “Statement on Intellectual Workers & Essential Freedoms,” com- freedom is faculty control of curricula. mitting itself to: • the principles and objectives of the First Amendment. Motion 2000-9 • the principles of academic freedom, and mechanisms that protect them. Be it moved, That the Modern Language Association formally endorse • legal and public advocacy of journalistic freedom under the First and adopt both the letter and the spirit of the “Statement on Graduate Amendment. Students” issued by the American Association of University Profes- • protection of intellectual property rights for creators in the new digi- sors, June 2000. tal environment. • development of workplace democracy and diversity. Motion 2000-10 • insulation of intellectual work from commercial concerns. Whereas, The Delegate Assembly adopted as MLA policy motion • encouragement of broader access to knowledge in all its forms and 1999-8; and venues. Whereas, Job candidates have a compelling interest in knowing before Motion 2000-6 applying whether they can expect to be reimbursed for the expenses and can expect the return of materials enumerated in motion 1999-8; Whereas it is well documented that many institutions of higher educa- now, be it tion pay insufficient wages and provide insufficient benefits to many members of the teaching staff, especially to graduate employees and Moved, That submission forms for positions to be advertised on the other contingent workers, Job Information List be amended—at the point immediately following the text delineating the MLA’s policy on reimbursement—to include We move that the Association adopt, publicize, and update on August the following text: 15th of every year a minimum wage for higher education in literature, language, and literacy in the United States, those minimums for Please check one: ❑ 2001–2002 to begin at: $36,000 plus health-care benefits and shared Our department guarantees candidates for this position re- contributions to a portable retirement plan for persons in a full-time imbursement for expenses and return of sample materials job but not holding the terminal degree in their field (typically a PhD consistent with MLA policy, as stated above. or MFA); $42,000 plus health-care benefits and shared contributions to or a portable retirement plan for those in a full-time job and holding the ❑ Our department does not guarantee candidates for this po- terminal degree in their fields; and sition reimbursement for expenses or return of sample mate- We further move that the Association calculate and publish a mini- rials consistent with MLA policy, as stated above. mum per-course part-time wage applying to graduate students as well Your choice of the above options will be noted in the Job Information List as other contingent labor faculty, based on one-eighth of the full-time listing. wage, to begin at $4,500 for persons without the terminal degree; and $5,250 for persons with the terminal degree, but including in all cases and health-care benefits, shared contributions to a portable retirement Moved, That the above choice will be presented as a dialog box— plan, and full tuition waiver. which must be answered, affirmatively or negatively, before proceed- ing further in the application—in electronic submission forms; and Motion 2000-7 Moved, That each new Job Information List listing that has been given Whereas for many graduate students the logic of replacement in the the above choice on its submission form prominently display one of academic labor system—which means that new generations of gradu- the following two statements—or symbols legended to represent these ate student teachers are repeatedly recruited and discarded—means statements—as appropriate: that receipt of the doctoral degree signifies the end and not the begin- The department offering this job guarantees reimbursement ning of a long teaching career, for expenses and return of sample materials consistent with We move that the MLA form a partnership with AAUP, the GSC, the those enumerated as MLA policy. CGEU, and other academic labor organizations to formulate the terms or of a policy aimed at eradicating the logic of replacement in the exploita- The department offering this job does not guarantee reim- tion of graduate student labor and guaranteeing the right of graduate- bursement for expenses or return of sample materials consistent employee faculty to continuing employment in higher education upon receipt of the doctoral degree. It will be up to this coalition to deter- with those enumerated as MLA policy. mine exactly what “continuing employment” will mean and how to put Moved that in the first year only those departments answering posi- the principle into practice. We are not proposing a specific solution but tively will be noted. rather charging our professional organizations to address the problem. Motion 2000-11 Motion 2000-8 Moved, that the MLA give due consideration to cosigning amicus Whereas the trustees of the State University of New Yorkhave set general briefs written by the AAUP or other higher education organizations education requirements for students without faculty consultation; and when those briefs support basic academic rights—including academic MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 35

freedom and tenure, fair employment practices, and the right of campus employee groups to engage in collective bargaining. Classified Advertisements Moved, that the MLA when appropriate will call on individual college and university adminis- Address all advertisements to MLA trations to honor the results of petition or card drives that express the majority sentiment of Newsletter, MLA, 26 Broadway, 3rd employee groups regarding collective bargaining—including requests to hold a formal election floor, New York, NY 10004-1789. Checks to choose a bargaining agent. should be made payable to the Modern Moved, that the MLA when appropriate will call on individual college and university adminis- Language Association. The rate for ad- trations to honor the results of employee group votes on collective bargaining taken by secret vertisements is $3 a word, with a ten- ballot and supervised by neutral third parties—such as state, regional, or National Labor Rela- word minimum. Ads must be prepaid. tions Boards or the American Arbitration Association. Content and appearance of adver- The Delegate Assembly remains the most broadly representative and most effective place to intro- tisements are subject to publisher’s duce MLA resolutions censuring colleges or universities for practices that violate the basic rights approval. The publisher does not solicit of our members. Recognizing, however, that the DA meets only once a year, and that action may the items and cannot vouch for their reli- occasionally be urgent at other times, we urge the Executive Council to give due consideration to ability. Members should exercise reason- warning and then censuring institutions that violate the rights of students and faculty in fields rep- resented by the MLA. These rights include the right to collective bargaining wherever it is legal. able judgment in responding to them.

Motion 2000-12 STROLL TO BRITISH LIBRARY. Profes- Whereas, The MLA has a vested interest in the working conditions of its membership; be it sor’s two four-room modernized Regency flats. Year, semester, shorter period. Phone Moved, That the MLA will initiate a substantial publication on the pros and cons of faculty and 215-592-8102. hugh.ormsby-lennon@ graduate student unionization and on the practical steps involved for faculty and graduate em- villanova.edu ployees seeking collective bargaining; and Moved, That the aim is not necessarily equal representation in terms of space, since the need to detail practical procedures may require more space than a full expression of views against INTERNATIONAL SEMINARS: CIEE’S unionization. Rather, the aim is to offer a fair and balanced representation of diverse points of FACULTY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS. view on the subject of unionization; and Intensive 1–2 week overseas seminars being offered in 20 countries, for univer- Moved, That the MLA will produce this substantial publication in a timely fashion. sity faculty and administrators. Seminars The assembly also approved three resolutions. They are presented in the accompany- focus on cultural, political, and economic ing article on page 7, which also describes how the resolution comment process will be issues and feature lectures, study tours, carried out this year on the MLA’s Web site. In accordance with article 7.B.3 of the MLA and professional interchange. 2001 semi- constitution, the Executive Council will review the resolutions before forwarding them nars: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, to the membership in the spring for ratification. China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, En- Ballots covering all items subject to membership ratification will be mailed to mem- gland, Germany, Ghana, Jordan, Mexico, bers by the beginning of April. These ballots must be returned by 1 June. A complete re- N. Ireland, S. Africa, Spain, Taiwan, port of the Delegate Assembly meeting will appear in the May 2001 issue of PMLA. Tunisia, Turkey, Vietnam. Tel: 1 800 40-STUDY; www.ciee.org/ifds.

I will be 80 years old on June 9 and would love to hear from former students and colleagues. Herbert Lederer, 143 Separatist Road, Storrs, CT 06268.

DEADLINES Fellowships and Grants The following list includes fellowships and grants that have deadlines between 1 April and 15 June. More specific information, such as eligibility, description of grants, number of grants awarded, and sources for further details, can be found in the September 2000 PMLA, pages 858–76. The arrangement is chronological, and each date is followed by the major title under which information is listed in the September issue.

APRIL MAY 1 Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies 1 National Endowment for the Humanities 1 Helen Ann Mins Robbins Fellowship 10 Rockefeller Foundation 1 Zhonghua Scholarship Program 15 Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation 3 National Endowment for the Humanities 10 National Endowment for the Humanities JUNE 15 National Endowment for the Humanities 1 IREX (International Research and Exchanges Board) 15 National Foundation for Jewish Culture Dissertation 1 Women’s Caucus for the Modern Languages Fellowships 15 Canadian Studies Grant Programs 15 Fordham Medieval Fellows Program MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 • Page 36

UPCOMING MLA DEADLINES

MARCH MAY 1 Deadline for receipt of forum proposals for the 2001 convention 1 Deadline for receipt of entries in the 2001 competitions for 1 Deadline for entries in the 2001 James Russell Lowell Prize com- the MLA Prize for Independent Scholars, the Kenneth W. petition Mildenberger Prize, Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize, Katherine Singer 9 Deadline for receipt of departmental administrators’ statements Kovacs Prize, and Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prizes for Compar- for the April 2001 Job Information List ative Literary Studies and for French and Francophone Studies; 15 Deadline for receipt of submissions for Profession 2001 and for the biennial competitions for the MLA Prize for a Distin- APRIL guished Scholarly Edition, the Morton N. Cohen Award for a 1 Deadline for receipt of entries competing for the 2001 MLA Distinguished Edition of Letters, the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a First Book and for the Lois Roth Award for a Prize for Studies in Slavic Languages and Literatures, the Aldo Translation of a Literary Work and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Italian Studies, and the Aldo and 1 Deadline for receipt of requests for waivers of membership Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Scholarly Study of requirements for participants in the 2001 convention Literature 1 Deadline by which organizers and panelists in the 2001 25 Deadline for receipt of departmental administrators’ statements convention must be listed on the MLA membership rolls for the 2001 Summer Supplement of the Job Information List (no 1 Deadline for receipt of books and articles for listing in the 2000 solicitations will be made) MLA International Bibliography JUNE 7 Postmark deadline for proposals for special sessions for the 2001 convention 1 Deadline for receipt of ballots on resolutions and other matters 7 Deadline for receipt of requests for audiovisual equipment for 15 Deadline for submission of manuscripts for the PMLA special the 2001 convention topic Imagining History 7 Postmark deadline for program copy from divisions, discussion 15 Notification of decisions on funding requests mailed to groups, MLA committees, and allied and affiliate organizations discussion leaders who have applied for funds for speakers at 15 Deadline for receipt of requests for funds for speakers at the the 2001 convention 2001 convention 30 Deadline for receipt of new members’ applications for listing in 20 Deadline for submission of manuscripts for the PMLA special the September 2001 (Directory) issue of PMLA topic America: The Idea, the Literature 30 Deadline for current members to submit changes in rank or 30 Deadline for applications for dues subsidies for residents of de- affiliation for listing in the September 2001 (Directory) issue of veloping or soft-currency nations PMLA

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