Spring 2008 MLA Volume 40, Number 1 N E W S L E T T E R

Richard J. Franke, recipient of the Phyllis In This Issue Franklin Award. 1 Phyllis Franklin Award for Public Advocacy of the Humanities Presented to Richard J. Franke 3 President’s Column • gerald graff OSCAREINZIG PHOTOGRAPHY Assessment changes everything 5 Editor’s Column • Rosemary g. Feal “Tan cerca de Dios”: Survival Poqomchi 7 2007 Election Results

BIBLIOGRAPHY MLA Bibliography fellowships 29

BOOK NEWS Four new MLA titles published 30 Call for contributions to Approaches series 31 Phyllis Franklin Award for Public Advocacy of the CONVENTION Humanities Presented to Richard J. Franke Department chair’s hotel reservations 8 Calls for papers for 2008 convention in The third Phyllis Franklin Award for Public Advocacy of the Humanities was pre­ San Francisco 8 sented to Richard J. Franke, retired chair and CEO of Nuveen Investments, Inc., and founder of the Chicago Humanities Festival, during the MLA Presidential Address GOVERNANCE on 28 December 2007. MLA President Michael Holquist presented Franke with a Membership ratification vote 6 plaque in recognition of his advocacy of the arts and humanities; at a reception pre­ Delegate Assembly parliamentarian sought 7 ceding the address Franke received a signed first edition of The Congo and Other Po-­ Summary of Delegate Assembly actions ems by Vachel Lindsay. in Chicago 7 The award was established to honor Phyllis Franklin, who died in August 2004. Franklin served as the MLA’s director of English programs and then as executive di­ GRANTS AND PRIZES rector from 1985 until 2002. Previous winners of the award are Senator Edward M. Winners of MLA prizes announced 1 Kennedy (2003) and former Princeton University and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation President William G. Bowen (2005). MEETINGS 2008 ADE Summer Seminars 29 2008 ADFL Summer Seminars 29 gRANTS ANd PRizeS WEB SITE NEWS Online forums launched 2 Winners of MLA Prizes Announced Other News and Announcements Correspondence 30 The winners of twelve annual prizes and six biennial awards given by the MLA were Fellowships and grants deadlines 31 recognized at the 2007 MLA convention in Chicago. Gerald Graff, first vice president Classified advertisements 31 of the association, announced and presented the prizes at a ceremony preceding the Upcoming MLA deadlines 32 Presidential Address on 28 December. William Riley Parker Prize: Pauline Yu, “‘Your Alabaster in This Porcelain’: Judith Gautier’s Le livre de jade” (PMLA, March 2007). Honorable Mention: Joseph R. Slaugh­ ter, “Enabling Fictions and Novel Subjects: The Bildungsroman and International Hu­ man Rights Law” (PMLA, October 2006) James Russell Lowell Prize: Martin Puchner, Poetry of the Revolution: Marx, Manifes-­ tos, and the Avant-­gardes (Princeton University Press, 2006). Honorable Mention: Wai Chee Dimock, Through Other Continents: American Literature across deep Time (Prince­ ton University Press, 2006), and Cynthia Wall, The Prose of Things: Transformations of description in the eighteenth Century (University of Chicago Press, 2006) (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 2

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Modern Language Association Prize for a First Book: Sean X. Goudie, Creole Amer-­ Online Forums Launched ica: The West indies and the Formation of Literature and Culture in the New Republic (Uni­ Beginning in February, and for a test versity of Pennsylvania Press, 2006) period of at least eighteen months, each Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize: Janet Alsup, Teacher identity discourses: Negotiating Per-­ division and discussion group will have sonal and Professional Spaces (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates and National Council of an online forum located on the MLA Teachers of English, 2006) Web site. MLA members will have cus­ tomized home pages with direct access Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize: Penny McKay, Assessing Young Language Learners to the online forums for the divisions (Cambridge University Press, 2006) and discussion groups in which they Modern Language Association Prize for Independent Scholars: Eric Edward Paras, are registered. In addition, members Foucault 2.0: Beyond Power and Knowledge (Other Press, 2006) will have access to all online forums so Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize: William P. Childers, Transnational Cervantes (Univer­ that they may participate in a variety of sity of Toronto Press, 2006). Honorable Mention: Lois Parkinson Zamora, The inordinate exchanges with their colleagues. Ideally, eye: New World Baroque and Latin American Fiction (University of Chicago Press, 2006) these forums will generate collaboration among scholars who otherwise would Morton N. Cohen Award for a Distinguished Edition of Letters: John Kelly and have limited opportunities to be in Ronald Schuchard, The Collected Letters of W. B. Yeats, volume 4 (Oxford University touch and to work together. Press, 2005) Executive committees will be able to MLA Prize for a Distinguished Scholarly Edition: Roger Lonsdale, The Lives of the Po-­ communicate directly with their constit­ ets, by Samuel Johnson, 4 volumes (Oxford University Press, 2006). Honorable Mention: uents concerning division and discus­ Christopher S. Mackay, Malleus Maleficarum,2 volumes (Cambridge University Press, sion group activities (calls for papers, 2006), and Daniel Paul O’Donnell, Cædmon’s Hymn: A Multimedia Study, Archive, and issues in the field, meetings at the con­ edition (D. S. Brewer in association with SEENET and the Medieval Academy, 2005) vention) and with other executive com­ mittees. Individual members can Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies: Toril Moi, Henrik contribute to dialogues about issues and ibsen and the Birth of Modernism: Art, Theater, Philosophy (Oxford University Press, 2006) ideas in multiple forums and make con­ Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for French and Francophone Studies: Lawrence D. tact with colleagues across fields about Kritzman, editor, The Columbia History of Twentieth-­Century French Thought (Columbia intellectual, pedagogical, and profes­ University Press, 2006). Honorable Mention: Sharon Kinoshita, Medieval Boundaries: sional topics. They can also communi­ Rethinking difference in Old French Literature (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2006) cate with the executive committees by using the link provided. Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Studies in Slavic Languages and Literatures: Julie A. Buckler, Mapping St. Petersburg: imperial Text and Cityshape (Princeton Univer­ sity Press, 2005). Honorable Mention: Olga Matich, erotic Utopia: The decadent imagina-­ tion in Russia’s Fin de Siècle (University of Wisconsin Press, 2005) The MLA Newsletter (ISSN 0160­5720) is published four times a year (Spring, Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Scholarly Study of Litera-­ Summer, Fall, Winter) by the Modern ture: Shelley Frisch, Kafka: The decisive Years (Kafka: die Jahre der entscheidungen) by Language Association of America, 26 Broadway, 3rd floor, New York, New Reiner Stach (Harcourt, 2005) York 10004­1789. The MLA Newsletter Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Italian Studies: Cristina Della Coletta, World’s is edited by the executive director of Fairs italian Style: The great exhibitions in Turin and Their Narratives, 1860–1915 the association, Rosemary G. Feal. The (Univer­ managing editor is Judy Goulding. The sity of Toronto Press, 2006) cost of an annual subscription is $8. The Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Publication Award for a Manuscript in Italian Literary subscription price is included in the dues of all members of the association. Studies: Lina N. Insana, Arduous Tasks: Primo Levi, Translation, and the Transmission of Periodicals postage paid at New York, Holocaust Testimony (University of Toronto Press) NY, and at additional mailing offices. All news items and letters should be sent to Lois Roth Award for a Translation of a Literary Work: Edwin A. Cranston, A Waka the MLA Newsletter at the above address. Anthology, Volume Two: grasses of Remembrance (Stanford University Press, 2006) POSTMASTER: Send address changes to William Sanders Scarborough Prize: Jacqueline Goldsby, A Spectacular Secret: Lynch-­ MLA Newsletter, 26 Broadway, 3rd floor, ing in American Life and Literature (University of Chicago Press, 2006) New York, NY 10004­1789. MLA Prize in United States Latina and Latino and Chicana and Chicano Literary and Cultural Studies: Alicia Arrizón, Queering Mestizaje: Transculturation and Perfor-­ mance (University of Michigan Press, 2006), and Ramón Saldívar, The Borderlands of Culture: Américo Paredes and the Transnational imaginary (Duke University Press, 2006) The MLA’s prizes are awarded under the auspices of the Committee on Honors and Awards, which appoints the members of the selection committees and determines procedures, deadlines, and criteria for eligibility for all the prizes. Deadlines for up­ coming prizes appear on page 32. To submit books or to obtain detailed information about any of the prizes, call or write the coordinator of book prizes at the MLA office (646 576­5141; awards@ mla .org). MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page  PRESIDENT’S COLUMN

Assessment Changes Everything hen I served on college admissions committees in the the teachers’ individual talents “with little guidance or support W1990s, a phrase that kept coming up was “the best stu­ from the organizations that surround them” (2).4 Conversely, dents,” in comments like “We’ve got to get the best students” as Elmore argues, successful schools tend to stress cooperation or “Rival College X down the road is beating us out for the best among teachers over individual teaching brilliance, though co­ students.” I came to think of the mentality behind these com­ operation itself enhances individual teaching. ments as the Best­Student Fetish, a symptom of the increasingly For all its obvious value, excellent teaching in itself doesn’t obsessive competition among colleges for the cream of the high guarantee good education. The courses taken in a semester by school senior crop. The more I thought about the Best­Student a high school or college student may all be wonderfully well Fetish, the more perverse its logic seemed: it is as if the ultimate taught by whatever criterion we want to use, but if the content dream of college admissions is to recruit a student body that is of the courses is unrelated or contradictory, the educational ef­ already so well educated that it hardly needs any instruction! fect can be incoherence and confusion. As students in today’s Sitting in admissions committee meetings, it was all I could do intellectually diverse university go from course to course, not to ask, “Hey, why don’t we recruit bad students and see if we they are inevitably exposed to starkly mixed messages (on the can actually teach them something?” “mixed­message curriculum,” see Graff, Clueless 62–80). Though The experience helped me realize that, despite our undoubt­ this exposure is often energizing for the high achievers who edly sincere efforts to make higher education democratic, the possess some already developed skill at synthesizing clashing top colleges and universities and their wannabe imitators are ideas and turning them into coherent conversations, the strug­ still set up for the students who are already the best educated gling majority typically resort to giving successive instructors rather than for the struggling majority that needs us most. Per­ whatever they seem to want even if it is contradictory. Giving haps we got so used to the split between intellectual haves and instructors what they want (assuming students can figure out have­nots among undergraduates that we concluded that it’s what that is) replaces internalizing the norms of the intellectual inevitable and there’s nothing we can do about it. This would community—that is, education. explain why, in the hundreds of faculty meetings I must have The freedom that is granted us in higher education (at least attended in my forty­plus years of teaching, I have never heard at high­end and middle­rank institutions) to teach our courses anyone ask how our department or college was doing at educat­ as we please should have always carried an obligation to cor­ ing all its students. relate and align our courses to prevent students from being That’s why I’ve become a believer in the potential of learn­ bombarded with confusing disjunctions and mixed messages. ing outcomes assessment, which challenges the elitism of the Outcomes assessment holds us to that obligation by making us Best­Student Fetish by asking us to articulate what we expect operate not as classroom divas and prima donnas but as team our students to learn—all of them, not just the high­achieving players who collaborate with our colleagues to produce a genu­ few—and then holds us accountable for helping them learn it.1 ine program. We all use the P­word glibly, as in “our writing Whereas the Best­Student Fetish asks who the great students program” or “our literature program,” but we have not earned are before we see them, outcomes assessment changes the ques­ the right to the word if it denotes only a collection of isolated tion to what students can do as a result of seeing us.2 courses, however individually excellent each may be. Furthermore, once we start asking whether our students are By bringing us out from behind the walls of our classrooms, learning what we want them to learn, we realize pretty quickly outcomes assessment deprivatizes teaching, making it not that making this happen is necessarily a team effort, requiring only less of a solo performance but more of a public activity. us to think about our teaching not in isolation but in relation to To be sure, with such increased public visibility may come that of our colleagues. The problem is not that we don’t value greater vulnerability: though it is students whose learning is good teaching, as our critics still often charge, but that we often evaluated in outcomes assessment, it is ultimately the faculty share our culture’s romanticized picture of teaching as a vir­ whose performance is put in the spotlight. If we have nothing tuoso performance by soloists, as seen in films like dead Poets to hide, however, then less secrecy and greater transparency Society, dangerous Minds, and Freedom Writers. According to this in our classroom practices should work in our favor. At a time individualist conception of teaching—call it the Great­Teacher when attracting greater financial support for higher education Fetish, the counterpart of the Best­Student Fetish—good educa­ increasingly depends on our ability to demonstrate the value of tion simply equals good teaching. This equation is pervasive our work to wider publics, anything that makes teaching more in current discussions of school reform, where it is taken as a visible and less of a black box figures to be in our interest. Giv­ given that the main factor in improving schooling is recruiting ing teaching a more public face should help humanists doing more good teachers. cutting­edge work refute the widespread stereotype of them In fact, this way of thinking is a recipe for bad education. Ac­ as tenured radicals who rule over their classes with iron fists. cording to Richard F. Elmore’s research on primary and second­ But it should also help humanists more generally to clarify to a ary education, in failing schools the governing philosophy is wider public the critical reading and thinking competencies we often, Find the most talented teachers and liberate them “from stand for and to show that those competencies are indispens­ the bonds of bureaucracy,” which are often seen as infringe­ able enough to the workplace and democratic citizenship to ments on academic freedom (6). (In the movies, the great teacher merit greater investment. always works her classroom magic against the background of But of course the critics of outcomes assessment are far less an inept, venal, or corrupt school bureaucracy.3) Elmore reports sanguine than I am in the face of the conservative politics that the pattern of teachers “working in isolated classrooms” is they see driving it. In a talk delivered at our MLA “Outcomes common in unsuccessful schools, where everything depends on (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 

(continued from previous page) parents and legislators, we will only confirm what our cynical detractors say about us, that our real aim is to keep the secrets Assessment” session, Michael Bennett, presenting what he of our intellectual club to ourselves.6 By asking us to spell out called “the radical take on learning outcomes assessment,” said those secrets and measuring our success in opening them to all, this position “can be summarized in one word: resist!” Bennett outcomes assessment helps make democratic education a reality. argued that the push for outcomes assessment must be seen in the context of the increasing privatization of higher education, gerald graff the co­optation of accreditation by the for­profit educational sector, and the attempt to force colleges to accept a version of NOTES the No Child Left Behind law in the schools. As Bennett put it: The President’s Column also appears on the MLA Web site, and mem­ bers are invited to comment online. This essay is based on a talk pre­ I see the focus on outcomes assessment as a dodge from the real sented at the 2007 MLA convention session “Outcomes Assessment: problems with the American educational system: that it is embed­ Problems and Perspectives.” ded in an inequitable and violent socioeconomic system. The kind 1. In a comment similar to those I’ve heard from many faculty of policies that would truly help the students with whom I work are members and administrators, Laura Rosenthal, a fellow speaker at the not more hearings, campus visits, and testing but adequate funding MLA convention session in which I gave a version of these remarks, de­ for secondary education; child care; a living wage; debt relief or, scribed an outcomes assessment meeting on her campus at the Univer­ better yet, free universal postsecondary education; an adequately sity of Maryland, College Park, in which her colleagues asked the very compensated academic workforce exercising free inquiry and build­ question I have yet to hear: “Much of the meeting,” she writes, “was ing an educational community; and universal health care. devoted to a discussion of whether or not our students were learning what we wanted them to learn. Imagine that! Truly a first in my experi­ Bennett is certainly right that many of the problems of Ameri­ ence.” The fact that leadership in outcomes assessment comes from state can education—including the so­called achievement gap be­ universities and community colleges rather than from the high­prestige tween students from rich and poor backgrounds—are rooted in elites is another indication of the democratic character of the movement. economic inequality and that more adequate funding and social 2. In the words of Gregory Clark, associate dean of humanities at services would do much to alleviate these problems. But to see Brigham Young University, “Learning outcomes assessment forces us out of ourselves, shifting our attention from what we as teachers do— outcomes assessment as merely a conservative dodge designed to what our students actually learn.” I want to thank Clark for suggest­ to distract everyone from structural inequality ignores the ways ing many of the arguments in this essay. our own pedagogical and curricular practices contribute to the 3. This stereotypical contrast in films set in academia between heroic achievement gap. Though it calls itself “radical,” this view is teachers and obstructionist bureaucrats is trenchantly analyzed by remarkably complacent in its suggestion that nothing in our Steve Benton. house needs to change. 4. Arguing along lines similar to Elmore’s, my colleague Steven E. Though Bennett and other critics believe that assessment is Tozer, who directs a program for school principals in the College of an invention of recent conservatives that is being imposed on Education at the University of Illinois, Chicago (and who brought my attention to Elmore’s work), argues that training effective principals, education from the outside, the truth is that assessment origi­ who in turn create a collaborative culture in their schools, does more to nated from within the educational community itself in the early transform schools than training any number of good teachers, though 1990s, well before conservative efforts to co­opt it. I recall at­ again good school leadership itself helps make teachers better. tending my first assessment conference in 1991 and noting the 5. For an argument on how assessment standards should be formu­ considerable buzz about assessment at meetings of organiza­ lated and even standardized, see Birkenstein­Graff and Graff. tions like the American Association of Colleges and Universi­ 6. For an analysis of how colleges and universities hide their intel­ ties. The original motivations of assessment lie in legitimate lectual secrets from students and other citizens, see Graff, Clueless in progressive efforts to reform higher education from within, by Academe and “Our Undemocratic Curriculum.” judging colleges according to what their students learn rather WORKS CITED than by their elite pedigrees. But outcomes assessment can be used in undemocratic ways, Bartholomae, David. E­mail to the author. 2008. and educators do need to take Bennett’s concerns seriously. We Bennett, Michael. “Outcomes Assessment: Problems and Perspectives.” should scrutinize the standards used in assessment, how these MLA Annual Convention. Hyatt Regency, Chicago. 29 Dec. 2007. standards are determined and applied (and with what degree Benton, Steve. “Ichabod’s Children: Anti­Intellectualism and the Amer­ ican Pedagogical Imagination.” Diss. U of Illinois, Chicago. 2008. of input from faculties), and how assessment results are used.5 Birkenstein­Graff, Cathy, and Gerald Graff. “How Not to Respond to Rather than reject assessment and circle the wagons, however, the Spellings Report: A Progressive Case for Educational Standard­ we should actively involve ourselves in the process, not only to ization.” Forthcoming in Academe. shape and direct it as much as possible but to avoid ceding it by Clark, Gregory. E­mail to the author. 2007. default to those who would misuse it. Had we been assessing Elmore, Richard F. “Building a New Structure for School Leadership.” outcomes all along in the normal course of our work, I doubt American educator Winter 1999­2000: 1–9. that the legislators and privatizers could have rushed in to fill Graff, Gerald. Clueless in Academe: How Schooling Obscures the Life of the the vacuum we created. Mind. New Haven: Yale UP, 2003. As David Bartholomae observes, “We make a huge mistake ———. “Our Undemocratic Curriculum.” Profession 2007. New York: MLA, 2007. 128–35. if we don’t try to articulate more publicly what it is we value in Rosenthal, Laura. E­mail to the author. 2008. intellectual work. We do this routinely for our students—so it Tozer, Steven E. “The Public and Its Professoriate: Toward a More should not be difficult to find the language we need to speak Radical Praxis in Social Foundations of Education.” American Edu­ to parents and legislators.” If we do not try to find that public cational Studies Association Presidential Address. Spokane. 4 Nov. language but argue instead that we are not accountable to those 2006. Forthcoming in educational Studies. MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page  EDITOR’S COLUMN

“Tan Cerca de Dios”: Survival Poqomchi n “Survival Spanish” (Editor’s Column, Summer 2007 MLA skipped Belejú. The village men traveled to the coast during the INewsletter), I looked back on my experience, at age sixteen, coffee crop season to work on plantations owned by foreigners. of being completely immersed in a language and a culture so The beautiful red oval beads that I brought back from Belejú, different from my own that I developed a completely changed thinking them unique to Mayans, turned out to be common version of myself in reaction to the shock of the new. “Time trade beads that circulate worldwide. Although Belejú appeared is passing: are you?” I remember that sign, affixed to the wall isolated, it was in fact part of a tissue of important social and clock in my eighth­grade social studies classroom. I always political realities. interpreted “passing” in that context as some sort of existential If the plunge into my new life in Guatemala City was a shock phenomenon (time moves: are you changing along with time?) to my system, the immersion in Belejú was nothing short of rather than grasping the more obvious meaning, which came astounding. The few words of survival Poqomchi I learned only to me only years later. Well, in October 1972, I was indeed pass­ got me as far as “good morning” and “thank you.” What was I ing, as a Guatemalan patoja, not too distinguishable from my to say to my students—the youngest village girls, whom no one classmates at the Instituto Belga Guatemalteco. My command of else volunteered to teach—as they hid their faces in their rebozos English had become fragmented (I couldn’t construct sentences when I met them on the first day? How was I to adapt to the without code switching—I still have trouble to this day), and sounds and smells in the crowded church as the campesinos I no longer looked like the person who had arrived in Central came in from the field for their evening literacy classes? Would America in January: new makeup, clothing, size, even manner­ I get used to sleeping on the mud floor of the church annex, in isms. I possessed all the cultural referents of my peer group, a hay­filled cubicle, where the ice­cold dawn held the promise and I had even taken second place for my writing (in Spanish) of a basin of frigid water to cleanse the nightly flea bites? And in my graduating class’s literary competition. So what was left how were the residents of Belejú to adapt to us? They sacrificed, to do, in the remaining two months I had in chapinlandia, Coun­ this I know. The local diet consisted of tortillas with chiles, fer­ try of Eternal Spring? mented corn porridge, and little else, but our team was served Change again, of course. I signed up to be a volunteer on my chicken stew, eggs, and other rare foods on a regular basis. school’s annual Operación Uspantán, a mission to the highland The villagers acquiesced to the missionary presence in Belejú, regions of El Quiché and Alta Verapaz, where the population is most likely because they saw the chance to learn Spanish and virtually all indigenous and where Spanish is a distant second to receive Western health care as a way to manage the evolving tongue to the native languages that belong to the Quichean­ national conditions that affected the highlands. Better that the Maman subfamily of Mayan. For a month I would be living in assistance come from the nuns of the Belgian order than from a tiny village on top of a mountain in a region so remote it took the enforced government “model village” tactics that were soon days of travel by bus, truck, and mule to get there. The nuns, a to wreak total havoc on the Quiché region. few priests, and scores of teenaged volunteers were about to as­ I say this with the hindsight of a scholar of Latin American cend to several of these villages (my assignment was in Belejú) literature and culture. What I said at age seventeen, when faced to bring medical supplies, to teach the children the Spanish lan­ with a dozen timid Mayan girls, was “¡Vamos a cantar!” I am guage, to instruct the women in corte y confección (cutting fabric lucky to be a natural when it comes to teaching, and I devised and sewing), to give the men lessons in literacy, and, of course, to ways to engage my class from day one. The songs I had just do what Spanish­speaking Catholics had been doing for centu­ recently learned myself became teaching tools (“Dos elefan­ ries: bring the One True Religion to the descendants of Xbalanque tes se balanceaban sobre la tela de una araña” ‘Two elephants and Hunahpu. I can hardly write these words today without feel­ were balancing on a spider web’). I assembled a collection of ing some scorn—along with a good dose of compassion—toward ordinary objects and taught the girls the words in Spanish by the gringa chapina who signed up to teach her newly acquired inventing little games and offering candy as rewards. They in Spanish to Poqomchi speakers, who learned how to make basic turn taught me the words in Poqomchi. One day, noticing that muslin clothing cut from paper patterns so that she could in­ all the little girls had head lice, I decided to take them to the struct women who had been weaving magnificent garments for village well, wash their waist­length hair, and give them each centuries, who, a non­Catholic herself, helped with Sunday mass a ribbon that I had purchased in the market. They indulged and recited the rosary as well as any Guatemalan girl. their strange teacher, but as I was finishing the ritual (which of In that mountain village I had the feeling of walking through course didn’t cure the problem) and the sun was beginning to clouds. Looking at Belejú on google earth confirms that impres­ set, a few of the girls began to run home. Some of them didn’t sion. It is a place so high up that earth and sky seem to inter­ return to class the next day. I can just imagine what the moth­ mingle, tan cerca de dios. Y tan lejos de los estados Unidos.1 When ers said when their children arrived at their choza with wet hair I would tell residents of Belejú where I was from, they were and orange ribbons. I had trespassed. I wasted village water. I bewildered—they had never heard of the United States. Guate­ took it on myself to “fix” the children. mala City was for many an imaginary place, so the giant coun­ One little girl took a shine to me, and I to her. Candelaria was try north of Mexico meant nothing to them. Before learning that her Spanish name, and her parents were important people in the my exchange student placement would take me to Guatemala, village. Shortly before the month was over, Candelaria’s father, I had no idea where that country was, and I certainly did not who spoke some Spanish, invited me to visit the choza where distinguish the highlands from the capital. After a month in Be­ they lived. I met Candelaria’s family, sat on a petate with the fire lejú, I could distinguish the path through the cornfields that led pit in view, and sampled the fermented corn porridge I was of­ to the water well from the path that led to the village leader’s fered (it was sour, and I had trouble mustering a “¡Qué rico!” house. Don’t presume, though, that globalization had somehow (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 

(continued from previous page) the campesinos. I put away the fantasies I had entertained of re­ turning to Guatemala for another stay in Belejú. “Guatemala no as I swallowed a mouthful). As we were leaving the village on existe,” in the words of one of the characters in The Long Night of mule, Candelaria, along with others, accompanied us to the end White Chickens, by the Guatemalan American Francisco Goldman. of the road in Belejú. I took off the silver Guatemalan earrings You won’t find any overt reference to my personal story if I was wearing and gave them to her. A year later, Madre Lucía, you read the article I published on Rigoberta Menchú’s “ethno­ the nun in charge of the mission, sent me a picture of Cande­ biography,” as I called it. I did not hide that history from my laria in Belejú. But this is not where the story should end. students, however, and when I taught Guatemalan literature Candelaria could have been Rigoberta Menchú, who was and culture in my courses at the University of Rochester, they about the same age, growing up in a highland village not far appreciated the intimate shading I was able to give to the intel­ away. I could have been María del Rosario Godoy, five years lectual picture we created together. Was I able to gain mastery younger than I, who attended the Instituto Belga Guatemalteco over my experiences through research, teaching, and study of and participated in the Operación Uspantán. A teacher at a Je­ things Guatemalan (something I continue to do today)? Hardly. suit school and vice president of an organization of families of What I did accomplish, however, is that transcultural literacy the disappeared (her husband was one), she was found in a body that should be the goal of our language teaching at colleges and dump, along with her son and brother, in 1985 (http://www universities. Through my years of intense study of the histori­ .hrw.org/reports/pdfs/g/guatemla/guatemal946.pdf, p. 137). cal, cultural, and literary production of a region, I learned about Rigoberta Menchú worked at the Instituto Belga Guatemalteco the experience of others (one Guatemala doesn’t exist) and about as a servant. María del Rosario Godoy may have seen her there, my own experience, in my culture and in theirs. I also learned much as I saw the indigenous women lining the patio, ready to to be retrospectively afraid. From the vantage point of a profes­ sweep and mop, when I arrived at the school in January. I had no sor of Latin American literature at midlife, I simply would not clue that the steps I was taking could be, for other women at an­ send my teenage daughter to 1972 Guatemala, city or highlands, other quickly approaching time, a death march. It was only after for a year. But I was lucky: I got to go, I got to return. (The motto I went back to the United States that I began processing my ex­ of the Instituto Belga Guatemalteco was Non fallit te deus.) Near perience through the lens of history, anthropology, political sci­ or far, in imagination and in memory, I was protected in Belejú. ence, and, above all, literature. I was horrified. I was enthralled. Thank God I am protected no longer. Within a few months after my return from Guatemala, I was off to the remote province of Crawford County, Pennsylvania, to Rosemary g. Feal study at Allegheny College. As I read the works of Miguel Angel Asturias in my Spanish course, studied latifundismo in my Latin NOTE American history course, and learned about classical Mayan ar­ 1. “Pobre México, tan lejos de Dios y tan cerca de los Estados Uni­ chaeology in a course taught by a professor of ancient languages dos” (“Poor Mexico, so far from God and so close to the United States”) and cultures, I began the intellectual journey that has helped me is the famous pronouncement attributed to the Mexican dictator Porfi­ make some sense of my lived experiences. By the time I was en­ rio Díaz in the early twentieth century. tering graduate school, the military repression in Guatemala was at its peak. Operación Uspantán had to be suspended because WORKS CITED of the mass murders going on in the highlands, with priests and Feal, Rosemary G. “Spanish­American Ethnobiography and the Slave nuns often targeted for conducting subversive activities (such as Narrative Tradition: Biografía de un cimarrón and Me llamo Rigoberta teaching campesinos how to read and write). The government Menchú.” Modern Language Studies 20.1 (1990): 100–11. razed entire villages and resettled the inhabitants in response Goldman, Francisco. The Long Night of White Chickens. New York: Grove, to the perceived dangers of organized resistance on the part of 1998. gOVeRNANCe Membership Ratification Vote In December 2006 the Delegate Assembly approved two Whereas the MLA is appropriately concerned about the use of lan­ resolutions that were submitted to the membership for rati­ guage and about access to higher education; fication this past fall. Also subject to ratification by the mem­ Be it resolved that the MLA urge that the phrase “undocumented work­ bership was the assembly’s election of two honorary fellows. ers” be used in place of the abusive term “illegal aliens” and that every The results of these membership ratification votes are pre­ state guarantee undocumented workers who live there in­state tuition. sented below. Members ratified the election of Louise Erdrich and Jacques Resolution 2006–2 Roubaud to honorary fellowship in the association. They have been invited to accept the honor. The membership also rati­ Whereas in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, city, state, and federal governments have taken apart the New Orleans public school sys­ fied the two resolutions, the preamble and text of which are tem, reconstituted it as a melange of chiefly charter schools, greatly printed below. reduced democratic control of K–12 schooling, laid off all teachers and thus eliminated their union, and widened the gap of racial in­ Resolution 2006–1 equality in education; and Whereas undocumented workers, through their labor, contribute Whereas conservative groups and the Bush administration have in greatly to the economy of the United States; and this context pressed for voucher schemes; Whereas they are shamefully deprived of most legal rights other Be it resolved that the MLA condemn the dismantling of the New workers enjoy; and Orleans public school system after Katrina and the wider privatiz­ Whereas they are superexploited as a result; and ing movement that has fed on this disaster. MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 7 gOVeRNANCe gOVeRNANCe Delegate Assembly 2007 Election Results Parliamentarian Sought In the elections conducted last fall, Sidonie Smith (English, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor) was elected second vice president of the association. Smith will serve in that The term of the Delegate Assembly’s office in 2008, will become first vice president in 2009, and will succeed to the office of current parliamentarian, Martha S. president in 2010. Grise, will expire at the end of 2008. The Sara Scott Armengot (Penn State Univ., University Park), George Levine (Rutgers Executive Council has therefore autho­ Univ., New Brunswick), and Lynne Tatlock (Washington Univ.) were elected members rized the staff to undertake a search for of the Executive Council for the term 2008–11. Armengot represents a field defined as a new parliamentarian. “other” by the MLA constitution (art. 8.A.5), Levine represents the field of English, The position involves participation in and Tatlock represents the field of German. In terms of membership categories, Ar­ the Delegate Assembly meeting, which mengot is a student member of the association, Levine is a life member, and Tatlock is is held each year on the third day of the a regular member. (Note: The Delegate Assembly also elected a member to the Execu­ annual convention (currently 29 Decem­ tive Council for the term 2008–11. See the article below.) ber), and in other meetings preparatory Fifty­seven new representatives were elected to the Delegate Assembly. Eighteen to the assembly meeting. One of these is delegates were elected to represent special­interest categories in the assembly, and the meeting of the Delegate Assembly thirty­nine delegates were elected to represent seven geographical regions in the Organizing Committee, which is held at United States and Canada. The names of Delegate Assembly members will appear in the MLA office in New York at the end of the September 2008 PMLA. October; the others are held during the In addition, eighty­eight members were elected to the division executive committees. second day of the convention (currently Their names will also appear in the September 2008 PMLA and at the MLA Web site. 28 December). In addition to fulfilling these primary duties, the parliamentar­ ian acts as a consultant to the executive gOVeRNANCe director throughout the year on mat­ ters pertaining to the governance of the Summary of Delegate Assembly Actions in Chicago association. The association pays the At its meeting on 29 December 2007 in Chicago the Delegate Assembly took the fol­ expenses incurred in attending both the lowing actions. New York meeting and the convention. The assembly conducted five elections. In the balloting for the Delegate Assembly The Executive Council is considering Organizing Committee, Gaurav Desai (English, Tulane Univ.) and Brian Kennelly whether to employ a registered par­ (French, California Polytechnic State Univ., San Luis Obispo) were elected to three­ liamentarian but will not make a final year terms (2008–10). Alexandra K. Wettlaufer (French, Univ. of Texas, Austin) was decision on this question until it has had elected to the Executive Council for the term 2008–11. Timothy Hampton (French, the opportunity to review all options. Univ. of California, Berkeley), Haun Saussy (comparative literature, Yale Univ.), and The council is therefore inviting expres­ Frank Trommler (German, Univ. of Pennsylvania) won two­year terms (2008–09) on sions of interest from MLA members the Nominating Committee. Elected to the Elections Committee for two­year terms and others who have experience with (2008–09) were Katherine Arens (Univ. of Texas, Austin), Margaret Ferguson (Univ. parliamentary procedure—specifically, of California, Davis), Alan Nadel (Univ. of Kentucky), and Robyn R. Warhol (Univ. of the current edition of Robert’s Rules of Vermont). Finally, Albert Wendt was elected an honorary fellow of the association. Order Newly Revised—and with the con­ The assembly’s election of an honorary fellow is subject to ratification by the member­ duct of large meetings. The council will ship. This ratification vote will be conducted later this year. review all correspondence and consult In addition to annual reports from the association’s standing committees, the as­ with the Delegate Assembly Organiz­ sembly received three reports that did not require action: the report of the Delegate ing Committee; the council expects to Assembly Organizing Committee (DAOC), the executive director’s report, and the make the appointment no later than its Finance Committee’s report. Delegates had the opportunity to comment on or ask October meeting so that the new parlia­ questions about the reports. In conjunction with the assembly’s open discussion of mentarian may attend the 2008 Delegate academic freedom, the DAOC proposed a motion that calls on the Executive Coun­ Assembly meeting in San Francisco as cil to pursue the revision of a statement on censorship and academic freedom that an observer. The appointment will be for the Committee on Academic Freedom and Professional Rights and Responsibilities three years and is renewable. drafted for internal use in 1990. The assembly approved the DAOC’s motion. Interested parties should send a cover The assembly received a report from the Committee on Amendments to the Con­ letter, a curriculum vitae or résumé, and stitution that required action. The report contained the constitutional amendments evidence of experience in this area to the published in the September 2007 issue of PMLA (949–51). These amendments have coordinator of governance at the MLA two purposes: to allow for conducting membership votes by electronic means and office (26 Broadway, 3rd floor, New York, to allow for changing the dates of the MLA convention from late December to early NY 10004­1789). Applications will be ac­ January. The assembly approved the proposed amendments. Following the provisions cepted until the position is filled; prefer­ of article 13.D of the MLA constitution, the Executive Council, in February, will con­ ence will be given to applications duct a review of the fiduciary issues posed by the amendments. The council will then received by 1 May. forward to the membership for ratification the amendments that do not pose fiduciary problems. The membership ratification vote will be conducted later this year. The assembly also received an interim report from the Ad Hoc Committee on the Structure of the Annual Convention in which the ad hoc committee asked the assembly (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 8

(continued from previous page) reports from MLA committees in general and with the publica­ tion of the report from the Ad Hoc Committee on Diversity and to endorse two proposals. The first proposal puts forward two Tolerance in particular. The motion will be forwarded to the solutions to the problem of impending gridlock in the convention Executive Council in February, and the council will consider its structure: allocating session hours equitably among the various implementation. The three resolutions will also be forwarded entities that arrange guaranteed sessions (MLA divisions, discus­ to the Executive Council in February. Following the provisions sion groups, and committees and allied and affiliate organiza­ of article 7.B.3 of the MLA constitution, the council will conduct tions) and reducing the number of guaranteed sessions for most a review of the constitutional, legal, and fiduciary issues posed of these entities but providing more opportunities for them to by the language of the resolutions. If the resolutions do not pose propose additional sessions. The second proposal is to introduce any constitutional, legal, or fiduciary problems, the council will two new kinds of convention sessions—workshops and electronic forward them to the membership for ratification. The member­ roundtables—in 2010–11. The assembly endorsed both proposals. ship ratification vote will be conducted later this year. In other business, the assembly approved one motion and A complete report of the Delegate Assembly meeting will ap­ three resolutions. The motion deals with the publication of pear in the May 2008 issue of PMLA.

CONVeNTiON Department Chairs’ Hotel Reservations In August 2008 the MLA convention office will mail chairs of de­ does not guarantee that department chairs will be able to reserve partments that are paid members of ADE or ADFL by 1 June a suite for interviewing job candidates at the convention, but it 2008 early information about making hotel room reservations for does give them the best opportunity to do so. Please note that the MLA convention. These chairs will also be able to make hotel suites may not be reserved through the MLA Web site. Chairs reservations online through the ADE or ADFL Web site. ADE who would like membership forms or information about their and ADFL chairs of departments that are participating in the departments’ 2007–08 membership status should contact Roy e­mail discussion lists will be notified. This early notification Chustek at the MLA office (646 576­5133; [email protected]).

CONVeNTiON culture, genres of scientific writing, technolo­ we consider? Where is our common ground? gies of the word, experimentalism, perception 1­page abstracts, vitae by 5 Mar.; Eliza Rich­ Calls for Papers for 2008 and detection, local and mobile knowledge, ards (ecr@ email .unc .edu). un­Reason, pedagogical issues. Abstracts by Convention in San Francisco 15 Mar.; Scotti Parrish (sparrish@ umich .edu). LATE-­19TH-­ AND EARLy-­20TH-­CENTURy AMERICAN LITERATURE The 2008 convention will be held in San Theorizing Early American Literature. Ap­ Genres and Genetics. Papers that address Francisco. Members should familiarize plications or adaptations of new critical inqui­ the making, remaking, and unmaking of ries, including new formalism, material and themselves with the guidelines for the racial identities across a range of discourses visual studies, transatlantic studies; cultural MLA convention, which appear on the (scientific, religious, etc.) and a range of liter­ geographies; ecocriticism; performance; the ary forms (lyric, utopia, etc.). 2­page abstracts MLA Web site (www .mla .org) and in the body; natural sciences; pseudoscience; transla­ by e­mail by 1 Mar.; Bill Brown (wlbrown@ September 2007 PMLA (pp. 930–35), be­ tion studies; etc. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Martin uchicago .edu). fore writing to the organizers listed below. Brueckner (mcb@ udel .edu). Pacific Imaginations. Papers that rethink If not provided, organizers’ addresses are Town and Gown in Early American Studies. turn­of­the­century writing through atten­ available on the MLA Web site to MLA Scholarly collaborations with nonacademic tion to transpacific circulations. ­2 page ab­ members and listed in the September 2007 communities: goals, outcomes, benefits, prob­ stracts by e­mail by 1 Mar.; Jennifer Fleissner PMLA. All participants in convention ses­ lems. How do nonacademic communities use (jfleissn@ indiana .edu). sions must be MLA members by 7 April literary scholarship, editions, pedagogies; how do they contribute to academic work? 20TH-­CENTURy AMERICAN LITERATURE 2008. Organizers are responsible for re­ Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Kristina Bross (kbross@ The Aesthetics of Propaganda. Papers solic­ sponding to all inquiries. A member may purdue .edu). ited on the often neglected artistry of ostensi­ participate as speaker or respondent only bly propagandistic writing. All literary genres twice (e.g., by organizing and chairing a 19TH-­CENTURy AMERICAN LITERATURE welcome. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; John Lowe meeting, reading a paper, or serving as a Ephemera and the Offline Archive. What (jlowe@ lsu .edu). disappears in the digital archive? Seeking speaker, panelist, or respondent in one or Indigeneity and 20th-­Century American work on marginalia and manuscript materi­ Literature. How does indigeneity figure in two sessions) at a single convention. als; scraps, fragments, fingerprints, and stains; canonical texts? How do indigenous issues Calls for papers are limited to thirty­ lost texts, paratexts, noncataloged texts, attic challenge the categories and methodologies of five words, including the session title but texts. 1­page abstracts, vitae by 5 Mar.; Anna American literary study? Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Brickhouse (acb2hf@ virginia .edu). not the name or address of the organizer. Shari Huhndorf (sharih@ uoregon .edu). 19th-­Century African American Poetry. An­ The Politics of Visuality. What are the politi­ Divisions glophone, Francophone, Hispanophone, Luso­ cal implications of our current interest in and phone, and beyond. 1­page abstracts, vitae by research on visual culture? What can analyses American Literature 5 Mar.; Rafia Zafar (zafar@ wustl .edu). of visuality teach us in an era of “colorblind” AMERICAN LITERATURE TO 1800 Provocations: New Paradigms for the Study approaches to racial equity? Abstracts by Science, Technology, Literature in Early of 19th-­Century United States Literature. 1 Mar.; Thadious Davis (davistm@ english America and the Atlantic. Material and visual What new conceptual frameworks should .upenn .edu). MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 

tina/os deploy, perform, and are constrained Comparative Histories and Theories of Race. Deadline for Audiovisual Requests by racial ideologies in cross­cultural contexts. Comparative considerations of 18th­century All requests for audiovisual equip­ 250­word abstracts and 1­page vitae by 1 Mar.; theories of human difference; genealogies of ment must be made by the chair of Maria Cotera (mcotera@ umich .edu). the concept of “race” and alternate categories of classification; Enlightenment paradigms the session by 1 April. Requests must Roundtable/Plática: Chicano Studies in a Latina/o Age. Chicana/o and Latina/o schol­ and critiques, theories, and practices. Ab­ be received by mail or by fax by 5:00 stracts by 1 Mar.; Ruth Mack (ruthmack@ p.m. on this date. Because the need ars will discuss “Latinidad” and the future of Latina/o literary studies within the MLA. 250­ buffalo .edu). for audiovisual equipment is a major word statements and 1­page vitae by 1 Mar.; Comparative Histories of the Senses. Con­ factor in the scheduling of meetings Maria Cotera (mcotera@ umich .edu). nections or distinctions among the senses, (and because the movement of equip­ Sexualidades and Sensualidades: Latina/o skin and touch, modes of embodiment, rela­ ment is both costly and hazardous), Cultural and Literary Imaginaries. Papers tions between inner and outer feeling, sensa­ the deadline is firm. Participants should address representations of sexuality tion in different genres of literary and cultural should indicate their audiovisual and sensuality in Chicana/ o­Latina/o art, representation. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Lynn M. needs when they respond to a call criticism, literature, and popular culture. 250­ Festa (festa@ wisc .edu). for papers and should check with the word abstracts and 1­page vitae by 1 Mar.; COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN ROMANTICISM chair of the session or with the MLA Maria Cotera (mcotera@ umich .edu). AND THE 19TH CENTURy convention office to be sure that the Comparative Studies The Historical Animal. The century accords necessary equipment has been or­ humanity history and animals evolution. Is dered by 1 April. COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN MEDIEVAL the history of self­consciousness certainly op­ LITERATURE posed to evolution? Appraisals of Romantic Global Stories: The Many Lives of Compara-­ determinations of the animal in terms of his­ AMERICAN INDIAN LITERATURES tive Medieval. Literary works in multiple tory. 1­page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Ellen S. Burt The Bay Area as a Site of Resistance in Na-­ versions and languages; classical and medi­ (esburt@ uci .edu). tive American Literature. Papers should eval writers who have “world status”; world Intermediality or Literature and the Arts. focus on the Bay Area’s relations to Native literature theory and medieval studies. 1­page Comparative approaches to literature and vi­ American literatures and activism, textual or abstracts by 10 Mar.; Suzanne Conklin Akbari sual art, music, theater. Abstracts of papers by otherwise. 1­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Kim­ (s.akbari@ utoronto .ca). 20 Mar.; Kevin Michael McLaughlin (kevin_ berly Roppolo (kimberly .roppolo@ uleth .ca). Semitic/ Romance. Postphilological ap­ mclaughlin@ brown .edu). Native American Languages and Trans-­ proaches to Arabic and Hebrew in Western New Comparative Romanticisms. What lation. The translation of oral or written vernaculars; historicizing literature of cross­ are the new critical paradigms and topics in material in a Native American language. cultural interaction and exclusion. 1­page comparative Romanticisms? Possible topics 1­paragraph abstracts by 1 Mar.; Margaret abstracts by 10 Mar.; Suzanne Conklin Akbari include political theology, emancipatory peda­ Noori (mnoori@ umich .edu). (s.akbari@ utoronto .ca). gogies, conservative theories of the nation ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE Surveillance. Inquisitorial activity; confession read against the grain. Abstracts of papers by Asian American Performance Art. Focusing as surveillance strategy; spying, eavesdrop­ 20 Mar.; Emily Apter (emily .apter@ gmail .com). ping, secrecy within texts; relevance of con­ on Asian American performance art/ artists COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN 20TH-­CENTURy temporary surveillance studies to medieval and the varieties of such artistic production. LITERATURE Particular emphasis on nontraditional the­ studies. 1­page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Sylvia Middlesex in World Literatures. Since the atrical performance (improv, stage combat, Tomasch (stomasch@hunter .cuny .edu). 1970s, when sex reassignment has become sur­ spoken word, technology­based multimedia). COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN RENAISSANCE gically possible, occasioning further theoretical Abstracts, vitae by 15 Mar.; Tina Chen (tina AND BAROQUE LITERATURE amplifications, how have Western and non­ .chen@ vanderbilt .edu). Allegories of Ovid in Early Modern Europe. Western literary texts represented transgender­ Conceiving the Archive. How do Asian Papers on the cultural uses and persistence of ism and transsexualism? 500­word abstracts by Americanists define their objects of study? the allegorical and moralized Ovid from, e.g., 10 Mar.; Chantal Zabus (czabus@ hotmail .com). Roundtable addressing literature and broader Bersuire to Bayle. Abstracts and brief vitae by Post–Cold War Literary Encounters in the conceptions of the text in the context of con­ 10 Mar.; Heather James (hjames@ usc .edu). Mediterranean Basin. After 1989, the Medi­ testations over genre, legitimacy, interdisci­ terranean has become a fertile crossroads for plinarity, national origin. Abstracts, vitae by Early Modern Mediterranean Worlds. Sixty the interplay of Eastern and Western, North­ 15 Mar.; Leslie Bow (lbow@ wisc .edu). years ago, Braudel introduced the concept of a “Mediterranean world.” Papers on Braudel’s ern and Southern (including African) tradi­ Green Asian America. How and in what ways paradigm and/or the Mediterranean’s signifi­ tions. 500­word abstracts by 10 Mar.; Marcel does Asian American literature participate in cance as symbol and reality for early modern Cornis­Pope (mcornis@ vcu .edu). environmentalist debates? How do race and literatures. Abstracts by 10 Mar.; Jane Tylus Translating for a New Century. Can global­ the environment intersect in Asian American (jane .tylus@ nyu .edu). cultural texts? 250­word abstracts, vitae by ized translation change the literary canon? 15 Mar.; Kandice Chuh (kchuh@ umd .edu). New Approaches to Festivals in Europe and Does it generate new strategies (e.g., creoliza­ the Americas. Papers considering any aspect tion), audiences (e.g., children, academic BLACK AMERICAN LITERATURE of early modern courtly, civic, and religious courses), or thematic orientations (e.g., migra­ AND CULTURE festivals and their accounts. Abstracts by tion, ecology)? 500­word abstracts by 10 Mar.; Que(e)rying Sex: Intersectionalities and 10 Mar.; Lisa Voigt (lvoigt@ uchicago .edu). Margaret R. Higonnet (margaret .higonnet@ Pluralities. Theoretical, ideological, episte­ uconn .edu). mological, cultural, and practical explorations COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN 18TH-­CENTURy of interlocking sexualities. Topics may vary, LITERATURE EUROPEAN LITERARy RELATIONS from theories of sexual deviance to effects of Comparative Diasporas. Considerations of European Cinema and Literary Adaptation. intraracial homophobia. 300­word propos­ the geographically “broad” 18th century; Screen adaptations from fiction and theater, als and brief vitae by 15 Mar.; Jocelyn Moody transmission of texts and cultural objects via early cinema through post­1989 transnational (joycelyn .moody@ utsa .edu). routes of trade and imperialism; impact of lo­ practices in the New Europe. Issues in Euro­ cal knowledges on Enlightenment universal­ pean filmmaking since 1945 through specific CHICANA AND CHICANO LITERATURE isms; displacement, migration, communities/ case studies. 300­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Ni­ Latinidades and Racial Identity. Papers cultures of exile. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Lisa L. coletta Pireddu (pireddun@ georgetown .edu). should address how Chicana/os and other La­ Moore (llmoore@ mail .utexas .edu). (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 10

(continued from previous page) epic and beast fable, etc. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; and sensibility, the body and the emotions Maura Nolan (mnolan@ berkeley .edu). or to specific emotions from anger to joy. Ab­ Europe and Globalization: Challenges and Chaucer’s Dead Women. Papers on Chaucer’s stracts by 12 Mar.; Kathryn Temple (templek@ Opportunities. Literary and theoretical texts poetry’s relation to women no longer living, georgetown .edu). addressing the transformations of Europe’s including the work of female scholars, poets, identity and mission in a global world. Em­ LATE-­18TH-­CENTURy ENGLISH LITERATURE or critics, or females as subjects of poetic, his­ phasis on the contribution of literature to this Global Cities. Global exchanges of cosmo­ toric, or aesthetic matters. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; debate. 300­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Nico­ politan identity—e.g., political, architectural, Karma Lochrie (klochrie@ indiana .edu). letta Pireddu (pireddun@ georgetown .edu). social, economic, environmental—in the 18th century. Abstracts for 10­min. presentations Renaissance Humanism and Secular Cul-­ LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISH by 1 Mar.; Rajani Sudan (rsudan@ smu .edu). ture. What role does theology play in the RENAISSANCE, ExCLUDING SHAKESPEARE construction of early modern European Martyrdom in the English Renaissance. Reassembling the Cultural: A Round-­ humanism, and how does humanism distin­ Any aspect of the presentation of martyrdom table on What We Should Stop Doing in guish itself from Christian orthodoxy and lay in the literature of the English Renaissance. 18th-­Century Studies. Prescriptions for ethics? 300­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Nico­ Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Margaret P. Hannay change through stopping rather than try­ letta Pireddu (pireddun@ georgetown .edu). (hannay@ siena .edu). ing something new. Abstracts for 5–10­min. Theodor de Bry’s America and the Black statements by 1 Mar.; Clifford Haynes Siskin english Literature Legend. Any facet of de Bry’s important mul­ (clifford .siskin@ nyu .edu) and Janet Sorensen (jsorensen@ berkeley .edu). OLD ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE tivolume publication, either contesting or sup­ porting its relation to anti­Spanish propaganda Beowulf in the Dark. Roundtable: 10­min. THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC PERIOD about the New World. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; presentations on the particular appeal of Be-­ Joseph Johnson. Papers on any aspect of the Maureen Quilligan (mquillig@ duke .edu). owulf as a subject in the movies today. Propos­ radical publisher and bookseller, including als should address the new medium and new SHAKESPEARE writers and other figures belonging to the audience. 250­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Carol Ecosystemic Shakespeare. Constituent parts Johnson circle. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Jeffrey Braun Pasternack (cpaster@ english .ucsb .edu). of the universe (atoms, elements, organisms, Cox (jeffrey .cox@ colorado .edu). Extrainsular Old English. Papers should lands, seas, atmospheres, etc.) and larger ques­ The Romantic Event. The concept of the relate Old English texts to productions by oth­ tions of their circulation or connection; new event in Romantic­period discourse. Also, ers within the island or beyond the island’s synergies between Shakespeare’s work and the changing and contested status of the shores, across the Irish Sea or the Channel. “green” critical vocabularies. 500­word ab­ event—linguistic, material, political, psycho­ 250–500­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Carol stracts by 1 Mar.; Laurie Shannon (lshannon@ logical, phenomenological—in Romantic stud­ Braun Pasternack (cpaster@ english .ucsb .edu). duke .edu). ies. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; William H. Galperin (william .galperin@ rutgers .edu). Text in Codex. Papers should consider a text 17TH-­CENTURy ENGLISH LITERATURE in the context of its codex. Proposals indicat­ Literature and Internationalism. Topics THE VICTORIAN PERIOD ing how this context alters our understanding might include Law of Nations, diplomacy, “Rule Britannia.” In fiction and nonfiction of the text, culture, and society. 250–500­word trade, espionage, exile, ethnicities, late hu­ the sea is a source of power and of the nation’s abstracts by 15 Mar.; Carol Braun Pasternack manism, and the Republic of Letters. 2­page vulnerability and isolation; it is also a gate­ (cpaster@ english .ucsb .edu). abstracts by 7 Mar.; Rachel Trubowitz (Rachel way to adventure and discovery. 1–2­ page MIDDLE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND .Trubowitz@ unh .edu). abstracts by 15 Mar.; Ann C. Colley (colleyac@ LITERATURE, ExCLUDING CHAUCER Sir Thomas Browne (1605–82) and His Con-­ buffalostate .edu). After Chaucer: A Roundtable. Chaucer no temporaries: Science, Religion, Style. Papers Sea Crossings. Cross­cultural currents and longer defines Middle English literature. What on the making of knowledge and the language voyages of thought: national identity, passage are the scholarly, curricular, and institutional of its expression by Browne and other 17th­ of humanistic and scientific ideas, shipping implications of this shift? How do we define century writers. 2­page abstracts by 7 Mar.; of goods, scientific collections, people, and the field now? 300­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Nigel S. Smith (nsmith@ princeton .edu). journeys of tourists or settlers. 1–2­page ab­ Robert Sturges (Robert .Sturges@ asu .edu). Universities and Literary Production. Top­ stracts by 15 Mar.; Ann C. Colley (colleyac@ Allegory and Gender. From Lady Philosophy ics might include universities in the British buffalostate .edu). to the Statue of Liberty, personification often Isles, Inns of Court, educational reform plans, Seasides. The British who didn’t travel across figures abstractions as powerful women. How continental universities and seminaries, the sea went to the seashore: a gateway/ bound­ might gendered bodies—male, female, or study abroad. 2­page abstracts by 7 Mar.; Ann ary between land and sea, a site of escape, di­ both—matter? 300­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Baynes Coiro (annbaynes .coiro@ gmail .com). saster, aesthetic and sensual pleasure, humor, Masha Raskolnikov (mr283@ cornell .edu). and knowledge. 1–2­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; RESTORATION AND EARLy-­18TH-­CENTURy Ann C. Colley (colleyac@ buffalostate .edu). The Medieval Neighbor. The neighbor in ENGLISH LITERATURE contemporary theory and medieval dis­ “Bring Out your Dead!”: Reviving Old Crit-­ LATE-­19TH-­ AND EARLy-­20TH-­CENTURy courses of ethics, politics, and gender; possible ics. Hazlitt, Macaulay, Stephen, Saintsbury, ENGLISH LITERATURE focus on charity/ envy in poetry, penitential Woolf, Van Ghent: how do critics of the past Aesthetic Mobility. How did urban mobil­ literature, chronicles, or exegesis. 300­ still speak or reveal the spirit of their age? ity, media circulation, and travel shape late­ word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Jessica Rosenfeld Abstracts by 12 Mar.; Cynthia Wall (wall@ Victorian aestheticism? How might we trace (jrosenfe@ artsci .wustl .edu). virginia .edu). aestheticism’s fluid constructions of gender, CHAUCER Cosmopolitanism. Defining, challenging, us­ sexuality, class, nationhood, consumerism, Chaucer and the Consolations of Philology: ing, or refining the topic. What or how does cosmopolitanism? Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Ta­ Textual Criticism and Material Texts. Papers on “cosmopolitanism” illuminate, and what lia C. Schaffer (talia .schaffer@ qc .cuny .edu). the material reception of Chaucer’s work: script might it obscure, in contemporary criticism? Dance Revolution. What role did the kinetic to print, the textual crux and medieval readers, How might it have been imagined in Restora­ body play in modernist expressive culture? envisioning the word, etc. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; tion and early­18th­century writing? Abstracts How did an experimental aesthetic of embodied Jessica Brantley (jessica .brantley@ yale .edu). by 12 Mar.; Toni Bowers (tbowers@ english movement revise modern constructions of ex­ Chaucer’s Beasts. Papers on any aspect of .upenn .edu). perience, affect, otherness? 250­word abstracts Chaucer’s beasts: the animals we find in The Enlightenment Invention of Modern by 10 Mar.; Janet W. Lyon (jwl12@ psu .edu). various texts, Chaucer’s notions of “beastli­ Emotion. The cultural history of emotion, Modernity: Why? Given what we now know ness” and “humanness,” the genres of beast not limited to reason and emotion, sense about multiple modernities in the global context, MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 11 should modernity and modernism still be key The Underground. Theories and practices of critical concepts? 250­word abstracts by 10 Mar.; the underworld city and subterranean spaces Regenia Gagnier (R.Gagnier@ exeter .ac.uk). in literature, including explorations of new ways of seeing and organizing the urban un­ 20TH-­CENTURy ENGLISH LITERATURE derground. 1­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Cath­ Is Biography Modernist? Papers welcome erine Nesci (cnesci@french­ital .ucsb .edu). that explore an evolving genre. New subjects, narrators, forms, narrative choices, modern 20TH-­CENTURy FRENCH LITERATURE archives, notions of identity, views of his­ OSCAREINZIG PHOTOGRAPHY Définitions du français à l’ère de Sarkozy torical truth and fiction, ethics. 250­word ab­ et son rapport à la francophonie. Papers or stracts and vitae by 18 Mar.; Patricia Laurence abstracts by 15 Mar.; Adelaide Russo (frruss@ (plaurence@ rcn .com). lsu .edu).

ENGLISH LITERATURE OTHER THAN French Visions of the Pacific Rim. Papers BRITISH AND AMERICAN or abstracts by 15 Mar.; Peter Schulman African American and Caribbean Women’s (pschulma@ odu .edu). Border Crossings. Papers and creative writing La ruée vers la Californie. Papers or abstracts on journeys (whether physical, artistic, ideologi­ by 15 Mar.; Bella Brodzki (bbrodzki@ slc .edu). cal, or otherwise) from and among the United States, Canada, Latin America, and the Carib­ FRANCOPHONE LITERATURES bean. 250­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Ifeoma C. K. AND CULTURES Nwankwo (i.nwankwo@ vanderbilt .edu). Et la poésie, alors?!? Comparative approaches, pertinence, reception, poetics of migrancy and Australian Literature and Asia. Portrayal exile, etc. 250­word proposals in English or of “Asia” as a concept in Australian fiction French by 15 Mar.; Catherine Perry (cperry@ Michael Holquist, presider at the Presidential Forum and of Australia’s conflicted relations with nd .edu). its peoples and literatures; Asian migration “The Humanities at Work in the World.” to Australia; diasporic Australians in Asia. Nouvelles Francophonies? Literature in French by writers from countries such as Ro­ 250­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; John Hawley consider submissions on any topic related to (jhawley@ scu .edu). mania, Poland, China, Greece, etc., located out­ 16th­century French literary studies. 8–10­page side France’s former colonial empire. 250­word Diasporic Voices in English Literature. The papers or 500­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Debo­ proposals in English or French by 15 Mar.; writers living at a distance from their native rah Lesko Baker (leskobad@ georgetown .edu). Odile Marie Cazenave (cazenave@ bu .edu). tongues inscribe alternative worlds. Papers analyzing this writing’s features and their 17TH-­CENTURy FRENCH LITERATURE Qu’est-­ce que la littérature-­monde? Contri­ relation to the sociopolitical environment Current Research in 17th-­Century French butions and reactions to the current debate especially welcome. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Prad­ Literature. Papers on any aspect of 17th­ sparked by the manifesto of the 44. 250­word yumna S. Chauhan (chauhanp@ comcast.net). century French literature and culture. 400­ proposals in English or French by 15 Mar.; Jo­ word proposals by 15 Mar.; Lewis Seifert elle Vitiello (vitiello@ macalester .edu). French Literature (Lewis_ Seifert@ brown .edu). genre Studies FRENCH MEDIEVAL LANGUAGE AND 18TH-­CENTURy FRENCH LITERATURE LITERATURE AUTOBIOGRAPHy, BIOGRAPHy, AND Censorship. Papers on censorship in its di­ LIFE WRITING Curiosity. How does medieval French litera­ verse forms and manifestations in the 18th Borders of Genre: Travel Writing and Auto-­ ture treat curiosity, defined as the desire to century: its exercise (material or symbolic, biography. When and why does travel writ­ know the physical world through the senses? overt or concealed) and its representation. Papers might address exploration, pilgrim­ ing become autobiographical, if ever? Papers 1­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Geoffrey Turnov­ investigating these questions, with attention age, gossip, sensual or sensory experience, sky (gt2@ u.washington .edu). forbidden knowledge. Abstracts by e­mail by to theoretical issues and specific texts. In­ 10 Mar.; Markus Cruse (mcruse@ asu .edu). Enlightenment Myths. Papers on myths quiries welcome. 250–300­word abstracts by (Greco­Roman, Oriental, Celtic, Christian, etc.) 10 Mar.; Tom Smith (trs8@ psu .edu). Hundred years War Literature: Making and that persisted during (despite) the Enlighten­ Breaking Boundaries. First-­Person Graphic. Techniques and effects of Possible topics include ment and on myths about the Enlightenment. cross­cultural negotiations, manuscript circu­ first­person narration in graphic narrative. 1–2­ 1­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Tili Boon Cuillé lation, traveling poets, the French diaspora, page abstracts and short vitae by 10 Mar.; Caro­ (tbcuille@ wustl .edu). literary (dis)engagement, and the expression lyn Williams (carolyn .williams@ rutgers .edu). of national identities. Abstracts by e­mail by Literary Economies. Papers on literary rep­ Self-­Experimentation and Autobiography. 10 Mar.; Deborah McGrady (dlm4z@ cms .mail resentation of economics, textual economies, The phenomenon of representing experience .virginia .edu). the relation between economic discourse and undertaken with the intention of writing it Postcolonial Studies / Medieval France: literary discourse, literary value and economic up afterward, e.g., Supersize Me. Analysis of Problems and Prospects. Roundtable on the value, literary considerations of production. individual texts and overviews of the phe­ theory and practice of postcolonial medieval 1­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Susan Maslan nomenon’s significance. 300­word abstracts by studies and of medievalism in Francophone (samaslan@ berkeley .edu). 15 Mar.; Tom Couser (enggtc@ hofstra .edu). studies. Abstracts for 5–10­min. position pa­ 19TH-­CENTURy FRENCH LITERATURE DRAMA pers (by e­mail) by 10 Mar.; Michelle R. War­ Money. Drama/ Performance and the Scene of Trans-­ ren (michelle.r.warren@ dartmouth .edu). Literature in the age of capitalism: representations of money, narrative econo­ lation. Papers on translation of drama across 16TH-­CENTURy FRENCH LITERATURE mies, economic literature, the book trade. time, cultures, and media, especially in the Celebrating DuBellay’s Rome (1558–2008). 1­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Maurice A. Samu­ light of the intersections of poststructuralist, Any aspect of DuBellay’s Regrets or Antiquitez els (maurice .samuels@ yale .edu). postcolonial, and translation theories; transla­ de Rome on the 450th anniversary of their tion in/as performance. 1­page abstracts by Theorizing the Haitian Revolution. What is 10 Mar.; Angela C. Pao (acpao@ indiana .edu). publication. 8–10­page papers or 500­word the theoretical significance of the Haitian revo­ abstracts by 15 Mar.; Deborah Lesko Baker lution throughout the 19th century? Explore the FILM (leskobad@ georgetown .edu). importance of this particular event to literary, Cinema Politica. Explores possibilities for Current Research in 16th-­Century French Lit-­ social, and political thought. 1­page abstracts and limitations of political cinema in a global erature (Open Session). The committee will by 1 Mar.; Daniel Desormeaux (ddd@ uky .edu). (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 12

(continued from previous page) Options for Teaching Nonfiction: Literary between literature and materiality: sacred Journalism. Effective strategies and models or profane objects, landscape, architecture, age, possibly including the resurgence in doc­ for literary journalism courses or assignments, music, sound. 1­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Sara umentary filmmaking; new technologies and analyses of the context and significance in a Suzanne Poor (spoor@ princeton .edu). activism; changing national industries. 1­page rapidly changing field, etc. ­1 page abstracts by Open Session. Papers on any topic related abstracts by 10 Mar.; Kara Keeling (kkeeling@ 15 Mar.; Siobhan Senier (ssenier@ unh .edu). to literature before 1700. 1­page abstracts by cinema .usc .edu) and Homay King (hking@ Options for Teaching Nonfiction: Literature. 1 Mar.; Sara Suzanne Poor (spoor@ princeton brynmawr .edu). Innovative, effective strategies for teaching stu­ .edu). Expanded Cinema Today. Considers the ex­ dents to value, read, interpret, and write about pansion of film beyond theatrical exhibition nonfiction texts. Papers with theoretical under­ 18TH-­ AND EARLy-­19TH-­CENTURy GERMAN LITERATURE and distribution. Includes DVDs, YouTube, pinning and strong practical value especially new exhibition sites: museums, home theaters. welcome. 1­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Daniel Interiors and Exteriors. Theoretical, practical, 1­page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Alice Kuzniar Joseph Martin (dan .martin@ rockhurst .edu). or pedagogical approaches welcome on any as­ (akuzniar@ email .unc .edu) and Anna Everett pect of interiors (salon spaces, decorative arts, (everett@ filmandmedia .ucsb .edu). POETRy etc.) or exteriors (landscape paintings, gardens, Poetry as Pedagogy, Pedagogy as Poetry. architecture, etc.). 1­page abstracts by 14 Mar.; LITERARy CRITICISM What about poetry and pedagogy? Can poetry Astrida Orle Tantillo (tantillo@ uic .edu). Theory, Religion, Literature. Various aspects of embody, enact, imply, or become a form of 19TH-­ AND EARLy-­20TH-­CENTURy GERMAN theory, religion, and literature, either concern­ teaching? Or vice­versa? Papers, historical, the­ LITERATURE ing their intersection or having to do with any oretical, practical. Papers under 1,500 words by New Listeners and Forms of Listening. New one of the individual components of the topic. 1 Mar.; Alan Golding (acgold01@ louisville .edu) locations and audiences for consumption of 1­page abstracts by 7 Mar.; Hortense Jeanette and Susan Wolfson (wolfson@ princeton .edu). literature and the written word, such as daily Spillers (hortense.j.spillers@ vanderbilt .edu). PROSE FICTION newspapers, salons, reading clubs, cabarets. METHODS OF LITERARy RESEARCH Global Histories of Prose Fiction? Can they 350–500­word abstracts and short prose vitae Editorial Futures. Considerations of the future be written? Papers might address genre, by 8 Mar.; Irene Kacandes (irene .kacandes@ of editorial theory and practice—possibilities, technology, globalization, politics, culture, dartmouth .edu). practicalities, and problems. 250­word abstracts or historical forms, metropolitan/ provincial, New Sounds of/in Literature. Sound by 1 Mar.; Robin G. Schulze (rgs3@ psu .edu). margin/ center, norm/ exception. 250­word qualities of new genres or new depictions Textual Scholarship and Popular Culture. abstracts, 1­page vitae by 15 Mar.; Michelle A. of sound, e.g., musical notes in prose text. Methodologies for theorizing the textual and Massé (mmasse@ lsu .edu). 350–500­word abstracts and short prose vitae bibliographical aspects of works of popular by 8 Mar.; Irene Kacandes (irene .kacandes@ culture, including film, television, and music. german Literature dartmouth .edu). 250­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Ken Womack GERMAN LITERATURE TO 1700 Sounds of New and Evolving Technologies. (kaw16@ psu .edu). The Constructed Self: Revisiting the “I” Representations in literature of sound of any­ thing from new weapons or keyboard instru­ NONFICTION PROSE STUDIES, ExCLUDING with New Eyes. Papers examining any as­ pect of the poetic subject in medieval or early ments to new forms of production or travel. BIOGRAPHy AND AUTOBIOGRAPHy 350–500­word abstracts and short prose vitae Options for Teaching Nonfiction: Creative modern lyric, epic, romance, drama, chronicle, mystical, or devotional literature. 1­page ab­ by 8 Mar.; Irene Kacandes (irene .kacandes@ Nonfiction. Effective strategies and models dartmouth .edu). for creative nonfiction courses or assignments; stracts. by 1 Mar.; Sara Suzanne Poor (spoor@ analyses of nonfiction’s popularity versus princeton .edu). 20TH-­CENTURy GERMAN LITERATURE fiction or other creative writing assignments The Form of the World: Site, Sound, and Screening the Nation. Is there a German and courses, etc. 1­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Symbol in Premodern German Literature. identity, and if so, how has it been performed, M. Claire Pamplin (claire .pamplin@ gmail .com). Papers examining symbolic or actual relations challenged, or parodied in cinema, including foreign films and documentaries? 300­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Anton Kaes (tkaes@ berkeley .edu). Hispanic Literatures COLONIAL LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURES Colonial Genealogies and Intertextual Resonances. Colonial texts have served as genealogical keystones, objects of appropria­ tion, and spaces of intertextual resonances. This session proposes to study them from an intertextual and genealogical perspec­ tive. Abstracts by 10 Mar.; Eyda M. Merediz (emerediz@ umd .edu). Early Modern Hemispheric Studies. The progress (or lack thereof) of a rapidly grow­ ing field, comparative studies of North and Latin American texts, with special emphasis on its theoretical and epistemological founda­ tions. Abstracts by 10 Mar.; Gustavo Verdesio (verdesio@ umich .edu). Engaging the Senses in Colonial Latin American Literature. Ways of conveying the corporeality of colonial­era manuscripts and OSCAREINZIG PHOTOGRAPHY early printed works through audiovisual and Fiona J. Wilson, presider at the session “Louise Welsh and iain Finlay MacLeod: digital media. 1­page abstracts by 10 Mar.; A Reading by Two Scottish Novelists.” Cynthia L. Stone (cstone@holycross .edu). MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 1

LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE FROM 16TH-­ AND 17TH-­CENTURy SPANISH DRAMA such. 1­page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Peter Logan INDEPENDENCE TO 1900 Breaking New Ground in Comedia Stud-­ (peter .logan@ temple .edu). Exhibition, Spectacle, and Visual Culture. ies. Innovative theories, original approaches, Kinship and After. Kinship as a concept Art academies, news photography, museum inventive applications, imaginative inqui­ within literature. How are kinship theory, collections, parades to mass demonstrations; ries into any aspect of the comedia. 1­page genetics, “new kinship studies,” the status all approaches welcome. 1­page abstracts by abstracts by 14 Mar.; Susan Paun de Garcia of “the neighbor,” or rival paradigms of re­ 15 Mar.; NA (mgk7@ georgetown .edu). (garcia@ denison .edu). latedness relevant to literary production? Flows of Desire. Symbolic and material traffic Manuscripts, Editions, Translations. Round­ 1­page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Nancy Bentley in 19th­century Latin America. Postcolonial, table discussion of textual issues and early (nbentley@ english .upenn .edu). psychoanalytic, feminist, queer, transatlantic, modern Spanish theater—comedia, entremés, and cultural studies approaches welcome. auto, loa, etc. 1­page abstracts by 14 Mar.; Su­ CHILDREN’S LITERATURE 1­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Benigno Trigo san Paun de Garcia (garcia@ denison .edu). Children’s Literature and War. Representa­ (Benigno .Trigo@ vanderbilt .edu). tions of war in children’s literature from any Staging and Performance of Early Modern period. Possible texts include fiction, nonfic­ Las guerras del xIx. Memoria y olvido de las Spanish Theater. History, theory, interpreta­ tion, poetry, film, and picture books. 350–500­ guerras decimonónicas en Hispanoamérica tion, adaptation, acting, scenery, costumes, word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Karin Westman (guerras de independencia, civiles, internacio­ etc. 1­page abstracts by 14 Mar.; Susan Paun de (westmank@ ksu .edu). nales, levantamientos, etc.). Enviar resumen Garcia (garcia@ denison .edu). de una página antes del 15 Mar.; Alberto Ju­ Princess Culture Industry. Princesses are lián Pérez (Julian .perez@ ttu .edu). 18TH-­ AND 19TH-­CENTURy SPANISH enormously popular in contemporary chil­ LITERATURE dren’s culture. Why? Papers might address 20TH-­CENTURy LATIN AMERICAN The Economies of Literature and the Litera-­ literary sources, popular culture, marketing, LITERATURE ture of Economics: 18th and 19th Centuries changes to princess definitions, politics and Latin American Cosmopolitanisms. Expres­ in the Hispanic World. 1­page abstracts by ramifications of princess mania, etc. 250­ sions and theories of cosmopolitanism in Latin 15 Mar.; Wadda C. Rios Front (wriosfont@ word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Jane Cummins America, especially regarding indigenous cul­ barnard .edu). (jcummins@ mail .sdsu .edu) and Catherine tures, transatlantic and transpacific contacts, Tosenberger (ctosen@ ufl .edu). travel writing, literary journals, and film and 1808, 200 years On. Ten­min. position papers opera as literary forms. 250­word abstracts by for a roundtable session. 1­page abstracts by Return to Prince Edward Island: Anne of 7 Mar.; Roberto Diaz (rdiaz@ usc .edu). 15 Mar.; Inigo Sanchez­Llama (sanchezl@ Green Gables at 100. The past place, pres­ purdue .edu). ent importance, and possible future status of Literature and Populism in Latin America. Montgomery’s classic. 1–2­page abstracts or Science and Literature in the Hispanic New and old phenomena of contact or resis­ 8­page papers by 1 Mar.; Michelle Ann Abate World: 18th and 19th Centuries. 1­page ab­ tance between populist politics, theories of (mabate@ hollins.edu). populism, and forms of the literary in Latin stracts by 15 Mar.; Dale J. Pratt (dale_ pratt@ America. 250­word abstracts by 7 Mar.; Bruno byu .edu). DISABILITy STUDIES Bosteels (bb228@ cornell .edu). 20TH-­CENTURy SPANISH LITERATURE Freaks at 30: A Fiedlerian Retrospective. Papers on any aspect of Freaks or subsequent Poemas/ Performance. Critical approaches Poetry and the Visual Arts. Intersections of studies of enfreakment. Theoretical analysis to Latin American poems related to perfor­ word and image. Papers might address visual mativity and correlated concepts such as of literary and cultural sites of freakery, side­ poetry: individual poets, historical develop­ speech acts, “ordinary language,” orality, iter­ shows, nonnormate bodies. 1–2­page abstracts ments, recent internet trends; ekphrasis: ability, with emphasis on aesthetic, political, by 1 Mar.; Ann Keefer (vatergrrl@ yahoo .com). painting, photography, sculpture, icons; or religious, and ethical implications. 250­word cinematographic imagery. 400­word abstracts Globalizing Disability. Opening the borders abstracts by 7 Mar.; Ester Gimbernat Gonzalez by 15 Mar.; Sharon Elizabeth Ugalde (su01@ of disability studies. Papers discussing any as­ (ester .gonzalez@ unco .edu). txstate .edu). pect of disability studies or disability theory SPANISH MEDIEVAL LANGUAGE AND (e.g., Ato Quayson’s Aesthetic Nervousness) in LUSO-­BRAzILIAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE postcolonial or global literatures in English. LITERATURE Current Research in Spanish Medieval Lan-­ 1–2­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Ann Fox (anfox@ guage and Literature. 250­word abstracts by New Voices in Poetry. Papers on poets and davidson .edu.). poetic movements emerging in the last 30 15 Mar.; Anthony Cárdenas (ajcard@ unm .edu). Native Studies Meets Disability Studies. years in the Portuguese­speaking world. Intersections of disability studies with Na­ Places, Texts, and Communities in Medieval Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Cristina Ferreira­Pinto tive studies, including First Peoples / First Spain. 250­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Oscar Bailey (acpinto60@ yahoo .com). Martín (oscar .martin@ yale .edu). Nations, American Indian, indigenous and Perversions and Cruelties. Proposals that aboriginal peoples: literature, film, culture. Teaching the Spanish Middle Ages: New interrogate cultural manifestations of, and 1­page abstracts and 1­page vitae by 1 Mar.; Canons, New Audiences, New Approaches. reflections on, cruelty and perversion in the Ellen Samuels (ejsamuels@ wisc .edu). 250­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Gregory S. Portuguese­speaking world. Abstracts by Hutcheson (gshutch@ louisville .edu). 15 Mar.; Phillip Rothwell (philroth@ rci .rutgers ETHNIC STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND .edu). LITERATURE 16TH-­ AND 17TH-­CENTURy SPANISH POETRy The Challenges of Inter-­ and Multidiscipli-­ AND PROSE Roundtable Discussion: Teaching Cultural narity. How do we do justice to the richness Empire under Scrutiny. Debating approaches to Diversity. Speakers addressing integration of of crossing specialty boundaries, especially the study of empire and imperialism in the early culture in the classroom, focusing on how to when we face challenges from colleagues or modern Hispanic world. 1­page abstracts by cope with and incorporate regional and trans­ are accused of being dabblers? Abstracts and 7 Mar.; Ricardo Padrón (padron@ virginia .edu). national cultural diversity of the Portuguese­ vitae by 15 Mar.; Kim Martin Long (kmlong@ Spain and the Mediterranean: Peoples and speaking world. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; ship .edu). Steven F. Butterman (butterman@ miami .edu). Places. Papers on any aspect of Spain and its Ethnic Studies: New Directions. Presenta­ relations to the Mediterranean world. 1­page interdisciplinary Approaches tions on the future of ethnic studies as a field, abstracts by 7 Mar.; Ricardo Padrón (padron@ discipline, or academic program or in relation virginia .edu). ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO to literary, cultural, interdisciplinary, trans­ Writing to Reform. Textual practices that LITERATURE national, postcolonial, or American studies. strive to effect cultural, political, aesthetic, After Culture. Papers on problems with Abstracts and vitae by 15 Mar.; Jesse Alemán religious, social change. 1­ page abstracts by “culture” as a critical concept and possible (jman@ unm .edu). 7 Mar.; Ricardo Padrón (padron@ virginia .edu). responses to the collapse of faith in culture as (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 1

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GAy STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE Conference Sex. Sex at the MLA? Practices of it, politics of it; its presence in LGBT dis­ course; how to theorize any or all of these together, apart; with, without queer studies. OSCAREINZIG PHOTOGRAPHY Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Ricardo L. Ortiz (ortizr@ georgetown .edu). Putting Feminism Back into Queer Studies. Cosponsored by the Division on Women’s Studies in Language and Literature. This session complements Queering Women’s Studies. Does feminist inquiry still inform queer studies? Accepting proposals that answer the question from a variety of per­ spectives, genres, and vantage points. Ab­ stracts by 7 Mar.; Sharon Patricia Holland (sharon­holland@ northwestern .edu). Queer Passive. Despite its stimulus to queer activism and agency, does queer literature and culture also contribute to thought about forms of passivity: passion, suffering, undergoing, receptivity, passive resistance, pacifism, etc.? Abstracts by 7 Mar.; Robert Lawrence Caserio (rlc25@ psu .edu).

LINGUISTIC APPROACHES TO LITERATURE From Philology to Literary Linguistics. Situ­ ating literary linguistics (including stylistics, Mario Chandler, speaker at the session “Religion and Spirituality in Afro-­ narratology, translation, etc.) within the lon­ Hispanic Texts: From Spiritual Affirmation to Prophetic Signification.” ger tradition of philology. 1­page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Claiborne Rice (crice@ louisiana .edu). POPULAR CULTURE gies for comparing tropes, texts, discourses, Linguistics and Literature: Marriage of Like Graphic Novels as Literature. What do disciplines, and contexts. 500­word proposals Minds or Shotgun Wedding? Exploring the graphic novels bring to our cultural land­ and 2­page vitae by 15 Mar.; Susan Y. Najita relations between literary studies and the scape? Are they a distinct literary genre? (najita@ umich .edu). various approaches to linguistics, including And does it matter? 450­word abstracts and linguistic anthropology, discourse analy­ 1­page vitae by 14 Mar.; Cynthia Ann Young PSyCHOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO LITERATURE sis, sociolinguistics, etc. 1­page abstracts by (youngcs@ bc .edu). 10 Mar.; Claiborne Rice (crice@ louisiana .edu). Adam Phillips, Psychoanalytic Theorist. Octavia Butler. What was the impact of Octa­ Papers on the intersections between litera­ LITERATURE AND RELIGION via Butler on science fiction’s past? What will ture and psychoanalysis: kidding, tickling, her legacy be for its future? 450­word paper Fundamentalisms. Fundamentalism across boredom, flirtation, earthworms, side effects, abstracts and 1­page vitae by 14 Mar.; Cynthia religious traditions, its treatment in literature, the Bersani­Phillips dialogue on human Ann Young (youngcs@ bc .edu). and its interpretive theory and practice. 250­ intimacy and the imagination. 250­word ab­ word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Patricia A. Ward Reality TV and the Economics of Enter-­ stracts, vitae by 4 Mar.; Lawrence D. Kritzman (patricia.a.ward@ vanderbilt .edu). tainment. How does reality TV change the (lawrence.d.kritzman@ dartmouth .edu). economic and cultural landscape of entertain­ Psychoanalysis and Citizenship. Psycho­ Religion and the Construction of English ment? And does it matter? 450­word abstracts National Identity. How the literary tradition analytic and political thought, political and and 1­page vitae by 14 Mar.; Cynthia Ann psychic structures, psychoanalysis and rights, struggles with the complex strands—Prot­ Young (youngcs@ bc .edu). estant, Catholic, secular, and other—that psychoanalysis and politics as space of ap­ constitute the imagined community of post­ POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES IN LITERATURE pearance. 150­word abstracts, short vitae by Reformation England. 250­word abstracts by AND CULTURE e­mail (no attachments) by 5 Mar.; Graham 15 Mar.; Dennis Taylor (taylor@ bc .edu). Postcolonial Comparisons: Form. What hap­ Lawrence Hammill (ghammill@ nd .edu). pens when we shift attention from theme to Psychoanalysis and Science Fiction. Intersec­ LITERATURE AND SCIENCE form? Possible topics include comparative man­ tions, applications, implications of psycho­ Thinking with Ecology. As rising seas wash ifestos, realism vs. modernism, novel’s relation analysis and sci­fi: fantasy, technology, utopia, away the modernist dualisms that underlie lit­ to fable. 500­word proposals and 2­page vitae dystopia, human, nonhuman, etc., in film, televi­ erary studies, what must be our new ground? by 15 Mar.; Susan Z. Andrade (sza@ pitt .edu). sion, literature, pop culture. 250­word abstracts How can we, too, think with ecology? 250­ Postcolonial Comparisons: Geography and and short vitae (no attachments) by 5 Mar.; Es­ word abstracts by e­mail by 15 Mar.; Laura History. How exactly do geography and ther Rashkin (esther .rashkin@ utah .edu). Dassow Walls (wallsld@ gwm .sc.edu). history provide modes of comparison for SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACHES TO postcolonial studies? Possible topics may LITERATURE LITERATURE include theme, archive, chronotopes, cartog­ The Insurgencies of Violence: Revolutions, The Unreadable. How does reading open up raphy. 500­word proposals and 2­page vitae Rebellions, and Epistemes. Papers dealing a space between literature and philosophy? by 10 Mar.; Elizabeth DeLoughrey (emd23@ with violence as a historical and epistemologi­ Literature shows reading to be inseparable cornell .edu). cal issue that captures colonial, postcolonial, from unreadability, whereas philosophy is Postcolonial Comparisons: Methodologies. and neocolonial formations. 1­page abstracts intolerant of it. 500­word abstracts by 21 Mar.; What is entailed in postcolonial comparative by 7 Mar.; Roderick A. Ferguson (fergu033@ Geoffrey Bennington (gbennin@ emory .edu). work? Possible topics include methodolo­ umn .edu). MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 1

Our Energy Futures: Narratives of Resource Memory in 20th-­ and 21st-­Century Italian 1­page abstracts by 10 Mar.; David Herman Depletion. Papers dealing with texts of en­ Culture. Memory and its attendant themes of (herman.145@ osu .edu). ergy and their relation to the itineraries of pro­ temporal discontinuity and recovery in con­ General Session. Studies showing how temporary Italian culture. 1­page abstracts by duction and consumption. 1­page abstracts by a particular research project bears on 15 Mar.; Norma Bouchard (norma .bouchard@ 7 Mar.; Imre Szeman (szeman@ mcmaster .ca). fundamental issues in language theory, uconn .edu). WOMEN’S STUDIES IN LANGUAGE AND whether in phonology, morphology, syntax, LITERATURE New Directions in Postwar Italian Poetry. semantics, pragmatics, or other domains. Theories and practices of contemporary Ital­ Gender, Science, Culture. Scholarly or peda­ 1­page abstracts by 10 Mar.; David Herman ian poets from the postwar era to the present. gogical approaches to intersections of gender, (herman.145@ osu .edu). Interdisciplinary contributions are welcome. science, and culture, including interdisciplin­ 1­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Norma Bouchard ary initiatives between humanities and health Other Languages & Literatures (norma .bouchard@ uconn .edu). sciences. 500­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Judith AFRICAN LITERATURES Kegan Gardiner (gardiner@ uic .edu). Language Studies African Literature and the New Diaspora. Queering Women’s Studies. Cosponsored The significant and growing body of recent by the Division on Gay Studies in Language APPLIED LINGUISTICS writings by Africans in the diaspora contin­ and Literature. This session complements Applied Linguistics and Teaching Assistant ues to enrich African literature and require Putting Feminism Back into Queer Studies. Development. Papers discussing the relevance our attention. 300­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; LGBTQ studies in women’s studies, queer of applied linguistics for TA development. Mohamed Kamara (kamaram@ wlu .edu). Possible topics include methodology courses, feminist theories, transgender perspectives, Constructing the Past in Recent African Lit-­ preservice, inservice support, assessment. 250­ queer feminist perspectives on culture. 500­ erature. Nearly half a century of nationhood word abstracts by e­mail by 1 Mar.; Julia R. word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Lynne Rand Huffer has inspired African writers to memorialize, Herschensohn (herschen@ u .washington .edu). (lhuffer@ emory .edu). mythologize, demystify, and otherwise revisit War on Gender, Gender and War. Remascu­ Applied Linguistics and the 2007 MLA Re-­ the continent’s postindependence history. linization, surveillance, blogging, resistance, port. Papers considering implications of the 250­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Janice Spleth rhetorics of victimization, other intersections. report “Foreign Languages and Higher Edu­ (jspleth@ wvu .edu). cation” for applied linguistics and linguists 500­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Maria Herrera­ Representations of Power in African Litera-­ Sobek (maria .sobek@ evc .ucsb .edu). in foreign language programs. 250­word abstracts by e­mail by 1 Mar.; Julia R. Her­ ture. African literature has always concerned schensohn (herschen@ u .washington .edu). itself with the manifestation of power: its na­ italian Literature ture, uses, abuses, implications, etc. 300­word Program and Outcomes Assessment in Col-­ MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE ITALIAN abstracts and vitae by 1 Mar.; Livinus Nwa­ legiate Foreign Language Education. Papers LITERATURE diuto Odozor (livyodozor@ gmail .com). exploring approaches for assessing outcomes, Esoteric and Exoteric Knowledges: Medi-­ programs, and departments in collegiate for­ EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES AND eval and Early Modern. 200­word abstracts eign language education. 250­word abstracts LITERATURES TO 1900 and brief vitae by 15 Mar.; Daniela Boccassini by e­mail by 1 Mar.; Julia R. Herschensohn Mapping Textual Territories in East Asia. (daniela .boccassini@ ubc .ca). (herschen@ u .washington .edu). Emerging perspectives on the literal, figura­ Open Session. 200­word abstracts and brief tive, and symbolic roles of landscape and vitae by 15 Mar.; Daniela Boccassini (daniela HISTORy AND THEORy OF RHETORIC AND environment, more broadly space and place, COMPOSITION .boccassini@ ubc .ca). in East Asian literature before 1900. 250­word Queer Rhetorics. Papers presenting new abstracts by 17 Mar.; Joseph T. Sorensen Visual and Verbal Languages: Medieval and research on intersections between rhetori­ (jsorensen@ ucdavis .edu). Early Modern. 200­word abstracts and brief cal history/ theory and queer­GLBT studies. vitae by 15 Mar.; Daniela Boccassini (daniela (Please put “MLA” in e­mail subject line.) 1– Textual Conditions in Premodern East Asia. .boccassini@ ubc .ca). 2­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Janet Marie Atwill Examination of the material culture and (jatwill@ utk .edu). practice of the written word—including the 17TH-­, 18TH-­, AND 19TH-­CENTURy ITALIAN composing, illustrating, editing, publishing, LITERATURE LANGUAGE AND SOCIETy reading, recitation, and circulation of texts. Claiming Classical Heritage, Constructing Creating Subjects in Contemporary Media. 250­word abstracts by 17 Mar.; Charlotte Eu­ National Identity. How have writers invoked Papers addressing any aspect of the topic as banks (cde13@ psu .edu). Greek and Roman models to define a sense of encountered in any society or any culture Women’s Literary Voices: Self-­Writing italianità? Papers may examine texts from the and in any medium. 250­word proposals across East Asia Traditions. Examining wom­ 17th, 18th, or 19th centuries. 1­page abstracts by by 10 Mar.; Andrea Abernethy Lunsford 15 Mar.; Maria Rosa Truglio (mxt34@ psu .edu). en’s self­writing: why and what they wrote, (lunsford@ stanford .edu). how they represented themselves in texts, Ethnic Images across Media. How have dif­ Globalization, Language Use, and Commu-­ and what conditions enabled them to write. ferent media shaped the representation of nity. Any aspect of the topic as encountered in 250­word abstracts by 17 Mar.; Monika Dix non­Italian identities? Papers may consider lit­ any society or in any culture and in any me­ (mdix@ hawaii .edu). erature, music, or the visual arts from the 17th dium. 250­word proposals by 10 Mar.; Andrea through the 19th centuries. 1­page abstracts Abernethy Lunsford (lunsford@ stanford .edu). EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES AND by 15 Mar.; Paola Gambarota (gambarot@ rci LITERATURES AFTER 1900 .rutgers .edu). LANGUAGE THEORy East Asian Modernities: Global, Vernacular, Computers and Language Theory. Stud­ or Marginal Narratives. Proposals on the Landscape in Italian Literature. Papers may ies that explore the uses of computers for topic of critical or theoretical explorations of consider texts from the 17th, 18th, or 19th research in language theory. Relevant ap­ popular, alternative, or suppressed voices in centuries. 1­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Tullio proaches include corpus linguistics, natural hegemonic East Asian narratives of moder­ Pagano (paganot@ dickinson .edu). language generation, and digital archiving. nity. 300­word abstracts by 20 Mar.; Mingbao 20TH-­CENTURy ITALIAN LITERATURE 1­page abstracts by 10 Mar.; David Herman Yue (mingbao@ hawaii .edu). Italian Genre Cinema. Exploration of Italian (herman.145@ osu .edu). Histories of Experimentalism. How ex­ genre film, including horror, western, comedy, Discourse Analysis. Intersections between perimental and avant­garde poetry and adventure, and sci­fi. Interdiscipinary contri­ discourse analysis and key issues in language poetics—ranging from dadaism to digital butions are most welcome. 1­page abstracts by theory. Relevant approaches include critical poetry—emerged in East Asia. Focus on 15 Mar.; Norma Bouchard (norma .bouchard@ discourse analysis, conversation analysis, terminological genealogies, media crossing, uconn .edu). politeness theory, gesture research, etc. (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 1

to social science interests, maintaining its humanistic ties, or . . . ? With what implica­ tions? 1­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Dale Larson (dlarso@ gmail .com).

Discussion Groups ANGLO-­IRISH LITERATURE OSCAREINZIG PHOTOGRAPHY Unusual Suspects: Irish Modernism on the Margins. Papers on underemphasized aspects of Irish modernism, including traditional, Irish­language, feminist, nationalist, nonliter­ ary approaches. Comparative approaches and responses to recent interventions welcome. 500­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Gregory R. Castle (dedalus@ asu .edu).

ARABIC LITERATURE AND CULTURE The Nakba in the Wake of Said. Sixty years after 1948, how does the dispossession of Pal­ estine figure in Arabic culture—through and beyond the lens of Edward Said? 500­word abstracts, vitae by 7 Mar.; Shaden M. Tageldin (tageldin@ umn .edu).

ARTHURIAN LITERATURE Nation and Its Discontents. 1­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Kathleen Coyne Kelly (k.kelly@ neu .edu).

BIBLIOGRAPHy AND TExTUAL STUDIES Cultural Institutions and Textual Studies. Papers examining the relationships between writers, texts, and cultural institutions—pub­ lishers, periodicals, book clubs and prizes, cultural agencies, archives, or artists’ col­ lectives. Any region, period. 300­word ab­ gerald graff presents the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies to Toril Moi. stracts vitae by 1 Mar.; Peter J. Kalliney (peter .kalliney@ uky .edu).

(continued from previous page) grams? 250­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Laura L. CANADIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISH Behling (lbehling@ gustavus .edu). Oppositional Politics, Avant-­Garde Poetics, politicization welcome. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Teaching in the Corporate University. Ex­ Canada. Papers addressing the connections Walter K. Lew (wlew@ miami .edu). ploring the modern professoriat with topics and disjunctions among oppositional politics, Music, Auditory Cultures, and the Popular such as changing financial, administrative, avant­garde poetics, and Canada. 500­word in East Asia. New methodologies for East hiring, and tenure structures; curricular abstracts and 1­page vitae by 14 Mar.; Susan A. Asian sonic modernities: phonography and control; globalization; unionization; and re­ Rudy (SRudy@ ucalgary .ca). music, urban soundscapes and quotidian ar­ lated concerns. 250­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; chitecture, auditory culture and textuality, cin­ Sheila T. Cavanagh (engstc@ emory .edu). CATALAN LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE ematic music and soundscapes. Abstracts by The Space of Catalan Literature and the 20 Mar.; Andrew Jones (afjones@ berkeley .edu). THE TEACHING OF LANGUAGE Arts. Representations of space, place, land­ Study Abroad: Critical Languages. Papers scape, and community; physical, cognitive, SLAVIC AND EAST EUROPEAN LITERATURES that examine the opportunities and limita­ visual, literary, cinematic expressions and in­ Animating the Inanimate Slavic World. The tions for study abroad in critical languages, terpretations. 1­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Sha­ Slavic tradition of animation—from cartoon including pre­ and poststudy concerns. ron G. Feldman (sfeldman@ richmond .edu). to feature film—continues to inspire and 150­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; H. Jay Siskin CELTIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES amaze. This panel explores Slavic works and (jasiskin@ cabrillo .edu). their contexts. Titles and abstracts by 15 Mar.; Open Topic. Papers addressing any aspect of Thomas J. Garza (tjgarza@ mail .utexas .edu). Technology: A Critical Examination. When any of the Celtic languages and literatures. Time is the use of technology appropriate and effec­ period open, but medieval subjects especially Stoppard and the Slavic Connection. Tom tive? How does it influence content and out­ welcome. 1­page abstracts by 5 Mar.; Lisabeth Stoppard, born Tomas Straussler, has explored comes? Can innovative practice be considered Claire Buchelt (lbuchelt@ mail .unomaha .edu). the Slavic world in his recent dramatic works. a form of scholarship? 150­word abstracts by On his 70th birthday, this panel investigates 1 Mar.; H. Jay Siskin (jasiskin@ cabrillo .edu). CLASSICAL STUDIES AND MODERN Stoppard’s Slavic connections. Titles and LITERATURE abstracts by 15 Mar.; Edith W. Clowes THE TEACHING OF LITERATURE Imag(in)ing Rome. Ancient Rome and its ru­ (eclowes@ ku .edu). Anthologies and the Construction of Pedagogi-­ ins as trope in postclassical literature, visual cal Canons. Commentaries on the critical and arts, and intellectual history. Papers that cross Teaching practical issues involved in teaching British litera­ disciplinary and historical boundaries are par­ ture with anthologies. 1­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; ticularly welcome. 1­page abstracts by 25 Mar.; TEACHING AS A PROFESSION Alessandro Vettori (vettori@ rci .rutgers .edu). Barbara Weiden Boyd (bboyd@ bowdoin .edu). The Accountable Professor. How does the trend for accountability affect our roles as THE TEACHING OF WRITING COGNITIVE APPROACHES TO LITERATURE professors? What performance measures for Composition Studies: Where Is It Going? Cognitive Approaches to Ethnic and Postco-­ student learning are appropriate in literature, Examinations of contemporary developments lonial Literature and Culture. How cognitive writing, literacy, and language courses or pro­ in composition studies. Is the field returning science and related approaches shed light on MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 17 the creating of and engaging with ethnic and pers might address case studies, storytelling, topics on otherness, diversity, and discourse postcolonial literatures and culture. 250­word testimony, the construction of factuality and from different perspectives. 200­word ab­ abstracts by 15 Mar.; Frederick Luis Aldama causality, and other related topics. 250­word stracts by 1 Mar.; Yolanda Chavez­Cappellini (aldama.1@ osu .edu). abstracts by 10 Mar.; Todd Butler (butlert@ (cappelly@ newpaltz .edu). wsu .edu). CUBAN AND CUBAN DIASPORA CULTURAL PROVENçAL LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE PRODUCTION LExICOGRAPHy One Never Speaks One Language: Lan-­ What’s So Funny? Humor in Cuba and the Though Jamieson usually receives “single­ guage, Dialect, and Idiom in Occitan. Varied Diaspora. Exploration of humor in cultural author” credit for his 200­year­old dictionary, aspects of language, dialect, and idiom in Oc­ expression, national identity. Any period or it involved important collaborations. Yet many citan language and literature, from the Middle discipline (e.g., literature, performance, art, “anonymous” dictionaries reveal individual Ages to the present. Short abstracts by 15 Mar.; music, linguistics, news media). 2­page ab­ personalities. Papers on individual versus Eric T. Matheis (ematheis@ indiana .edu). stracts and vitae by 15 Mar.; Sara E. Cooper anonymous authorship. Abstracts by 20 Mar.; (scooper@ csuchico .edu). Jeffrey A. Triggs (jtriggs@ gmail .com). ROMANCE LITERARy RELATIONS The Sentiments and Reason. Exploring how FOLKLORE AND LITERATURE LITERATURE OF THE UNITED STATES IN literary texts and traditions treat the rela­ Folklore and Gayl Jones Corregidora. Seek­ LANGUAGES OTHER THAN ENGLISH tions—or disjunction—between the senti­ ing papers that explore the ways Corregidora Passing for American. Various groups have ments and reason. How can we account for can be understood as a folkloric text. Empha­ sought assimilation to pursue an otherwise their shifting importance? 2­page proposals sis on the blues, orality, family or personal unattainable American dream. This session by 12 Mar.; Kathy Richman (krichman@ pacific narrative, participatory reading, etc. 350­word explores this struggle as recorded in the heri­ .edu). abstracts by 3 Mar.; David Todd Lawrence tage languages of the United States. Abstracts (dtlawrence@ stthomas .edu). and vitae by 18 Mar.; Dana A. Kress (dkress@ ROMANIAN STUDIES centenary .edu). Eastern Europe in the Cold War Culture. Pa­ GENERAL LINGUISTICS pers on representations of Eastern Europe— Technology and the Teaching of Linguistics. LUSOPHONE LITERATURES AND CULTURES preferably Romania—in Cold War literature Papers that address successful and unsuccess­ OUTSIDE PORTUGAL AND BRAzIL and film from outside the region. 250­word ful practices in integrating technology into the Cinema Lusófono / Lusophone Cinema. abstracts by 15 Mar.; Monica Popescu (monica teaching of linguistics. 250­word abstracts by Novo milénio, novo cânone, novos parâmet­ .popescu@ mcgill .ca). 1 Mar.; Iulia Pittman (pittman@ auburn .edu). ros do cinema Lusófono Africano/ Asiático. Análise, controvérsias, possíveis soluções. SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES AND HEBREW LITERATURE New millennium, new canon, new param­ LITERATURES The Space and Borders of Hebrew Literature eters for Lusophone­African/ Asian cinema. New Pluralisms in Scandinavia. Session and Film. Representations of place, perme­ Analyses, controversies, possible solutions. explores growing diversities of ethnicity, ability of genres, boundaries between art and 100­word abstracts, English or Portuguese, class, family, intimacy, gender, sexuality as politics, or psychosocial role of creative works. by 10 Mar.; Nechama Kramer­Hellinx portrayed in Scandinavian texts, or compara­ 250­word abstracts by 12 Mar.; Adam Rovner (nkramerh@ nyc .rr.com). tive contexts involving Scandinavian texts. (Adam .Rovner@ hofstra .edu). 1­page paper proposals (by e­mail) by 10 Mar.; MEDIA AND LITERATURE Anne G. Sabo (sabo@ stolaf .edu). HUNGARIAN LITERATURE Second Life: Reading and Writing Virtual Romanticism and Revolution: 19th-­Century Worlds. Second Life and other persistent SCIENCE FICTION AND UTOPIAN AND Roots of Postmodernism. Three presenta­ virtual worlds, with preference given to top­ FANTASTIC LITERATURE tions with discussion following them on the ics other than pedagogy. 1­page abstracts and Storytelling in Fantastic Literatures. The im­ content or theses of the papers. 200­word short vitae by 15 Mar.; Matthew Kirschen­ portance of narrative in science fiction, utopia, abstracts plus final copy for 20­min. presen­ baum (mgk@ umd .edu). and fantastic fictions. Links to earlier prac­ tations by 15 Mar.; Thomas Raymond Mark tices: myth, romance, etc. Storytelling as real­ (trma@ lamar .colostate .edu). MExICAN CULTURAL AND LITERARy STUDIES ism, mode of cognition, political unconscious. Del México profundo al México de afuera. 250­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Phillip Edward INTERDISCIPLINARy APPROACHES TO What does it mean to speak of “muchos Wegner (pwegner@ english .ufl .edu). CULTURE AND SOCIETy Méxicos”? How do intellectuals and cultural Language, Literature, and the Politics of Area workers respond to “re­configurations” of SCOTTISH LITERATURE Studies. Papers on the politics/ politicization the social and cultural landscape? 500­word Diasporic Scotlands. Papers on the topic of of area studies: academic integrity, censorship, abstracts by 15 Mar.; Laura G. Gutierrez diasporic writing within and beyond Scot­ compromised funding, academic monitor­ (lgutierr@ email .arizona .edu). land. Exile, migration, hybridity, cosmopoli­ ing by nonacademic bodies, vulnerabilities in tan and transnational identities. 300­word the tenuring process, etc. 1­page abstracts by OLD NORSE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE abstracts with vitae by 1 Mar.; Fiona J. Wilson 15 Mar.; Gaurav G. Desai (gaurav@ tulane .edu). Femininity and Masculinity in Old Norse (fwilson@ fordham .edu). and Icelandic Compositions. Papers discuss­ ITALIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE ing gender issues, social attitudes, heroism, SEPHARDIC STUDIES Italian American Literary Innovation. Essays war, marriage, misogyny, concubinage, cross­ Gender in Sephardic or Sephardist Litera-­ that explore experimentation and innovation dressing, and sexuality. Proposals concerning ture. Cross or gender traits in literary style in any literary genre. Papers or proposals by prose or poetry welcome. 1­page abstracts by or character design impacting memory or 7 Mar.; Dennis B. Barone (dbarone@ sjc .edu). 16 Mar.; Robin Waugh (rwaugh@ wlu .ca). identity. Sephardism interprets modernity integrating (re)imagined medieval Iberian JEWISH CULTURAL STUDIES PART-­TIME FACULTy MEMBERS elements. 250­word abstracts by 10 Mar.; Stacy Remapping Jewishness. How and where is Stereotypes of Contingent Faculty Members: Beckwith (sbeckwit@ carleton .edu). Jewishness located? Papers examining Jewish­ Humor and Social Commentary. Papers ness in relation to globalization and transna­ addressing representation of part­time and SOUTH ASIAN LANGUAGES AND tionalism, virtual and emergent communities, contingent faculty members. How are stereo­ LITERATURES archives or exhibitions, Jews of color, and Jews types of adjuncts expressed in popular media Public Intellectuals and South Asian Lit-­ and race. 250­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Lori and literature? Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Lila Marz erature. Literary and public interventions in Harrison­Kahan (lharriso@ conncoll .edu). Harper (harperl@ cwu .edu). debates about globalization, environment, democracy struggles in Nepal, Pakistan, Af­ LAW AS LITERATURE PRESENT-­DAy ENGLISH LANGUAGE ghanistan, Burma; free speech against state Law and Narrative. Intersections between law (Not) Checking the Box: Opening Up Spaces and religious censorship. 300­word abstracts and the process and products of narration. Pa­ through Discourses. Abstracts that discuss (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 18

(continued from previous page) political ideologies and personal and cultural racial subjects have claimed existing catego­ identities. Abstracts or papers by 7 Mar.; Ali­ ries? 350­word abstracts and vitae by 1 Mar.; by 15 Mar.; Lopamudra B. Basu (basul@ cia M. de la Torre Falzon (afalzon@ nvcc .edu). Chandan Reddy (ccreddy@ u .washington .edu). uwstout .edu). Making a College Student: What Can We Do COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF GRADUATE TRANSLATION for the Underprepared? How would propos­ STUDENTS IN THE PROFESSION als to orient language study toward trans­ Translation in the 21st Century: What Gets Imagining and Expanding Collaboration cultural and translingual competence affect Found. How does the language or form of “un­ in the Humanities. Presentations that dem­ community college language programs and translatable” prose and poetry provide an op­ onstrate and/or imagine examples or models underprepared students? Abstracts or papers portunity for creation? Theoretical approaches or theories of graduate student collaborative by 7 Mar.; Elizabeth M. Schwartz (schwartz and discussions of the creative process wel­ work in the humanities. 350­word abstracts by .elizabeth@ sbcglobal .net). come. 250­word abstracts by 7 Mar.; Suzanne 21 Feb.; Seth Jameson (sjameson@ ucla .edu). Jill Levine (sjlevine@ spanport .ucsb .edu). COMMITTEE ON DISABILITy ISSUES IN THE Marketability and Academic Personas. Ad­ PROFESSION dressing the way the job market influences TRAVEL LITERATURE Disability in Context: Personalizing the Pro-­ strategies of academic self­representation. Genders of Travel Writing. Papers addressing fession. Workshop on personal experiences Possible topics: academic personas, conflicts the intersections of sexuality and gender in of disability in academia, addressing issues between scholarly creativity and market de­ travel writing, including questions of identity, such as hiring and advancement, defining dis­ mands. Abstracts and vitae by 1 Mar.; Roland the body, desire, queer sexualities, and the ability, ADA compliance, teaching disability Vegso (rolandvegso@ gmail .com). materiality of movement. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; studies, etc. Proposals by 18 Mar.; Kevin Finn Soledad Caballero (scaballe@ allegheny .edu). Negotiating Family and Graduate Studies: (kfinn@ miami .edu) and Eden Koren Osucha A Roundtable Discussion. Negotiating fam­ THE TWO-­yEAR COLLEGE (eosucha@ bates .edu). ily life in graduate school, from administra­ Honors Programs at Two-­year Colleges. How Human Rights and Disability. Panel exam­ tive, departmental, and student perspectives. can we facilitate the needs of high­achieving ining intersections of human rights and dis­ Possibilities: paid parental leave, alternative students attracted to community colleges? ability concerns, especially in global contexts; families, family and new faculty members. What strategies do we have for operating hon­ papers may focus on critical theory, literature, 350­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Megan Moore ors programs and addressing students’ needs? visual culture, public policy, and the profes­ (moorem@ newberry .org). Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Andrea Broomfield sion. 250­word abstracts by 18 Mar.; Eden Osu­ (abroomfi@ jccc .edu). cha (eosucha@ bates .edu). Special Sessions WEST ASIAN LANGUAGES AND COMMITTEE ON INFORMATION These proposed topics for special ses­ LITERATURES TECHNOLOGy sions at the convention have not been What Is in a Wall? Conceptualizing the Wall E-­Criticism: New Critical Methods and approved; the announcements are in­ through History, Politics, Gender, Culture, Modalities. Digital roundtable presenting tended to bring potential organizers and and Other Human Concerns. Critical ex­ new forms of literary criticism that utilize the panelists together before organizers send expressive and computational capability of amination of walls may focus on literature, in their final proposals. Organizers and language, or place. 1­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; the computer via new models, paradigms, and Randa B. Wahbe (rwahbe@ cypresscollege .edu). tools. 350­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Susan panelists should note the 7 April deadline Schreibman (sschreib@ umd .edu). for membership and the 1 April deadline yIDDISH LITERATURE Using Technology to Teach Languages. for submission of final proposals. yiddish and the City. Urban themes in Yid­ Computer­assisted language learning (CALL) dish literature; Yiddish literature and lan­ involving curricular design informed by sec­ Accentuating Punctuation. Punctuation top­ guage in the city. 1­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; ond language acquisition theory, implemen­ ics related to linguistics, writing, its use in Anne Eakin Moss (aeakinmoss@ jhu .edu). tation, and assessment. Presentations must certain genres, or by specific literary figures. discuss at least two of these aspects. Abstracts Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Albert E. Krahn (krahn@ American Literature Section by 15 Mar.; Robert Blake (rjblake@ ucdavis .edu). punctuation .org). Provocations. What are the most significant J. R. Ackerley’s Back. Theoretical—espe­ COMMITTEE ON SCHOLARLy EDITIONS current opportunities and challenges in cially postcolonial, queer, narrative­ and Editing Where you Least Expect It: Class-­ American literary studies? Papers can address genre­related—investigations of the work of room Practices. How editing theory can have any aspect, institutional, intellectual, practi­ the Bloomsbury ally, writer­playwright, BBC a critical presence in the classroom: e.g., how cal, methodological, professional, etc. 250­ editor, and activist. Theater­ and animal­ visual, musical, or textual archives are se­ word proposals by 29 Feb.; Caroline Levander literature­themed submissions also consid­ lected. Papers by 15 Mar.; Donald R. Dickson (clevande@ rice .edu). ered. 250­word proposals by 15 Mar.; Helena (d­dickson@ tamu .edu). Gurfinkel (hgurfin@ siue .edu). Where Is “the Archive”? How do we priori­ Editing Where you Least Expect It: Cultural tize information? What constitutes an archive The Adolescent Novel. Critical or theoretical Studies. Nonprint media, problems of annota­ (oral traditions, databases, material cultures, approaches to the adolescent novel, broadly tion, distrust of authority and authenticity: ritual places, etc.)? How might geographically conceived: coming­of­age narratives; first nov­ papers are invited on the material texts of remote archives be relevant to American lit­ els as “adolescent” texts; future of the adoles­ cultural studies. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Bruce erature? 250­word proposals by 29 Feb.; Caro­ cent novel in the 21st century. 1­page abstracts R. Smith (brucesmi@ usc .edu). line Levander (clevande@ rice .edu). by 15 Mar.; Judith Broome (broomej1@ wpunj Editing Where you Least Expect It: Editing .edu). MLA Committees Oral Texts in a Digital Age. How are texts Adoptive Families. Representations in fic­ of oral performance, or texts that derive from tion, memoir, or film. Family making and/or COMMITTEE ON COMMUNITy COLLEGES oral tradition, best edited, given current tech­ identity/ history/ culture seeking; transna­ Honors Programs at Two-­year Colleges. On nology? 1­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; John D. tional, transracial, or “matching,” open or any aspect of building and maintaining suc­ Niles (jdniles@ wisc .edu). closed. Critical, celebratory, or ambivalent. cessful honors programs at community col­ COMMITTEE ON THE LITERATURES OF Abstracts or proposals by 10 Mar.; Emily Hip­ leges. Abstracts or papers by 7 Mar.; Maria H. PEOPLE OF COLOR IN THE UNITED STATES chen (ehipchen@ westga .edu) and Marianne L. Makowiecka (mmakowiecka@ bergen .edu). AND CANADA Novy (mnovy@ pitt .edu). Literature of Immigrants. Educational uses “New” Subjects of Race. What effects have Aestheticism and Politics. Papers exploring of the immigration and heritage experiences contemporary migrations to or in North the political commitments of aestheticist writ­ in literature. Language identities in relation to America had on current analyses when new ers and artists; depictions of empires, rulers, MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 1 wars, revolutions in aestheticist texts; aestheti­ inspired by existentialism, skepticism; situ­ etc. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Matthew C. Rubery cist ideas about community, laws, and contem­ ational, naturalist, relativist philosophies, (rubery@ post .harvard .edu). porary political theories. 1­page abstracts by others. 1­page abstracts and vitae by 7 Mar.; Authorial Self-­Representation in the Span-­ 7 Mar.; Matthew Potolsky (m.potolsky@ utah Todd S. Garth (garth@ usna .edu). ish Golden Age. Papers on how Spanish .edu). American Literature of the Southeast Asian Golden Age writers directly or indirectly por­ Affectation from the Renaissance to Today. Diaspora. Explorations of emergent South­ tray themselves and their work through their What makes someone seem affected rather east Asian American literatures focusing on literary texts. 1­page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Julia than natural? Why should it matter? All militaristic narratives; refugee epistemologies; L. Farmer (jfarmer@ westga .edu). genres, approaches welcome. 1–2­page ab­ traditional roles in a feminist or postfeminist Babel Bytes. How well do Moodle, Black­ stracts or 8­page papers by 14 Mar.; Bradley world; diverse literacies, etc. 1­page abstracts board, WebCT, and other course management William Buchanan (buchanan@ csus .edu). by 15 Mar.; Lisa A. Long (lalong@ noctrl .edu). systems work when teaching non­Latinate Affective Communities in 18th-­Century Animetaphor: Figuring Animals in Theory languages? Which systems and kinds of in­ Anglo-­America. Papers that examine secular and Literature. Seeking theoretical analyses of struction work best for online environments? or religious communities of the heart; how the animal metaphors (Lippit’s “animetaphors”), 2­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Julie McFadden “sense” of the heart creates or structures social especially in relation to subject formation. (jmcfadde@ carleton .edu). or political bonds. 1­page abstracts by 10 Mar.; 500­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Colleen Glenney Beyond Recognition: Race, Hegel, and Class. Andrea L. Knutson (knutson@ oakland .edu). Boggs (colleen.g.boggs@ dartmouth .edu). Affective recognition has become a means to Age Studies Internationally. Submissions Animots. How can literature, which has spiritualize race and cut it off from class. Pa­ welcome on contemporary age studies ap­ always let animals speak, intervene in cur­ pers on materialist analytics of race, class, and plications and theories around the globe and rent debates concerning the relation between global labor. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Amrohini across political, geographic, and cultural human and animal rights, the philosophi­ Sahay (amrohini .sahay@hofstra .edu). borders. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Leni Marshall cal status of the animal, environmentalism? Frank Bidart and Contemporary Poetries. (leni@ agingstudies .org). Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Mario Ortiz­Robles Papers addressing how Bidart’s work revises, (mortizrobles@ wisc .edu). Age Studies Tomorrow: Future Scholarship. challenges, or sustains generic conventions— Submissions welcome on new avenues for Arthurian Temporalities. Time, times, timeli­ lyric, long poem—or complicates the bound­ exploration, new arenas in which the concepts ness, timing: asynchrony, chronology, evolu­ aries between mainstream and experimental can be applied, and the future of the field. tion, helix, prolepsis, relation, soma. History poetics. 250­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Stepha­ Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Leni Marshall (leni@ is the point of departure, not the destination. nie Youngblood (youngblood@ wisc .edu) and agingstudies .org). 1­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Kathleen Coyne Michelle Niemann (mniemann@ wisc .edu). Kelly (k.kelly@ neu .edu). Alternative Ethical Discourses in Latin Harold Bloom and the Intersections of Lit-­ America. Alternatives to received ethical The Audiobook. Papers addressing any as­ erature and Religion. Papers that investigate discourses (philosophical, religious, political) pect of audio recordings of literature: close Bloom’s engagement with religion in his in literature after 1870. Ethical explorations listening, sound technologies, voice actors, literary criticism. Can explore gnosticism, kabbalah, Romanticism, a specific author, etc. 300­word abstracts by 10 Mar.; William Quirk (wfquirk@ smcm .edu). California Literatures of the Environment. Papers analyzing California’s place in the his­ tory of environmental literature. Of particular interest are investigations of conservation movements, mining interests, natural disas­

OSCAREINZIG PHOTOGRAPHY ters, and the sublime. 250­word abstracts by 10 Mar.; Damon Franke (Damon .Franke@ usm .edu). Class and the Posthuman. Is the posthuman an emerging space for a culture beyond the “rhetoric of property” (de Man) and species, or is it really corporate analytics for a digital age? Abstracts by 8 Mar.; Robert A. Wilkie (rwilkie@ nycap .rr.com). Class in the Classroom. How do you encour­ age discussions of class in the classroom while teaching literature surveys? Include comments on the structure and content of class discussions. 1­page abstracts by 7 Mar.; Cassandra Falke (cfalke@ etbu .edu). The Color and Class of the “New” Family. Family after affect and beyond sentimental inscriptions of race and class. What is the ma­ terial shape of family and its economic roots? 1­page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Julie P. Torrant (jpt27@ cornell .edu). Contemporary British Women’s Fiction. Papers addressing fiction by women of any background currently writing in the United Kingdom; interdisciplinary approaches par­ ticularly welcome. Abstracts up to 750 words in length by 15 Mar.; Susan Alice Fischer Lamia Ben Youssef zayzafoon, speaker at the session “Muslims and Jews in (safcpw@ earthlink .net). French and Francophone Literatures and Films.” (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 20

(continued from previous page) of educating servants and apprentices from 1500 to 1700, especially servants of the middle Conundrums of Catastrophe. Examining class. 250­word abstracts by 10 Mar.; Emily representations of natural or created catastro­ Ruth Isaacson (eisaacs2@ fau .edu). phes oriented around politics, civil society, Emergent Literature of the Iranian Diaspora. and literature. Work of writers such as Manuel Papers on memoirs, fiction of Iranian dias­ Scorza and Carlos Monsiváis are welcome. pora, and narratives via post­9/11 subjectivi­ 250­word abstracts by 14 Mar.; Leilani Garcia­ ties and United States–Iranian tensions. Does OSCAREINZIG PHOTOGRAPHY Turull (l.garciaturull@ csuohio .edu). this reveal something about newer ethnic Cortázar: The Berkeley Lectures. Emphasis subjectivities? 250­word abstracts by 20 Mar.; on Cortázar’s presence at the University of Persis M. Karim (persisk@ yahoo .com). California, Berkeley. Papers should emphasize Emerson and Empire. Emerson’s transcen­ his university lectures and literary produc­ dentalism is becoming a model for privileg­ tion. 250­word abstracts and brief vitae by ing “the right to remain silent” (Derrida) 25 Mar.; Joseph V. Tyler (proftyler1@ mac .com). over critique. Papers exploring the (re)turn to Course Management: Friend or Foe? What Emerson at a time of new imperialist wars. courses benefit from using online components Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Kimberly DeFazio to supplement in­person instruction, and in (kdefazio@ clarkson .edu). what courses do such enhancements detract Emigration, Colonization, and American Lit-­ from student learning experiences? 2­page ab­ erature, 1816–65. The American Colonization stracts by 1 Mar.; Julie McFadden (jmcfadde@ Society, African Repository, black nationalism, carleton .edu). emigration, and so forth and their effects on Bette g. Hirsch, speaker at the session “Career Opportu-­ Current Work on Pierre Loti. A session antebellum literature. 500­word abstracts by nities in Two-­Year Colleges.” to present current work on Pierre Loti. 20­ 10 Mar.; Joe Webb (jwebb16@ slu .edu). min. papers by 15 Mar.; Richard M. Berrong Encounters between Science and the (richard@ berrong .fr). Avant-­Garde (1900–30). Investigations of literature, as both an author and a personal­ ity in her own right. 300­word abstracts by Dancing with Danger. Why does literature the intersection of avant­garde literature/ art and sciences such as biology, evolution 15 Mar.; Anna Souchuk (anna .souchuk@ yale figure dance and dancers as dangerous? Liter­ .edu). ary engagements with dance or uses of dance theory, and medicine. Half­page abstracts in drama from any period. 1­page abstracts by to both addresses by 15 Mar.; Christine Family Dissonance. Papers focused on the 1 Mar.; Carrie J. Preston (cjpresto@ bu .edu). Kanz (christinekanz1@ mac .com) and Arndt social and political utility of popular liter­ Niebisch (arndt_ niebisch@ hotmail .com). ary, cinematic, and televisual depictions of The Dark Whigs: Grubstreet, Empire, and unorthodox family and living arrangements. Race. Papers focused on the connections among Engaging Bayard Taylor. This near­forgotten writer is now frequently referenced in stud­ 1­page abstracts and vitae by 10 Mar.; Vincent Whigs, Grubstreet writers, and neglected dis­ Stephens (vstephen@ syr .edu). courses of empire and race. 1­page abstracts by ies of transnationalism, sexuality, class, and 1 Mar.; Wayne C. Ripley (wripley@ winona .edu). imperialism in 19th­century American litera­ Fatale: Representations of the “French ture. What interpretive issues result from this Woman.” Abstracts for papers addressing Descriptive Predicaments. Papers addressing revival? Abstracts and vitae by 7 Mar.; Liam past or present representations of the “French literary description as a locus for theoretical Corley (wccorley@ csupomona .edu). woman” in either French or American media exploration and/or texts that exacerbate the and popular culture. 300–500­word abstracts problematics of description. 1–2­page ab­ Ephemera in 18th-­Century Great Britain and North America. Roundtable exploring all by 15 Mar.; Jennifer Willging (willging.1@ osu stracts by 15 Mar.; M. H. Kolisnyk (mkolisny@ .edu). barnard .edu). aspects of the visual impact, textual import, social implications, production, reception, and Fatherhood and the Comedia. Papers that Disliking Shakespeare. Papers that address distribution of ballads, broadsides, chapbooks, focus on fathers, fatherhood, paternity, and resistance to Shakespeare (specific acts of and pamphlets. 1­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; masculinity in the theater of the Spanish dissent or dissenting individuals or groups) Kevin Murphy (kmurphy@ gc .cuny .edu). Golden Age. 250­word abstracts by 10 Mar.; in various cultural and historical contexts. Michael W. Joy (mjoy@ nmu .edu). 300­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Zoltan Markus Eroticism 20th-­Century Style. Papers per­ (zomarkus@ vassar .edu). taining to the importance of eroticism in Feeling Class(y). Is class primarily a matter 20th­century literature, especially in relation of affect, or does the new affective turn make Divorce in Contemporary United States Lit-­ to concerns with war, violence, fascism, nihil­ class classy by substituting experience for the erature. Papers exploring divorce in contem­ ism, and oppression. 300­word abstracts and relations of production that shape it? Abstracts porary United States literature, particularly as vitae by 1 Mar.; Matthew Roberts (mjrober@ by 15 Mar.; Stephen C. Tumino (sct5@ pitt .edu). it reflects ethnicity, race, religion, sexual iden­ emory .edu). Femmes et violence dans le monde franco-­ tity, or views of nature. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Eroticizing Latin America in United States phone. Cette session va durer 75 minutes, on Kimberly A. Freeman (k.freeman@ neu .edu). Literature. Eroticism in representations of écoutera trois, potentiellement quatre commu­ Don Quixote as a Book of History. don Quix-­ Latin America—its people, culture, and geog­ nications sur les problèmes des femmes des ote’s metaliterary scope extends not only to raphy—in texts written by United States–born pays francophones. Envoyez un résumé de 250 other literary works but also to historical nar­ or –based authors from any period. 1­page mots. By 12 Mar.; Maria G. Traub (traubm@ ratives. This panel seeks to explore such his­ abstracts by 15 Mar.; Zachary Lamm (zlamm@ neumann .edu). torical subtext. 250 word­abstracts by 15 Mar.; luc .edu). Film on Film. Self­reflexivity in contemporary Ana Laguna (alaguna@ camden .rutgers .edu). The Evolution of the Ethical Turn in Criti-­ cinema. Across genres and national traditions: Early American Grotesque. Critical and theo­ cism. Papers exploring new dimensions of adaptations, sci­fi, art house, Hollywood, retical studies that examine instances of or ethical criticism; topics of interest include “foreign,” etc. How does self­consciousness work toward a definition or expanded under­ the political imagination, historical memory, function in these various cinematic contexts? standing of the grotesque in early American and the cultural work of literature. 500­word 300­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Samuel Amago literature. Intertextual approaches encour­ abstracts by 1 Mar.; Hannah R. Johnson (hrj4@ (samago@ nd .edu). aged. 250­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Mary pitt .edu). Finnegans Wake, Voice, History. His­ McAleer Balkun (balkunma@ shu .edu). Examining Elfriede Jelinek. An examina­ tory as sound, voice(s), cacophony, hybrid, Educating the Early Modern Servant. Papers tion of Jelinek’s continued—and possibly mashup. 1­page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Carol A. about literature discussing methods and goals renewed—impact on Austrian and Viennese Dell’Amico (cdellamico@ csub .edu). MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 21

Forbidden zones in Francophone Literature totality of Puzo’s career: the epic, popular, and Intersections of Race, Gender, and Sexuality and Film. Literary or cinematic treatment of literary writer in ethnic and national contexts. in Hollywood’s Africa. Queer and feminist forbidden spaces—geographic, social, famil­ 1–2­page abstracts by 20 Mar.; MaryJo Bona postcolonial approaches to intersections of ial, personal, etc. Proposals on travel literature (mbona@ notes .cc.sunysb .edu). race, gender, sexuality in contemporary Hol­ welcome. 250­word abstracts in English or lywood movies representing Africa. 250­word Harlem Renaissance in Ibero-­America Lit-­ French by 15 Mar.; Claire Keith (claire .keith@ abstracts for 15­min. papers by 8 Mar.; Tanya erature and Visual Arts. The influence or in­ marist .edu). Ann Kennedy (tanya .kennedy@ maine .edu). terrelation between Harlem Renaissance and Forty years Later: The Legacy of San Fran-­ Iberoamerican artists, oriented around spoken James Kelman. Papers on any aspect of cisco State University’s Student and Faculty forms, performance art, poetry, and illustra­ Kelman’s work. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Tobias B. Strikes. Papers addressing the lasting institu­ tors. 250­word abstracts by 14 Mar.; Leilani Gregory (gregoryt@ cua .edu). tional and cultural changes, including ethnic Garcia­Turull (l.garciaturull@ csuohio .edu). Allen Lane’s Penguin. How might we read studies and college access. 1­page abstracts by Hearth, Home, Nation in the 19th Century. the Penguin enterprise as reflecting and 10 Mar.; Noreen O’Connor (nto@ georgetown shaping English culture? Papers focusing on .edu). Papers on material practices that enabled Vic­ torians to reassert British identity in an impe­ any aspect of Penguin: the company, one of French Crises(?). Analyses of contemporary rial age, thus refashioning domesticity’s place its authors, milestone publications, etc. Ab­ crises in France’s social or historical models; in England’s public culture. Abstracts, vitae by stracts by 10 Mar.; Rosemary Erickson Johnsen insertion within larger constructs (i.e., the EU, 17 Mar.; Deirdre H. McMahon (dhm33@ drexel (r­johnsen@ govst .edu). the global economy, international politics); .edu) and Janet Myers (jmyers@ elon .edu). Le nouveau roman à 50 ans. What is the declinisme; representations of “malaise,” and nouveau roman’s place in literary history? An more. 1–2­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Alain M. Hitler Humor in Contemporary German aberration? Is it still relevant? How do today’s Gabon (agabon@ vwc .edu). Culture. Papers discussing various humorous approaches to Hitler exhibited in cultural pro­ novelists contend with it? Comparisons, re­ Future Ruins: The Temporality of Climate ductions in contemporary Germany. 250­word evaluations, apologias. 1­page abstracts by Change. Anticipations of environmental and proposals by 1 Mar.; Susanne Lenné Jones 15 Mar.; Alexander Hertich (ahertich@ bradley cultural degradation; proleptic affect; incre­ (sujones@ uwm .edu). .edu). mental, quotidian catastrophe; decomposi­ Liminal Bodies: Questioning the Function-­ tion of the futural; partial, thwarted agency; Houses and Domestic Space in German ality of the Human Body. Life­threatening planetary temporalities. 300­word abstracts Literature. Papers on the representation or illnesses challenge the liminal dimension of by 15 Mar.; David Collings (dcolling@ bowdoin theory of houses and domestic space, specifi­ our embodiment. This session focuses on the .edu). cally their gendered connections in German literature from the 19th century until today. ill, broken, and dying body. 1­page abstracts Futurism Then and Now. Analysis of aes­ 300­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Monika Shafi and 2­page vitae by 1 Mar.; Catalina Florescu thetic engagement with futurity in any (mshafi@ udel .edu). (baietie@ yahoo .com). language culture in any historical period. The Literariness of Lawrence Block. More Interdisciplinary and comparative approaches Human Rights and the Photographic Essay. or less an open topic, but focusing on Block’s welcome. 250­word abstracts to both addresses Theoretical approaches to the genre and its connections, allusions to other literature, both by 10 Mar.; Leslie A. Adelson (laa10@ cornell uses for human rights advocacy. 500­word detective fiction and “canonical” literature. .edu) and Devin Fore (dfore@ princeton.edu). abstracts by 7 Mar.; Eleni Eva Coundouriotis 1­page proposals by 12 Mar.; Eric J. Hyman (eleni .coundouriotis@ uconn .edu). Gender and Nation in Contemporary Basque (ehyman@ uncfsu .edu). Narrative. Papers on the intersection between Imagining Apocalypse. In what ways and for Literary (and Other) Life of the Golden Gate gender and nation in Basque narrative since what purposes do authors employ apocalyptic Bridge. Papers on the history and significance 1975. 1­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Iker González­ images and concepts in their poetry or fiction? of the Golden Gate Bridge in literature and Allende (igonzalezallende2@ unl .edu). Nonecclesiastical literature of any period or other arts that analyze its iconic status. 250­ cultural tradition. 1­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; René Girard and the Consequences of Com-­ word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Ira Nadel (nadel@ parison in Literary Study. Papers treating Caroline King Hall (ckh3@ psu .edu). interchange .ubc .ca). Girard’s initial work in comparative literature, Indigenous Languages as Modern Lan-­ Literary Geographies of Jhumpa Lahiri’s which led to research in anthropology, ethnol­ guages. Papers that address the state of Fiction. Interweaving literary and geographi­ ogy, ethology, religious studies, and biological indigenous language research, pedagogy, cal theory, working from the premise that all science. 500­word abstracts by 10 Mar.; Wil­ resources, and influence in the academy and literary works generate literary geographies liam A. Johnsen (johnsen@ msu .edu). beyond. 250­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Kelly (they produce a spatialized way of under­ Girls’ Boarding School Stories. Stories of Shannon McDonough (mcdo0030@ umn .edu). standing the material world). Proposals by Enid Blyton and Susan Coolidge, adventures Interfaith Relations in French and Franco-­ 1 Mar.; Julia Leyda (juleyda@ gmail .com). at Malory Towers and St. Clare’s, how they phone Literatures and Films. Papers analyz­ Literary Politics and Jewish Identity in World stemmed from Tom Brown’s Schooldays and ing the depiction of relations among groups or War II France. Seeking papers that focus on helped shape Harry Potter. Abstracts by people of different faiths in contemporary lit­ the representation of Jewishness in French lit­ 15 Mar.; Bansari Mitra (bansarim@ yahoo .com). erature and films. 1–2­page abstracts and brief erary production during the war years. 1­page Global Hypermasculinity and Its vitae by 14 Mar.; Carine Bourget (bourgetc@ u abstracts and short vitae by 10 Mar.; Hilene Development(alism). Papers on specific in­ .arizona .edu). Flanzbaum (hflanzba@ butler .edu). stances of the promotion of hypermasculinity The Internet and Avant-­Garde Poetics. Literary Translation and the University. Lit­ as vehicle for modernization, particularly in Search engines, literary spam, found poetry, erary translation as theory and practice, with the culturalization efforts of the Third Cul­ flarf, procedures, automation, Listservs, blogs, emphasis on its place in the undergraduate ture proponents. Brief vitae and abstracts by cyberlibertarianism: how to understand the curriculum. 300­word abstracts with a short 15 Mar.; Gheorghita Tres (tres@ oakland .edu). contemporary poetic avant­garde’s sociologi­ bibliography by 1 Mar.; Carol Mastrangelo The Glorious Empire of the Turks, the Pres-­ cal, historical, and formal relation to the Inter­ Bové (cbove@ westminster .edu). ent Terror of the World: Islamophilia and net? 500­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Jennifer Literature on the International Brigades in Islamophobia in Early Modern English Ashton (jashton@ uic .edu) and Nick LoLordo the Spanish Civil War. Papers on poetry, nov­ Texts. The treatment of Islam in English texts. (lolordov@ unlv .nevada .edu). els, essays, memoirs, and so forth that deal Abstracts and vitae by 15 Mar.; Ambereen Interracial Productions of Shakespeare’s with the Brigades from any perspective, in Dadabhoy (ambereen .dadabhoy@ cgu .edu). Plays on Stage and Screen. All theoretical and any language. 1­page abstracts by e­mail by The Godfather at 40: Retrospectives on critical approaches are encouraged. 250­word 15 Mar.; Grover C. Furr (furrg@ mail .montclair Puzo’s Italian America and Its Meanings abstracts and vitae by 15 Mar.; William Regi­ .edu). for American Culture. Papers addressing the nald Rampone (regrampone@ hotmail .com). (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 22

(continued from previous page) Lake (ihollander@ berkeley .edu) and Jeroen Postmodern and Postsecular Fictions and Dewulf (jdewulf@ berkeley .edu). Christianity. Papers addressing the interac­ Manifestes littéraires. How do manifestos New Horizons in Afro-­Hispanic Literature tions between writers from the last 40 years help to define the literary field and prepare and Culture. Open to any topic in contempo­ and Christian belief/ spirituality. Papers might its evolutions? Close readings of 19th­century rary Afro­Hispanic literature and culture that address theory, trends, or canon implications. French manifestos particularly welcome. 500­ explores recent connections between Africa 250­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Christopher word abstracts or papers in French or English and the Spanish­speaking world. 300­word Wielgos (wielgoch@ lewisu .edu). by 5 Mar.; Anne Birien (birienax@ jmu .edu). electronic abstracts by 21 Mar.; Rudyard Joel Postmodernist Haiku by American Writers. Alda Merini and Mental Illness. Papers ad­ Alcocer (ralcocer@ gsu .edu). Assessment of Lee Gurga, William Higgin­ dressing any aspect of the Italian poet’s emer­ New Latin American Film. The developing son, Etheridge Knight, Sonia Sanchez, James gence from the silence attending her extended discipline of visual cultural studies allows Emanuel, Lenard Moore. Will discuss post­ institutionalization. 250­word proposals by for a continued exploration of new Latin modernist techniques and aesthetics relative 10 Mar.; Douglas Basford (dbasford@ jhu .edu). American sociofilmic realities. In this light, to Japanese tradition. 1­page abstracts or drafts Messaging the Text: Dizzy at the Margins. innovative analytical proposals are welcome. by 15 Mar.; Toru Kiuchi (tkiuchi@ sta .att .ne.jp). Representation­communication (mimesis­ 300­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Eduardo Al­ Postnationalism in Latin American Lit-­ rhetorical) axes, lately complemented by fonso Caro (ecaro@ asu .edu). erature. Papers that examine intersections cognitive considerations, become mimetic New Millennial Literary Representations of between aesthetics and the postnational in representation/ rhetorical presentation/ refer­ Black Feminisms. Exploring literary repre­ recent Latin American literature. Works ad­ ential communication axes. Is the interpretive sentations of black feminisms produced in the dressing testimony, trauma, monumentaliza­ domain on textual divide’s other side wide last 15 years, considering how these texts offer tion, and the archive are especially welcome. open? Abstracts by 7 Mar.; Alex Shalom Ko­ models, theory, and practice. 250­word ab­ 250­word abstracts by 14 Mar.; Stephenie hav (alex .kohav@ tui .edu). stracts by 1 Mar.; Soyica Diggs Colbert (soyica Young (young1s@ cmich .edu). David Mitchell. Analyses of Mitchell’s fic­ .diggs .colbert@ dartmouth .edu). Postsecular Europe? Religion and Faith in tion, theoretical and pedagogical approaches. 1968, from San Francisco to São Paulo. Panel Contemporary Literature. Investigating the Discussions of multiple perspectives, impact dedicated to exploring in transnational per­ representation of religion and faith in Euro­ on contemporary British literature, place on spective the “idea of 1968” in pop culture, pean literature since 1989, on the background Granta’s Best Young British Novelist list, etc. literature, film, music, and visual art in the of rising spirituality among native and immi­ 1­page abstracts and vitae by 17 Mar.; Jason Americas. 250–350­word abstracts by 7 Mar.; grant populations. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; May Howard Mezey (jmezey@ sju .edu). Christopher John Dunn (cjdunn@ tulane .edu). Mergenthaler (mergenthaler.4@ osu .edu). Mobbing in Academia: Causes and Con-­ Organizing University Students for Pro-­ Printing Shakespeare: From the Folio to sequences. Institutional factors: hierarchi­ gressive Political Protest. Abstracts should Nicholas Rowe. Papers addressing 17th­ cal evaluation procedures, administrative address the types of spaces organizers have century textual representations of Shake­ complicity, catch­all reasons for termination/ created for progressive student activism, as speare, with particular attention to the denial of tenure. Psychological aspects: gos­ well as describe the activities undertaken. intersection of book history and literary criti­ sip, innuendo, intimidation. Legal issues. 1–2­page abstracts by 1 Apr.; John Patrick cism. 250­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Adam G. Professional and personal ramifications. 500­ Thompson (jpthompson@ montana .edu). Hooks (agh2108@ columbia .edu) and Fran word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Jeanine S. Alesch Connor (fxc7z@ cms .mail .virginia .edu). (jeanalesch@ yahoo .com). Philippine Literature in Transnational Frames. Papers on Filipino literature in any Professional Blind Spots. Because of an un­ “Money Is a Form of Poetry”: Finance and language—Tagalog, English, Cebuano, Spanish, derstandable focus on race and gender, other American Poetry. How American poetry Ilocano, etc.—that explore transnational con­ forms of subjection are underexplored, such invokes and critiques systems of finance or texts and questions. Is Filipino literature always as those concerning poverty, the military and other monetary tools. 500­word abstracts and globalized? 250­word abstracts by 10 Mar.; society, and meritocracy. 250­word abstracts, vitae by 15 Mar.; Melissa Fabros (mfabros@ ocf Adam Lifshey (aml58@ georgetown .edu). 1­page vitae by 1 Mar.; Keith Leland Gandal .berkeley .edu). Placing Korean American Literature in Amer-­ (kgandal@ niu .edu). Alan Moore, Comic Book Visionary. Propos­ ican Literary History. Exploring a broader Proust 2008. Papers on any aspect of Proust als on any aspect of Moore’s work, including V configuration for Korean American literature studies. 1–2­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Hollie for Vendetta, Watchmen, Promethea, etc., and within American literature, particularly in its Markland Harder (harder@ brandeis .edu). on how Moore has transformed the medium of transformation of the past. 1­page abstracts by graphic novels. 1–2­page abstracts by 16 Mar.; 15 Mar.; Hea­Gyong Jo (ad7205@ wayne .edu). A Queer Eye for the Theater. Papers that Peter Yoonsuk Paik (pypaik@ uwm .edu). treat GLBTQ issues in theater studies from a Poetry and Education in the French Republic performance, literary, or theoretical perspec­ Mourning and Activism: Memorial Narra-­ of Letters. Panel to explore poetry as an edu­ tive. 1­page abstracts or full­length papers by tives. Intersections of commemoration, story­ cative tool, whether composition or character, 7 Mar.; Scott Taylor (sdt5008@ hotmail .com). telling, and activism. Consideration of genre/ in the rhetorical tradition from La Fontaine rhetorical approaches or analysis of specific to Ponge. 1­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Michael Queer Theories of New Media. Transgender public­memory project, monument, campaign, Taormina (mtaormin@hunter .cuny .edu). avatars, dyke blogs, manhunt .net, down­low digital archive, fiction, memoir, or documen­ downloads, same­sex marriage in MMORPGs, Poetry on the Borders of German and He-­ tary. 250­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Sarah virtual vice, spyware panic, flaming, feeling brew. German­Hebrew bilingualism, transla­ Henstra (shenstra@ ryerson .ca). digital, making flash mobs, coming together tion, and intertextuality. Poetic practices and online, liberating cyberspace. Abstracts by Robert Musil: Unfinishability and Failure implications for German Jewish and Hebrew 14 Mar.; Matt Bell (Matt .Bell@ bridgew .edu). as Modernist Success. Musil’s The Man with-­ literature, and contemporary discussions out Qualities and its structure of nonclosure on the discipline of comparative literature. Rape and Conquest. Papers should explore and nonlinearity as strategies for addressing Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Na’ama Rokem (naama the use of rape as a trope in cultural produc­ modernist perspectives on nondetermination .rokem@ yale .edu). tion that charts the effects of cross­cultural and relativity. Papers or abstracts by 15 Mar.; contact in colonial or postcolonial societies. The Politics of Humor: Female Satirists in Genese Grill (ggrill@ burlington .edu). 250­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Pamela Loth­ 20th-­Century England and America. Exam­ speich (ploth@ email .unc .edu). Netherlandic Session: The Dazzling and ine satire as a form of social protest by such Dark Dimensions of the Dutch Golden Age. women of wit as Dorothy Parker and Dawn Reconsidering the Restoration. Particular Papers addressing the literature, (colonial) his­ Powell. 1–2­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Sabrina interest in interdisciplinary approaches—his­ tory, and art history of the Dutch golden age. Fuchs­Abrams (sabrina.fuchs­abrams@ esc torical, aesthetic, and others—that can help re­ 350­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Inez Hollander .edu). contextualize and reconceptualize the reign of MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 2 OSCAREINZIG PHOTOGRAPHY

Charles II and its literature. 250­word abstracts (narcisz .fejes@ case .edu) and Andrea P. Balogh politics, respectively. Which Romantic didn’t by 10 Mar.; Todd Butler (butlert@ wsu .edu). (andrea .pbalogh@ gmail .com). want to incarnate Bonaparte or his enemies? How do transformations in battle strategies and Representations of Gender and War in Spain. The Rhetoric of Interruption. Investigates tactics inform culture? Abstracts by 14 Mar.; Papers that focus on the topics of gender and the use of interruption in narrative as a means Joshua D. Gonsalves (jdg2005@ rice .edu). war in Spain as represented in literature, film, to interrogate ideological and political institu­ or visual arts. 250­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; tions. Submissions may consider interruption Sacrality, Embodiment, Enlightenment. Debra J. Ochoa (debra .ochoa@ trinity .edu). in literary or nonliterary contexts. 250–300­ Strategies of erotic embodiment (literary, cul­ tural, artistic, philosophical, scientific) relying Representations of Masculinity in the Late-­ word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Jennifer Rich on intersections between the forms of sacred 19th-­Century Spanish Novel. Papers that (jennifer.a.rich@ hofstra .edu). and Enlightenment values in 18th­century Rhys, Pathology, Colonialism, Modernism. explore representations of masculinity/mas­ France. Half­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Mla­ culinit ies in the Spanish mid­ to late­19th­ Pathology in works of Jean Rhys in relation den Kozul (mladen .kozul@ mso .umt .edu). century novel. 1­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Eva to colonialism, modernism, or both: trauma, Maria Copeland (copelane@ dickinson .edu). aphasia, masochism, etc.; papers on the early Marjane Satrapi across Cultures. Examina­ novels and short stories encouraged. 1­page tions of Satrapi, focusing on interplays of Representations of the Body in Modern intimate or public politics, text/ graphics, East/ American Fiction. Exploring the body as a abstracts by 10 Mar.; Carol A. Dell’Amico (cdellamico@ csub .edu). West, etc. Considerations of pedagogy, Iranian site for negotiating theoretical, narrative, and cultures, global­local audiences, immigration, cultural tensions in American fiction between Rights to Inspection: Derridian Views of intersections—gender, class, age—encouraged. the world wars. 500­word abstracts by 5 Mar.; the Novel. Viewing the novel as social com­ 2­page, double­spaced abstracts by 1 Mar.; Co­ Laura Tanner (laura .tanner@ bc .edu). mentary, viewing social commentary as being lette M. Morrow (colettemorrow@ aol .com). Reproduction Technologies and Contem-­ novel; presentation and perception perspec­ tives. Titles, extended abstracts, and equip­ Scotland, Ireland, Environment. Ecocriti­ porary Culture. Intersections between cism, urban ecology, representations of “na­ contemporary culture (e.g., texts by Mulisch ment requests by 27 Feb.; Gregorio Morales (silver4image@hotmail .com). ture,” and the environmental politics of small or Houellebecq or films such as Matrix or nations in Scottish and Irish studies. Abstracts existenz) and current reproduction technolo­ Romantic Destruction: Violence in Lit-­ by 15 Mar.; Matthew Wickman (matthew_ gies. 1­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Christine erature around 1800. Contributions on all wickman@ byu .edu). Kanz (christinekanz1@ mac .com). aspects of violence in Romanticism, e.g., The Secret of Chocolate: Exotic and Erotic perceived or real crisis in culture, inter­ Rethinking Cold War Eastern European Dis-­ Elixir. Exploring contemporary women writ­ disciplinary and gender aspects. 250–300­ sidence. Papers addressing Eastern European ers’ use of chocolate as an exotic, erotic, or word proposals by 1 Mar.; Martina G. Luke dissident cultural politics, literature, theater, even magical substance in fiction, nonfiction, (martina .luke@ uconn .edu). and cinema, with special attention to issues drama, film, and poetry. 250­word abstracts of nation, transnationalism, and gender. Romantic Geopolitics. Napoleon and Claus­ by 15 Mar.; Judy Hayden (jhayden@ ut .edu). 250­word abstracts by 6 Mar.; Narcisz Fejes witz invented the theory and practice of geo­ (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 2

(continued from previous page) Teaching Graphic Novels/ Memoirs in Litera-­ ise Welsh, others. 1­page proposals, vitae by ture Classes. Papers may discuss pedagogy, 1 Mar.; Caroline McCracken­Flesher (cmf@ Sexualities after Orientalism. How have the methodology, course plan, use of technology, uwyo .edu). emergent realities of globalization and empire genre, and students’ responses. 1­page ab­ Water from Virginia Woolf. The session will transformed the possibilities—the uses and stracts and 2­page vitae by 1 Mar.; Lan Dong include meanings involving the suicide of Vir­ limitations—of postcolonialist analyses for (baerchendong@ yahoo .com). ginia Woolf in relation to water. 500­word ab­ sexuality studies? Any geographical context Teaching Naguib Mahfouz. Approaches to stracts by 15 Mar.; Catherine Berg (bergblane@ welcome. Abstracts and vitae by 10 Mar.; teaching Mahfouz in any language or me­ aol .com). Amal Amireh (aamireh@ gmu .edu). dium. 300­word abstracts and brief vitae by What Is an Explorer? How have different Sexuality and Place in Film. Papers address­ 15 Mar.; Waïl S. Hassan (whassan@ uiuc .edu). dimensions of authorship (authorization, ing connections between gender, sexual­ Textual Transcription. As an aesthetic­ individualization, circulation, institutional ity, embodiment, and location in cinematic methodological practice, transcription ap­ domains) intersected with and informed those production, distribution, exhibition, and pears in many disciplines. Papers that discuss of exploration and voyaging in the 18th and reception. 1­page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Brian particular uses of transcription. Possible 19th centuries? Abstracts by 10 Mar.; Adriana Bergen­Aurand (brian@ ntu .edu .sg). topics: transcribed literary texts, philosophi­ Craciun (a.craciun@ bbk .ac.uk). Sex with James Spader: Impotence, Devi-­ cal lectures, anthropological fieldwork, etc. What Is Christian Scholarship Anyway? ance, and Images of Male Sexuality in E­mail 250­word abstracts. by 15 Mar.; Jon Religious, spiritual, and biblical referents cur­ American Film. How does Spader, both Cotner (j.cotner@ rocketmail .com) and Andy rently abound. Yet what constitutes Christian cinematically beautiful and abject, represent Fitch ([email protected]). scholarship? Papers might address historical male sexuality in American cinema? 250­word Torture and Interrogation: Historical Per-­ and contemporary understandings, peda­ abstracts by 10 Mar.; Sharon Becker (sharon spectives. Before 24: The representation or gogical perspectives, and noncanonical ap­ .becker@ cgu .edu). cultural status of torture and interrogation proaches. 250­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Caryl Shaw and His Contemporaries. Bernard in any period—Dante to Shakespeare, Bec­ McFarlane (carylmcfarlane@ yahoo .com). Shaw (1856–1950) and his authorial or per­ caria to Tarantino. 350–500­word abstracts What’s Post-­ the Postmodern? Papers ad­ sonal relations with his contemporaries. by 10 Mar.; Robert W. Epstein (repstein@ mail dressing any aspect of the question “What’s Interest in modernism welcome. Papers inter­ .fairfield .edu). post­ the postmodern?” Particular interest: ested in figures outside literary and dramatic Transfeminism and the Dialectics of analysis of works, performance, phenomena, contexts also welcome. 250­word abstracts by Sexuality: Beyond “Gender Trouble” and and theory suggesting pathways post­. E­mail 15 Mar.; Charles J. Del Dotto (cjd@ duke .edu). (Im)Materiality. Papers on materialist analyt­ 500­word abstracts (no attachments) by 1 Mar.; Sincerity and Authenticity. Papers that re­ ics, class, feminism, and the continuing use of Shelley Salamensky (ss@ tft .ucla .edu). vive and redefine sincerity and authenticity (trans)gender and (poly)sexuality as instru­ Where Nation and Empire Converge: The as critical approaches to the contemporary ments of exploitation in capitalism. Abstracts Panama Canal as Text. Comparative panel American lyric poem. 300­word abstracts and by 12 Mar.; Jennifer M. Cotter (jcotter@ ucla highlighting how writings about the canal by vitae by 1 Mar.; Bryan Walpert (b.walpert@ .edu). United States, Latin American, French, and massey .ac.nz). Uncertainty as the Class Logic of Reading. Caribbean authors explore nation and empire Sixteenth-­Century Spanish Dialogues. Pa­ Papers analyzing the growing tendency to building. Abstracts by 5 Mar.; Frances Betty pers that discuss the premodern genre of the celebrate uncertainty in literary and cultural Jaeger (fjaeger@ niu .edu). dialogue set in Spain or in the New World. interpretations, engaging the material roots of Why Caged Birds Mask Melancholy in Papers may explore dialogues from literary, certainty about uncertainty. 1–2­page abstracts Jingles in Broken Tongues: Unmasking the political, or historical perspectives. Detailed by 7 Mar.; Robert Faivre (faivrer@ sunyacc .edu). Protest Literature of Paul L. Dunbar. Critical abstracts by 1 Mar.; Monique Dascha Inciarte Undoing Heterosexuality: Rethinking explorations of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s racial (dascha@ berkeley .edu). Marriage in the Canterbury Tales. Papers protest literature. 350–500­word abstracts by Slavery, Race, and Historically White Col-­ addressing the relation between marriage 1 Mar.; Pearlie Peters (petersp@ rider .edu). leges and Universities. Following Brown and sexuality and sociality in the Canterbury Wilde and the Jew. Papers addressing any University’s self­study, how do historically Tales. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Glenn D. Burger relation of Wilde to the Jew. Particular inter­ white colleges and universities make peda­ (gburger@ gc .cuny .edu). est: associations of Wilde with notions of gogical reparation 200 years after the inter­ Urban Space and 20th-­Century British Po-­ the Jew. Also: Yiddish, Hebrew translations/ national slave trade? 250–400­word abstracts etry. How does 20th­century British poetry productions. E­mail 500­word abstracts (no and 2­page vitae by 1 Mar.; Simon K. Lewis participate in the production of urban space? attachments) by 1 Mar.; S. I. Salamensky (ss@ (lewiss@ cofc .edu). Discussions of poetry readings, publication, tft .ucla .edu). Gertrude Stein’s Late Work. Papers on any or techniques such as collage or parataxis en­ Women as Nomadic Intellectuals in Contem-­ aspect of Stein’s work (all genres) from the couraged. Half­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Todd porary Ethnic American Fiction. Intellectual ’30s and ’40s. Focus on history, politics, or war Thorpe (thorpe.11@ nd .edu). nomadism as a discourse of shifting geo­ especially encouraged. Abstracts, vitae by Using Black Literature to Enhance Student graphical and conceptual boundaries in the 7 Mar.; Kristin Bergen (kristin .bergen@ gmail Writing. As teachers of both literature and global age when gender and ethnicity overlap. .com). writing, how can we use African American lit­ 200­word abstracts by 10 Mar.; Ruxandra Rad­ Subversive Francophone Narrators. Read­ erature to enhance student writing proficiency ulescu (ruxandra_ radulescu04@ yahoo .com). ing contemporary Francophone novels is and academic identity construction? 250­word Women’s Mythmaking and Myth Breaking: often hindered by the narrator. This session abstracts by 15 Mar.; T. J. Geiger (geiger .tj@ Rewriting of the Father Texts. Revisioning explores works whose subversive enunciation gmail .com). existing texts, the female author assumes the moves the focus away from the story and to­ Voodoo and zora Neale Hurston. Treatment role of a mythmaker or myth breaker. Papers ward storytelling. Proposals by 1 Mar.; Benoît of voodoo, Haiti, and West African traditional might analyze women’s writing that decon­ Trudel (btrudel@ uwo .ca). religions in Hurston’s Their eyes Were Watching structs existing texts and myths. 250­word Subverting the Bourgeois. How have Ger­ god. 1­page abstracts or papers by 15 Mar.; La abstracts by 15 Mar.; Purnur Ucar­Ozbirinci man authors and artists played with and ques­ Vinia Delois Jennings (laviniaj@ utk .edu). (purnur@ gmail .com). tioned bourgeois ideas and values since the Watching the (Scottish) Detectives. Sherlock Women Write the French Resistance. French 19th century? Papers should combine works of Holmes’s literary origins are Scottish. Devel­ women confronting the Nazi occupation: e.g., literature and art. 1­page abstracts by 8 Mar.; opment of detective fiction through Scotland’s Lucie Aubrac, Claire Chevrillon, Virginia Esther Kirsten Bauer (ebauer@ uwsp .edu) and narratives of criminality and control: Doyle, D’Albert­Lake, Charlotte Delbo, Ursule Molin­ Richard Ruppel (rruppel@ uwsp .edu). Buchan, Rankin, Fleming, Irvine Welsh, Lou­ aro, Irene Nemirovsky, and oral histories by MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 2

Comparative Literature and Media Studies: Convergence or Opposition? As compara­ tive literature looks beyond the book, media studies turn to “remediation,” supported by a common digital base. What dialogue now be­ comes possible? 100­word proposals by 1 Mar.; Haun Saussy (haun .saussy@ yale .edu).

OSCAREINZIG PHOTOGRAPHY AMERICAN HUMOR STUDIES ASSOCIATION “Fun” de Siècle: 21st-­Century Humor. Today’s humor is markedly different from that of cen­ turies past. Examinations of 21st­century hu­ mor in any genre. 100–250­word proposals by 14 Mar.; Roxanne Schwab (schwabry@ slu .edu). Gender Bent: Humor and the Sexes. Is humor gender­neutral, or does comedy come with in­ herent male or female biases? Explorations of gender and humor. 100–250­word proposals by 14 Mar.; Roxanne Schwab (schwabry@ slu .edu).

AMERICAN NAME SOCIETy Two Open Sessions. Fields may include literature, literary theory, philosophy, linguis­ tics, geography, sociology, history. Panels may be organized on single authors or subjects. Sandy Shinner, speaker at the session “Playwriting in Chicago, 1950–2006.” 150­word abstracts by 7 Mar.; Kemp Williams (kempw@ us .ibm .com).

Margaret Collins Weitz. 1­page abstracts by lonial and postcolonial encounters. Proposals AMERICAN PORTUGUESE STUDIES ASSOCIATION 10 Mar.; T. Mera Moore Lafferty (tmlaffer@ sas by 1 Mar.; Dana Renga (Renga.1@ osu .edu). .upenn .edu). The Changing Faces of Performance. Defin­ AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIAN ing how the past few years have shaped per­ Word Periodicity and Phrasal Discourse LITERARy STUDIES formance in Portuguese­speaking circles, its of Dickens. Tracking the effects of class, Contemporary Australian Fiction. Papers production, reception, and theories. 150­word economy, and success on the English writer; exploring from any appropriate critical per­ abstracts and vitae by 15 Mar.; Kathryn M. change documented through word use spective noteworthy works of contemporary Sanchez (ksanchez2@ wisc .edu). frequency and sentence structures. 300­ fiction. 500­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Theo­ Translating Theory. Papers exploring pro­ word abstracts by 21 Feb.; Gregorio Morales dore F. Sheckels (tsheckel@ rmc .edu). cesses of translation and transculturation (silver4image@hotmail .com). Revisiting Australian “Classics.” Papers of theoretical concepts, frameworks, and Writing as Material Culture. Papers that ad­ exploring the “classics” of Australian litera­ approaches in the context of Portuguese­ dress the status of writing in material culture ture from new critical perspectives, including speaking cultures. 150­word abstracts and studies. Does material culture implicitly ex­ papers that discuss what works may or may vitae by 15 Mar.; Anna Klobucka (aklobucka@ clude the written word? What would a mate­ not be “classics.” 500­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; umassd .edu). rial history of writing look like? Abstracts by Theodore F. Sheckels (tsheckel@ rmc .edu). 1 Mar.; Zak Sitter (sitterz@ xavier .edu). ASSOCIATION DES AMIS D’ANDRé GIDE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSORS Gide lecteur, lecteurs de Gide. Papers in Writing Pedagogies Abroad. Papers should OF yIDDISH French or English exploring Gide as reader, explore the pedagogies, practicalities, or meth­ American Jewish Literature: Its Founders. Gide’s readers, or both. 1­page abstracts by ods for teaching writing in an international Malamud, Bellow, Roth, Ozick, Paley, among 10 Mar.; Jocelyn Christine Van Tuyl (vantuyl@ context. 1–2­page abstracts and short vitae by others: their contemporaries and their fol­ ncf .edu). 1 Mar.; Ann E. Green (agreen@ sju .edu). lowers. Proposals by 15 Mar.; Evelyn Avery ASSOCIATION FOR BUSINESS Writing the Strike. The San Francisco general (eavery@ towson .edu). COMMUNICATION strike of 1934 galvanized the labor movement yiddish Literature: Its Founders. Mendele, and inspired the movement’s “cultural front.” Writing Business: The Business of Writing. Perets, Sholem Aleykhem: their contem­ Papers on business writing may discuss or This session will examine the literature in­ poraries and their followers. Proposals by fluenced by the general strike. Abstracts by push boundaries of pedagogy, methodology, 15 Mar.; Alan Astro (aastro@ trinity .edu). research, technology, and genre. 500­word ab­ 10 Mar.; Richard W. Hancuff (cuff@ gwu .edu). AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS OF stracts by 15 Mar.; Katherine V. Wills (kwills@ iupui .edu). Allied and Affiliate Organizations SLAVIC AND EAST EUROPEAN LANGUAGES Literature and Educators: Rousseau, Tolstoy, ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDy OF AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR and Others. Papers investigating relations be­ AMERICAN INDIAN LITERATURES ITALIAN STUDIES tween literature and education as presented Digital NDNs: Pedagogies for American In-­ Intermedia Encounters: Beyond the Logic of in works and activities of J.­J. Rousseau, dian Writing/ Literature in the 21st Century. Adaptation. Papers that push boundaries of L. Tolstoy, and other writers and educators. by Papers should focus on teaching American adaptation criticism, especially the way con­ 15 Mar.; Ilya Vinitsky (ivinitsk@ sas .upenn .edu). Indian writing/ literature using digital spaces temporary intermedia encounters contribute AMERICAN COMPARATIVE LITERATURE or e­genres: new media, blogs and wikis, Web to the emergence of a new sense of time and ASSOCIATION sites, etc. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Malea D. Pow­ space. Proposals by 1 Mar.; Eugenio Bolongaro Comparative Literature and Law in an Age ell (powell37@ msu .edu). (eugenio .bolongaro@ mcgill .ca). of Globalism. Papers investigating theoretical Indigenous Aesthetics. Papers that explore Rethinking Multiculturalism in 20th-­ and connections between comparative literature the distinctive poetics and aesthetics of Native 21st-­Century Italian Literature, Philosophy, and transnational legal thinking in today’s American writing (e.g., tribal rhetorics, indi­ and Film. Travel writing, works focusing on world. 250­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Sandra L. genizations of colonial literary forms, genres, migration (to, from, and within Italy), and co­ Bermann (sandralb@ princeton .edu). (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 2

(continued from previous page) tion in popular culture in his lifetime and FEMINISTAS UNIDAS beyond. 300­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Tom Theories of Viewing Women, Women View-­ and languages). 250­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Mole (tom .mole@ mcgill .ca). ing: Representation and Subjectivities. Susan Berry Brill de Ramirez (brill@ bradley Analyses of visual texts, including art, car­ .edu) and Sean Teuton (steuton@ wisc .edu). CHILDREN’S LITERATURE ASSOCIATION toons, comics, Web sites, tabloids, YouTube, Children’s Literature and the Legal System. commercials, video clips, photography, etc. ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDy OF Intersection of children’s books or media and Papers in English, Spanish, or Portuguese. Ab­ LITERATURE AND THE ENVIRONMENT legal systems: authors’ portrayals of law, legal stracts by 15 Mar.; Maryellen Bieder (bieder@ “Forgive Us Earth, For We Have Sinned”? cases involving children’s books, children’s indiana .edu). Environmentalism and Religion. Proposals works intended to influence legal systems. Viewing Women, Women Viewing: Rep-­ invited that address any aspect of the topic, 500­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Ramona Ca­ resentations and Subjectivities in Practice. including spiritual environmentalism, nature ponegro (caponera@ english .ufl .edu). writing, hypocrisy, religion and the environ­ Methodological practices in teaching women’s Representations of Disability. mentalist movement, etc. 500­word abstracts Critical and visual culture: art, cartoons, comics, Web sites, by 1 Mar.; Sarah E. McFarland (mcfarlands@ theoretical approaches that examine dis­ tabloids, YouTube, commercials, photography, nsula .edu). ability as it is represented in children’s and etc. Papers in English, Spanish, or Portuguese. young­adult literature. 1–2­page abstracts Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Stacey Schlau (sschlau@ Theorizing Ecocriticism. What framework by 1 Mar.; Keith Dorwick (kdorwick@ yahoo wcupa .edu). might help counter accusations that ecocriti­ .com) and Jennifer Miskec (jennnifer .miskec@ cism lacks theoretical sophistication? Pro­ cnu .edu). MARGARET FULLER SOCIETy posals are invited that theorize methods of Margaret Fuller and Class. American or ecocritical practice from a variety of perspec­ JOHN CLARE SOCIETy OF NORTH AMERICA European class stratifications, conflict, or tives for maximum interdisciplinarity. 500­ John Clare and His Circle. Papers on Clare’s violence; Fuller’s audiences; popular or word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Sarah E. McFarland various contacts and acquaintances: friends, elite genres; reform writings or institutions; (mcfarlands@ nsula .edu). publishers, patrons, correspondents, neigh­ personal contacts; writings on education, bors, and other poets. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; teaching; reviewing working­class writers. ASSOCIATION OF DEPARTMENTS AND Scott J. McEathron (mceath@ aol .com). 1–2­page abstracts, vitae by 15 Mar.; Brigitte PROGRAMS OF COMPARATIVE LITERATURE Bailey (Brigitte .Bailey@ unh .edu). Comparative Literature and Translation PAUL CLAUDEL SOCIETy Studies. Pedagogical innovations or new in­ Claudel et la rencontre des cultures. Clau­ Margaret Fuller and Women’s Work. Analyz­ stitutional arrangements that link programs del’s international and multicultural works ing labor/ employment in America or Europe, and departments of comparative literature and career. Other topics are also welcome. including writing, emotional or spiritual la­ bor, housework, work outside the home; inter­ with translation studies. Also, how and where 15–20­min. papers by 15 Mar.; Nina S. Heller­ preting gender, race, ethnicity, age, geography. are translations published? 250­word propos­ stein (hellerst@ uga .edu). als by 1 Mar.; Sandra L. Bermann (sandralb@ 1–2­page abstracts and vitae by 15 Mar.; Jeffrey princeton .edu). COMMUNITy COLLEGE HUMANITIES Allen Steele (jsteele@ wisc .edu). ASSOCIATION MARGARET ATWOOD SOCIETy GEMELA: GRUPO DE ESTUDIOS SOBRE LA Teaching and Scholarship in the Commu-­ MUJER EN ESPAñA y LAS AMERICAS (PRE-­1800) The Door and Other Atwoodian Spaces. nity College. Papers on the balance of teach­ Colonial and Early Modern Women in Papers exploring various spaces in Atwood’s ing and scholarship in community college Translation: Spain and Latin America (pre-­ works, indoor or outdoor, imagined or real. settings, either reflective essays or reports 1800). A roundtable addressing availability Examinations of The door especially welcome. of case studies. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; George of Hispanic women writers in translation and 250­word abstracts to both chairs by 15 Mar.; Louis Scheper (shepbklyn@ aol .com). Deborah Rosenthal (debbyrosenthal@ comcast the incorporation of their texts into research .net) and Tomoko Kuribayashi (tkuribay@ JOSEPH CONRAD SOCIETy OF AMERICA and teaching. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Sarah Ow­ uwsp .edu). Conrad and Modernism Revisited. New ens (owenss@ cofc .edu). Modern Myths and Popular Culture in At-­ perspectives on Conrad. Possible topics: glo­ La mujer y la palabra: Women’s Writing and wood’s Works. Papers on modern myths and balization and the proliferation of empire, re­ Education in Spain and the Americas (pre-­ popular culture in Margaret Atwood’s works. cent psychoanalytic or scientific perspectives, 1800). Papers that represent or incorporate re­ 250­word abstracts to both chairs by 15 Mar.; new concepts of modernism, etc. Abstracts by cent notable scholarship in the field. Abstracts Karma Waltonen (kjwaltonen@ ucdavis .edu) 12 Mar.; Andrea White (awhite305@ sbcglobal by 1 Mar.; Sarah Owens (owenss@ cofc .edu). .net). and Denise Du Vernay (marzipanjoy@ yahoo GL/Q CAUCUS FOR THE MODERN .com). Conrad’s Haunted Imagination. Conrad’s LANGUAGES works are haunted by ghosts, ghouls, vam­ SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR SOCIETy Privacy, Gay Rights, Gay Lives. Papers on pires, etc. What are their narrative and ideo­ any aspect of the topic, including “private” Session of the Simone de Beauvoir Society. logical functions, especially vis­à­vis empire, Submissions on any aspect of the life and faculty lives, public articulation of gay identi­ modernity, or gender? Abstracts by 12 Mar.; ties, outing and “privacy” of literary figures, works of Simone de Beauvoir. 500­word ab­ Richard Ruppel (rruppel@ chapman .edu). stracts by 10 Mar.; Yolanda Astarita Patterson privacy as a legal concept. 1­page abstracts by (guyyopat@ aol .com). DICKENS SOCIETy 15 Mar.; Sally E. O’Driscoll (sodriscoll@ mail .fairfield .edu). Dickens and Science. Significance of science SAMUEL BECKETT SOCIETy in the novels; essays on science in Household NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE SOCIETy Local and Global Beckett: Two Sessions. Words and All the Year Round; Dickens and Hawthorne and Emerson. All interpretations Session 1: Relation and tensions between Darwinism; Dickens and technology; Dick­ Beckett’s use of local and gobal elements: ter­ of this topic. 1–2 page­abstracts for 20­min. pa­ ens and medicine/ sanitation/ health. Ab­ pers by 1 Mar.; Sam Coale (samcoale@ cox .net). rain, ideology, cultural practices. Session 2: stracts and brief vitae by 1 Mar.; Sally Ledger Beckett’s influence on and legacy to specific (s.ledger@ bbk .ac.uk). Hawthorne as Storyteller. All interpretations novelists. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Linda Ben­Zvi of this topic. 1–2­page­abstracts for 20­min. pa­ (lindabz@ post .tau .ac.il). Victorian Vulgarity. Victorian vulgarity pers by 1 Mar.; Sam Coale (samcoale@ cox .net). in contexts such as class and race relations; ByRON SOCIETy OF AMERICA decorum; taste; language use; the body, dirt, LANGSTON HUGHES SOCIETy Byron and/as/in Popular Culture. Byron’s sexuality, and disgust; assessments of verbal, Langston Hughes, American Intellectuals, fascination with popular culture; his repre­ visual, and performance art. Abstracts and and the Loss of Civil Liberties in the Mc-­ sentation of it; Byron as a populist; Byronic brief vitae by 1 Mar.; Elsie B. Michie (enmich@ Carthy Era. Connecting Hughes’s writing artifacts and commodities; Byron’s appropria­ lsu .edu). with that of other intellectuals who fell into MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 27 the 1950s McCarthy dragnet. 1­page abstracts INTERNATIONAL VLADIMIR ing’s work. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Alice Ridout and biographies by 7 Mar.; Dellita Martin­ NABOKOV SOCIETy (a.ridout@ leedsmet.ac.uk) and Robin E. Visel Ogunsola (dellita@ uab .edu). Nabokov and the Paradoxes of Repetition. (robin .visel@ furman .edu). Meditations on “[a]rtistic originality has only Doris Lessing: Critical and Media Recep-­ INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF its own self to copy” vs. “fantastic recurrence GALDóS SCHOLARS of certain situations.” Detailed abstracts for tion. “Oh Christ!”: Reception of Doris Lessing, Benito Pérez Galdós and Emilia Pardo Ba-­ 15­min. papers by 15 Mar.; Zoran Kuzmano­ Nobel laureate. Critical and media reception of zán: Personal Relations and Literary Dia-­ vich (zokuzmanovich@ davidson .edu). Lessing’s work in the wake of 2007 Nobel Prize logue. Interconnections between the lives and and previously. 500­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Open Session. Papers on any aspect of Nabo­ Judith Kegan Gardiner (gardiner@ uic .edu). works of the two authors. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; kov’s work. Detailed abstracts for 15­min. Linda M. Willem (lwillem@ butler .edu). papers by 15 Mar.; Julian Connolly (jwc4w@ G. E. LESSING SOCIETy Galdós and Religion. Religion in Galdós’s virginia .edu). Lessing’s Orient. Possible foci might include works and as a cultural­historical context of KAFKA SOCIETy OF AMERICA Lessing’s near east, middle east, far east, or his times. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Alan Smith any other east or orient in Lessing’s works. (aesmith@ bu .edu). Kafka, Brecht, and Labor. Kafka’s Amtliche Schriften and his role as a leading practi­ Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Anthony L. Krupp (krupp@ miami .edu) and Steve Martinson INTERNATIONAL BOETHIUS SOCIETy tioner of labor insurance; Kafka’s influence (martinso@ u .arizona .edu). New Directions in Boethian Studies. Papers on Brecht’s works and theories about labor. featuring new approaches to the works of 500­word abstracts by 18 Mar.; Marie Luise Open Topic. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Anthony L. Boethius, Boethius studies, and Boethius’s Krupp (krupp@ miami .edu) and Steve Martin­ reception. An interdiciplinary approach is son (martinso@ u .arizona .edu). especially welcome. 1–1.5­page abstracts for LyRICA SOCIETy FOR WORD-­MUSIC 20­min. papers by 1 Mar.; Philip Phillips RELATIONS (pphillip@ mtsu .edu). Adaptations. Papers should focus on musico­ INTERNATIONAL BRECHT SOCIETy literary genres, considering how specific ad­ Brecht and Kafka. These two modernists aptation processes or products express larger par excellence became entangled in systemic OSCAREINZIG PHOTOGRAPHY contexts of reception, cultural development, crosshairs of Cold War suspicion and invec­ and sociohistorical predicaments. Proposals tive. Papers welcome on intersections via or abstracts by 15 Mar.; Nassim Balestrini Benjamin, avant­gardism, parable form, myth. (balestri@uni­mainz .de). Abstracts by 23 Mar.; Marc David Silberman Willa Cather and Music. Papers may address (paul .peters@ mcgill .ca). any aspect of Cather’s relation to music and Brecht and/on Censorship. Brecht’s com­ musicians or the representation of music in ments on and experiences with censorship her work. Proposals or abstracts by 15 Mar.; and self­censorship mark his entire oeuvre. Leslie Dunn (dunn@ vassar .edu). Papers welcome on how we evaluate today his concerns with censorship in the public sphere. MARLOWE SOCIETy OF AMERICA Abstracts by 23 Mar.; Peggy Setje­Eilers Two Sessions. Papers on any aspect of Mar­ (peggy.setje­eilers@ vanderbilt .edu). lowe studies or of other Renaissance drama­ tists (excluding Shakespeare) of the 1580s and INTERNATIONAL SPENSER SOCIETy 1590s. Detailed abstracts or 15­min. papers by Edmund Spenser: Open Session. Papers 1 Mar.; Roslyn Knutson (rlknutson@ ualr .edu). welcome on any aspect of Edmund Spenser’s prose and poetry. 1­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE Katherine Eggert (Katherine .Eggert@ colorado DRAMA SOCIETy .edu). Robert Barsky, speaker at the session “A Conversation Performing Conquest, Colonization, and with Robert Barsky, Alex Beam, david B. Marshall, Resistance in Medieval Europe. Papers that Spenser’s Environs: A Roundtable Discus-­ Carlos Monsiváis, and Bruce W. Robbins.” engage postcolonial theories in investigat­ sion. Environments organic, constructed, ing medieval performance subjects in order affective, auditory, fantastic. Spaces, places, to elaborate on performative power relations landscapes, ecologies, architectures, geogra­ Caputo­Mayr (mlcaputomayr@ hotmail .com) in premodern societies. Interdisciplinarity phies, heterotopias. How do poems reveal, and Judith Ryan (jryan@ fas .harvard .edu). encouraged. 250­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; revise, or create their environs? Nominations/ D. H. LAWRENCE SOCIETy OF Christopher Swift (cswift@ gc .cuny .edu). suggestions for speakers by 1 Mar.; Joseph NORTH AMERICA Campana (jac4@ rice .edu). Renaissance Medievalisms in Performance. D. H. Lawrence and Violence. Topics may Renaissance performance often constructed INTERNATIONAL VIRGINIA WOOLF SOCIETy include physical, emotional, verbal, spiritual, or reimagined the Middle Ages. Where can political, or other violence and the interplay Orlando’s “House Was No Longer Hers En-­ we find evidence of such medievalism in among them. 500­word abstracts or 8­page tirely”: Property in Woolf. New theoretical or play texts or other aspects of the theatri­ sociohistorical approaches to representations papers by 15 Mar.; Elizabeth M. Fox (emfox@ mit .edu). cal enterprise? 1­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; of real, personal, and intellectual property in Carolyn Coulson­Grigsby (coulsongrigsbyc@ Woolf’s fiction, nonfiction, and biographical Masculinities in Lawrence. Models of mas­ centenarycollege .edu). materials. 500­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Ja­ culinity implicit or explicit in Lawrence’s mie L. McDaniel (jlm25@ case .edu). work. Considerations of tensions and evolu­ MILTON SOCIETy OF AMERICA tion in the models are encouraged. 500­words Troping the Light Fantastic: Woolf, Desire, John Milton at 400: A General Session (I). abstract or 8­page paper by 15 Mar.; Elizabeth 1­page abstracts or 8­page papers by 15 Mar.; and Pleasure. Desire, pleasure, and intimacy M. Fox (emfox@ mit .edu). used to treat topics rarely associated with sex Kristin Pruitt (cwdurham@ msn .com). and sexuality: creativity, inspiration, ways DORIS LESSING SOCIETy John Milton at 400: A General Session (II). of knowing, politics, spirituality. 500­word Doris Lessing and Human Rights. Compara­ 1­page abstracts or 8­page papers by 15 Mar.; abstracts by 15 Mar.; Brenda Helt (helt0010@ tive and theoretical approaches are welcome Margaret Arnold (mjarnold@ ku .edu). umn .edu). as well as proposals focusing only on Less­ (continued on next page) MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 28

(continued from previous page) wlu .edu) and Rodica Ieta (rodica.ieta@ political allegory, women’s utopian form. Ab­ murraystate.edu). stracts by 15 Mar.; Mihoko Suzuki (msuzuki@ NORTH AMERICAN SOCIETy FOR THE mail .as.miami .edu). STUDy OF ROMANTICISM GEORGE SAND ASSOCIATION The Romantic Psyche: Discipline and Orga-­ Cosmopolitan Sand, Country Sand. How SOCIETy FOR THE STUDy OF MIDWESTERN nization. Papers on (con)texts—literary, philo­ do experiences of the cosmopolitan and the LITERATURE sophical, scientific, cultural—dealing with country play out in and across George Sand’s Midwest Writers and San Francisco. Stud­ the discipline and organization of knowledge works? What are their aesthetic and political ies on how Midwest writers translate their about the Romantic psyche and Romantic psy­ implications? 2­page proposals by 15 Mar.; experience of place when they move to or visit chology. 500­word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Joel Kathy Richman (krichman@ pacific .edu). San Francisco. Titles and 1–2­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Marilyn Judith Atlas (atlas@ ohio .edu). Faflak (jfaflak@ uwo .ca). George Sand and Literary Traditions. How Romanticism and Comp Lit: Institutional does George Sand position herself in literary Midwest Writers and Western Spaces. We and Phantasmatic Intersections. Papers on history and in her own time? What are the hope to explore the relation of Midwestern the historical, institutional, ideological, and aesthetic and ideological stances she chooses? writers to the West and how Midwestern phantasmatic affiliations and tensions be­ 2­page proposals by 15 Mar.; Cathy Leung writers use the West in their art. Titles and tween the academic fields of comparative lit­ (ckl34@ columbia .edu). 1–2­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Marilyn Judith erature and Romanticism. 2­page abstracts by Atlas (atlas@ ohio .edu). SOCIETy FOR CRITICAL ExCHANGE 1 Apr.; Marc Redfield (marc .redfield@ cgu .edu). Anonymity. Contributions discussing the SOCIETy FOR THE STUDy OF NARRATIVE EUGENE O’NEILL SOCIETy nature and limits of anonymity. How does LITERATURE The Intersection between Art and Politics. anonymity affect reading, writing, teaching, Narrating Conflict in Postindependence Af-­ Papers on the convergence between art and and other professional practices like tenure rican Literature. Papers exploring rhetorical politics as that subject relates to the life and and publication review? How does anonymity strategies in new African literatures concern­ drama of Eugene O’Neill. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; impact critical exchange? 1–2­page abstracts by ing civil war and sectarian conflicts, particu­ Eileen Hermann Miller (GIGGI6000@ aol .com). 1 Mar.; Jeffrey R. Di Leo (editor@ symploke .org). larly comparative analyses and underexplored texts. 500­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; David Emotions. Has focus on feelings and senti­ POPULAR CULTURE ASSOCIATION Mastey (dmastey@ connect .carleton .ca). ments returned to critical inquiry? Are there Presidential Electionspeak. Theoretically particular emotions critics feel? What is the informed analyses of the rhetoric of presiden­ SOCIéTé RENCESVALS, AMERICAN-­ place of emotion in contemporary theories tial politics in the popular media for the 2008 CANADIAN BRANCH like posthumanism and transnationalism? election. 2­page abstracts or 12­page papers by Romance Epic. Topic open, but papers on 1–2­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Jeffrey R. Di Leo 10 Mar.; Liahna Armstrong (lotus@ cwu .edu). images of the East, codicology, and teaching (editor@ symploke .org). the epic in an age of fundamentalism are es­ EzRA POUND SOCIETy SOCIETy FOR GERMAN RENAISSANCE AND pecially invited. 250­word abstracts by 1 Mar.; Pound and the Chicago Renaissance. 500– BAROQUE LITERATURE Mary Jane Schenck (mjschenck@ ut .edu). 1,000­word abstracts by 7 Mar.; Burton Hatlen Demonizations. Literary, textual, and artistic (Hatlen@ maine .edu). SOUTH ASIAN LITERARy ASSOCIATION portrayals of individuals or groups—Jews, Emerging Voices and Trends in South Asian Pound and the Modernist as Decadent. 500– women as witches, other religions, politi­ Literature. New voices and trends, fresh 1,000­word abstracts by 7 Mar.; Burton Hatlen cal enemies, Turks—as contrary to accepted takes on old debates: modernity, civil society, (Hatlen@ maine .edu). norms. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Jonathan Clark violence, social unrest, environment, devel­ (clark@ cord .edu). RADICAL CAUCUS IN ENGLISH AND THE opment, social justice, gender, etc. 500­word MODERN LANGUAGES Open Session. Papers dealing with any as­ abstracts by 15 Mar.; Rajender Kaur (kaurr@ Criminality of the University. Violations pect of the literature and art of the early mod­ wpunj .edu). of academic freedom, supporting Ameri­ ern period of the German­speaking countries Globalization and Culture in South Asia. can imperialism, campus militarization, are welcome. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Jonathan Papers that examine how South Asian cultural increasing inequality, unfair labor practices, Clark (clark@ cord .edu). production like literature and cinema engage student debt. Resistance to these practices. SOCIETy FOR TExTUAL SCHOLARSHIP with the process of globalization. 250­word 1–2­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Michael Bennett abstracts by 15 Mar.; Nivedita Majumdar Editing Spaces in the Known and Unknown (bennett@ liu .edu). (nmajumdar@ jjay .cuny .edu). Worlds. Session will address the theory and Literature of Criminality. Teaching texts that practice of editing spaces, objects, landscapes, WALLACE STEVENS SOCIETy respond to the topics listed above and similar fields, gardens, or environments in a local or Stevens’s Silences. Papers elaborating works concerns: structural violence, exploitation, broad sense. 1­page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Marta in other media to address features of Stevens’s spectres of fascism. Resistance to these prac­ Werner (wernerm@ dyc .edu). poems impossible to capture by direct de­ tices. 1–2­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Michael scription. How do other arts help evoke what Bennett (bennett@ liu .edu). SOCIETy FOR THE HISTORy OF AUTHORSHIP, READING, AND PUBLISHING can be shown but not said? 1­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Charles Altieri (altieri@ berkeley .edu). ROMANIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION Transpacific Traffic. Circulation of books and OF AMERICA other print materials, publishing enterprises MARK TWAIN CIRCLE OF AMERICA Dialogue between Eastern Europe and the and technologies, book culture across the Open Session of the Mark Twain Circle of United States via the Internet. Exploring Asia­Pacific region—both from and to the America. Papers on any subject connecting changes in the fashioning of United States– United States and through other networks. Mark Twain’s life and work to larger issues based diasporic identities in Romanian­ Abstracts by 1 Mar.; David Carter (d.carter1@ in literary and cultural history. 1–2­page ab­ American Internet culture; role of Web sites uq .edu .au). stracts. by 15 Mar.; Bruce Michelson (brucem@ and blogs. 200­word abstracts by 10 Mar.; uiuc .edu). Maria­Sabina Draga Alexandru (msdalexuk@ SOCIETy FOR THE STUDy OF EARLy MODERN WOMEN yahoo .co.uk). EDITH WHARTON SOCIETy Open Topic. Romanian Representations in Film, Theater, Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Mihoko Su­ Edith Wharton and the Other Half. Urban zuki (msuzuki@ mail .as.miami .edu). and the Media. Romanian cultural images poverty in Wharton’s work and life. Interdis­ abroad and at home in theater, film, and mass Women and Politics in the Early Modern ciplinary and literary approaches and connec­ media and critical approaches on film auteurs World. Women and political writing: aristo­ tions to other figures welcome. 250–500­word after communism. 250­word abstracts by cratic and nonaristocratic women and politics abstracts and a 1–2­page vitae by 10 Mar.; Hil­ 15 Mar.; Domnica Radulescu (radulescud@ (courtly and popular culture), women and degard Maria Hoeller (hilhllr@ aol .com). MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 2

WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS SOCIETy MeeTiNgS William Carlos Williams, the Beats, and the San Francisco Scene. Papers are sought 2008 ADE Summer Seminars on Williams’s relation to or influence on any aspect of San Francisco’s rich poetic heritage. Chairs, directors of graduate and undergraduate studies, and other administrators 1­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Erin Templeton from English departments of all types gather annually at the ADE Summer Seminars. (erin .templeton@ converse .edu). Attending seminars affords participants the opportunity to: The Williams of Paterson Book V. Com­ memorating the 50th anniversary of Book V of • establish support networks of trusted colleagues Paterson, 1958, papers sought on this topic or • consult with one another in confidence Williams’s work contemporary with this date. • pass on lore, tips, and lessons learned 1­page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Terence Diggory • collaborate on the best responses to today’s problems (tdiggory@ skidmore .edu). • alert one another to emerging problems and opportunities in administration, cur­ WORDSWORTH-­COLERIDGE ASSOCIATION ricula, and scholarship Romantic Lives and Letters. Essays should ad­ • develop administrative know­how dress the theory and practice of Romantic­ • gather information to take back to their campuses period biography or critically examine the • gain wide perspective on their local situations production of scholarly editions of British Ro­ • lend their individual expertise in support of the ADE’s authority to issue state­ mantic authors. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; James C. ments of best practices, statistical analyses, policy recommendations, and reports McKusick (james .mckusick@ umontana .edu). from the field and to the field ADE Seminar East will take place 5–8 June in Morgantown, West Virginia, and will be hosted by Donald Hall (West Virginia Univ., Morgantown). ADE Seminar West will be held 23–26 June in Santa Fe, New Mexico; David Richard Jones (Univ. of New BiBLiOgRAPHY Mexico) and Neal A. Lester (Arizona State Univ.) will host. Information about programs, registration, and accommodations will be announced MLA Bibliography at the ADE Web site (www .ade .org) and in a brochure that will be mailed to ADE Fellowships members in April. For further information, please write or call David Laurence, Di­ rector, ADE, or Doug Steward, Associate Director, at the MLA office (646 576­5132; The MLA international Bibliography of­ ade@ mla .org), or consult the ADE Web site. fers field bibliography fellowships for a three­year period beginning 1 July 2008 and ending 30 June 2011. The MLA seeks scholars of any level of seniority inter­ ested in training as field bibliography MeeTiNgS fellows and able to deliver at least one hundred citations each year. This oppor­ 2008 ADFL Summer Seminars tunity is open to potential as well as exist­ ing field bibliographers. The MLA will The ADFL summer seminars offer department chairs or their representatives three provide materials and training meetings days of lively discussion, advice on problem solving, and exchange of information at the annual convention as well as at the about pressing issues in the field. Plenary sessions and breakout discussion groups MLA office. Fellows attending training address issues dealing with national trends in foreign languages and the humanities sessions will have their conference regis­ and the nuts and bolts of departmental governance. Seminars also feature preseminar tration fees waived. On completion of the workshops for chairs newly appointed or just completing the first year of their ap­ fellowship, they will receive a stipend of pointment. Seminar West will be held 5–8 June at Stanford University, under the $500 and a certificate at the awards cer­ sponsorship of the Stanford Language Center. Seminar East will be held from 22 to emony during the Presidential Address at 25 June at the University of Virginia. Seminar West will highlight issues in the hu­ the MLA convention. It is hoped that re­ manities, language for writing and talking about literature, the major and graduate cipients of these fellowships will continue training, and personnel issues and the law. Seminar East will include sessions on submitting citations throughout their ca­ fault lines in the department (language and literature, gender, nationality, and lan­ reers. Applications for the 2008 field bibli­ guage variants), curricular change, government language policy, technology and the ography fellowships are due 1 April 2008. humanities, and chairing and the law. Seminar East will also feature workshops on The basic criteria for application are NCATE and changes in AP courses. Speakers and additional topics will be an­ MLA membership, a graduate degree in nounced in the AdFL Bulletin; at the ADFL Web site (www .adfl .org); and in a bro­ a relevant field or enrollment in a gradu­ chure detailing housing, meals, and excursions that will be mailed to ADFL members ate program, and access to scholarly ma­ in early spring. For further information, please write or call Nelly Furman, Director, terial for indexing. Please submit a letter ADFL, or David Goldberg, Associate Director, at the MLA office (646 576­5132; adfl@ of request, including qualifications and mla. org), or consult the ADFL Web site. reasons for applying for the fellowship, and a current résumé or CV to Helen Slavin, MLA international Bibliography, 26 Broadway, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10004­1789 (hslavin@ mla .org). MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 0 CORRESPONDENCE

The MLA Newsletter welcomes correspondence from members of the of Hurricane Katrina, you learned how the AAUP responded association concerning items in previous issues or matters of profes-­ to a region­wide abandonment of good governance practices. sional interest. Writers are asked to limit letters to five hundred words; Conducting that investigation and issuing the report cost us the editor reserves the right to edit letters that exceed five hundred words. about $100,000. We respond to over 1,000 faculty inquiries every year. We To the editor: constantly monitor new technologies and the necessity of guar­ Not long ago the MLA Executive Council made a donation to anteeing academic freedom in a changing world. Our recent the American Association of University Professors’ (AAUP) statement on academic freedom and electronic communication first­ever endowment campaign. The MLA’s gift was more than is a good example. Last year we published recommendations of­ an act of generosity. It was a recognition at once of shared in­ fering increased job security and due process to contingent fac­ terests and values, as well as testimony that our organizational ulty members; we did so not simply out of human decency but responsibilities and capabilities differ. For nearly a hundred because the new regulations were necessary to ensure the aca­ years the AAUP has been the primary source of principled demic freedom of our most vulnerable colleagues, faculty mem­ policy statements about the faculty’s role in higher education. bers whose numbers have vastly increased over a generation. We are the only faculty group that speaks for all disciplines. We And yet we want to do still more. And indeed we must, for are also the only national organization prepared to investigate the humanities are threatened by corporatization and the pres­ violations of academic freedom and shared governance. sure to instrumentalize the curriculum. For all this, we need Those of you who have been reading the informational e­ your assistance. For more information on how you can support mails we began sending to 350,000 faculty members last Sep­ us as individuals, I encourage you to go to the AAUP Web site tember now have an idea of what the MLA’s contribution helps (www.aaup.org). Only our collective work can help protect an support. We opened the academic year by issuing our new industry vulnerable to cultural, political, and financial forces. statement “Freedom in the Classroom,” which was widely de­ No faculty member is an island. We need to work together to bated in the press and on Web sites. The principles it details are reinforce the principles that unite us. particularly critical for humanities disciplines under increas­ ing cultural and financial assault. If you then followed the link Cary Nelson to our massive investigative report on the academic aftereffects President, AAUP

BOOK NeWS Four New MLA Titles Published The MLA published four new titles in December 2007. Teach-­ engaged, traditional realism and the linguistic experimentation ing Nineteenth-­Century American Poetry, the latest volume in of post­Francoist Spain. They are populated by strange char­ the MLA series Options for Teaching, was edited by Paula acters: a man who discovers a passage that connects all the ar­ Bernat Bennett, Karen L. Kilcup, and Philipp Schweighauser. moires on earth, a woman who finds her obsessions to be better Twentieth­century modernism reduced the list of nineteenth­ company than her cats, a vacationer who prefers his pancreas century American poets to Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, to the Bahamas as a destination. Influenced by both Gabriel and (less often) Edgar Allan Poe. The rest were virtually for­ García Marquéz and Franz Kafka and resonant with Freudian gotten. This volume marks a milestone in the resurgence of concepts, Millás’s fiction—ironic, humorous, dreamlike—raises the study of the rest. It features poets, like Henry Wadsworth questions about identity, society, and what is normal. In her in­ Longfellow and Lydia Huntley Sigourney, who were famous in troduction, Pepa Anastasio places Millás in the context of mod­ their day, as well as poets who were marginalized on the basis ern Spain and provides commentary on the style and themes of their race (Paul Laurence Dunbar, Alexander Posey) or their of a contemporary writer whose work has rarely appeared in sociopolitical agenda (Emma Lazarus, John Greenleaf Whittier). English translation. Both the text and translation volumes are It also takes a fresh look at poets whose work has been dis­ available in paperback for $9.95 (MLA members $7.96). missed as sentimental (Frances Osgood), genteel (Oliver Wen­ The ninety­eighth volume in the MLA Approaches to Teach­ dell Holmes), or didactic (William Cullen Bryant). The volume’s ing World Literature series, on the works of Sor Juana Inés de la twenty­two essays are grouped into parts: “Teaching Various Cruz, was edited by Emilie L. Bergmann and Stacey Schlau. Sor Kinds of Poems,” “Teaching Poets in Context,” and “Strategies Juana Inés de la Cruz—a witty, intellectually formidable, and for Teaching.” The fourth part is a selective guide to the field: prolific author—stands as an icon of women’s early writing and an annotated bibliography of editions, anthologies, reference of colonial New Spain. Living in the capital city of seventeenth­ books, biographies, critical studies, and Web resources. The century Mexico, she was located in the center of her world, but, volume costs $40.00 (MLA members $32.00) in cloth and $22.00 as a self­taught, illegitimate, Creole woman and as a nun subject (MLA members $17.60) in paperback. to the authority of male religious leaders, she was also socially “Personality disorders” and Other Stories, a collection of stories marginal within that world. Like other early modern women written by Juan José Millás, is the latest volume in the MLA she took up the pen to challenge gendered norms of the time. In series Texts and Translations. The volume was translated by style and content her works, which draw on baroque stylistics, Gregory B. Kaplan, and the text, “Trastornos de carácter” y otros classical rhetoric, and the natural sciences, are key documents cuentos, was edited by Pepa Anastasio. The stories of Juan José in the development of Western literature. Part 1 evaluates the Millás, who began writing in the 1970s, depart from the socially most useful materials among the wealth of resources available MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 1 for teaching Sor Juana, reviews Spanish­ and English­language editions of her work, DEADLINES highlights audiovisual and electronic resources for teaching, and recommends criti­ cal and historical studies of her writings and her period. The essays in part 2, “Ap­ proaches,” aim to help teachers navigate with students not only the complex networks Fellowships and Grants of meaning found in Sor Juana’s works but also her complicated social world. Con­ The following list includes fellowships and tributors discuss gender and religion in colonial society; the element of the baroque in grants that have deadlines between 1 April Sor Juana’s writing; the variety of ways Sor Juana subverted generic forms to render and 30 June. More specific information, such social criticism; and the relations between her writing and the twenty­first century. as eligibility, description of grants, number The volume costs $37.50 (MLA members $30.00) in cloth and $19.75 (MLA members of grants awarded, and sources for further $15.80) in paperback. details, can be found in the September 2007 Approaches to Teaching Puig’s Kiss of the Spider Woman was edited by Daniel PMLA, pages 1283–314. The arrangement Balderston and Francine Masiello. Manuel Puig’s 1976 novel Kiss of the Spider Woman, is chronological, and each date is followed by translated into English in 1979 and adapted as an Academy Award–winning film, ex­ the major title under which information is panded the idiom of the novel (mixing cinema, fiction, romance, and song) and chal­ listed in the September issue. lenged the third­person narration that was dominant in Latin American Boom fiction. Students are drawn to the conversational style of the novel and the melodramatic APRIL seductions of the tale, but they may need guidance to appreciate the novel’s richness 1 American Philosophical Society as a work of literature. This volume of the MLA’s Approaches to Teaching series sug­ 1 Hemingway Society and Foundation, gests ways instructors can help students grasp the novel’s exploration of state and Smith­Reynolds Founders Fellowships sexual politics and discern the strategies of narration that underlie the conversations 1 Helen Ann Mins Robbins Fellowship between the two main characters. In part 1, “Materials,” the editors discuss versions JUNE and translations of the novel, provide readings and resources, give an overview of the 1 Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies historical and political background of 1970s Argentina, and outline the author’s biog­ of the City University of New York raphy. The thirteen essays in part 2, “Approaches,” written by distinguished scholars 15 Fordham Medieval Fellows Program of Latin American literature, offer close textual analysis, examine the author’s use of 15 National Council of Teachers of cinematic references, and present suggestions for teaching Héctor Babenco’s film ad­ English Research Foundation aptation alongside the written text. The volume costs $37.50 (MLA members $30.00) in cloth and $19.75 (MLA members $15.80) in paperback. To purchase these or other MLA publications, please call customer services (646 576­5161), fax your order (646 576­5160), or place your order through the MLA Web site Classified Advertisements at www .mla .org. The MLA accepts Visa, MasterCard, and American Express. Address all advertisements to MLA Newsletter, MLA, 26 Broadway, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10004-­1789. Checks should be made payable to the Modern Language Association. The rate for advertisements is $3 a word, with a ten-­word minimum. Ads BOOK NeWS must be prepaid. Content and appearance of advertisements are subject to publisher’s Call for Contributions to Approaches Series approval. The publisher does not solicit the items and cannot vouch for their reliability. For the series Approaches to Teaching World Literature, the Publications Committee Members should exercise reasonable has approved development of two new titles, Approaches to Teaching Shakespeare’s The judgment in responding to them. Taming of the Shrew, edited by Grace Tiffany and Margaret Dupuis, and Approaches to Teaching ezra Pound’s Poetry and Prose, edited by Demetres P. Tryphonopoulos. If you wish to contribute to either of these volumes, please visit www .mla .org/ ARTFUL SENTENCES: SYNTAX AS approaches and follow the link to the relevant title. STYLE Virginia Tufte. 308 pages. $16 postpaid in U.S. Graphics Press LLC. 800 822­2454 or www.tufte.com SAN FRANCISCO CONVENTION AND VISITORS BUREAU MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2008 • Page 2

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