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Northeast ModerN LaNguage associatioN FIFTY-SECOND ANNUAL AND FIRST VIRTUAL CONVENTION MARCH 10 –14, 2021 Administrative Host Institution: College of Arts and Sciences, University at Buffalo 2021 Sponsor: Department of Romance Languages, University of Pennsylvania BOARD OF DIRECTORS President Brandi So | New York Institute of Technology First Vice President Bernadette Wegenstein | Johns Hopkins University Second Vice President Joseph Valente | University at Buffalo Past President Carole Salmon | University of Massachusetts Lowell American /Diaspora Studies Director Benjamin Railton | Fitchburg State University British and Global Anglophone Studies Director Thomas Lynn | Penn State Berks Comparative Literature Director Katherine Sugg | Central Connecticut State University Creative Writing, Publishing, and Editing Director Abby Bardi | Prince George’s Community College Cultural Studies and Media Studies Director Maria Matz | University of Massachusetts Lowell French and Francophone Studies Director Olivier Le Blond | University of North Georgia German Studies Director Charles Vannette | University of New Hampshire Italian Studies Director Tiziano Cherubini | Baylor University Professionalization, Composition, and Pedagogy Director Maria Plochocki | City University of New York Spanish and Portuguese Studies Director Victoria L. Ketz | La Salle University CAITY Caucus President and Representative Francisco Delgado | Borough of Manhattan Community College, CUNY Diversity Caucus Representative Jennifer Mdurvwa | University at Buffalo Graduate Student Caucus Representative Dana Gavin | Old Dominion University Women’s and Gender Studies Caucus Representative Justine Dymond | Springfield College Editor of Modern Language Studies Laurence Roth | Susquehanna University 2 CONVENTION STAFF Executive Director Graduate Assistant Carine Mardorossian Ashley Byczkowski University at Buffalo SUNY University at Buffalo SUNY Administrative and Marketing Coordinator University of Pennsylvania Liaisons Derek McGrath Andrea Goulet University at Buffalo SUNY Department of Romance Languages Pauline Carbonnel Exhibits and Professionalization Coordinator Graduate Student Representative Claire Sommers Washington University in St. Louis Lauriane Guihard Graduate Student Representative UNIVERSITY AT BUFFALO GRADUATE FELLOWS Award Fellow Graphic Design and Marketing Fellow Joëlle Carota Jiwon Ohm Awards and Exhibitor Fellow Social Media Fellow Callie Ingram Dana Venerable Convention Fellow Visual Archive Fellow Macy McDonald Valentina Marulanda Editor and Events Fellows Cassandra Scherr Dipanjan Maitra 3 Welcome letter from the President If you’ve logged into the NeMLA membership portal recently, you’ve seen some statistics that may surprise you: NeMLA’s 2021 convention will gather over 2,000 participants — from nearly fifty different countries and over 800 institutions — to populate nearly 500 sessions that include our signature undergraduate student poster session gallery, workshops and professional development events led by our own members, panel sessions, roundtables, and seminars. These numbers, while impressive, are not unprecedented: our membership has been 2,000+ strong for nearly a decade. Most of our members would agree, however, that it’s a conference full of such welcoming and genuine people that it never feels too large. The ways in which our members’ professional alliances span continents, years, and disciplines is somewhat of a hallmark of our character. What is unprecedented is the striking solidarity of our NeMLA community, who have overwhelmingly honored our tradition of gathering in a year beset by fear, social distancing, and grief: emotions that by all accounts should arrest our capacity for reflection. Instead, NeMLA’s members, in numbers that are both profound and heartening, have committed to showing up, supporting one another, and embracing our work as humanists and teachers. The humanities has yet a crucial role to play in our culture and in our communities, and I am so thankful to be a part of an organization that gathers so many who care, so very much, about the world and the lives of those in it. From the Executive Board, all of our Board members, the Executive Director, myself, all of the NeMLA graduate staff, thank you, NeMLA, for showing up for our 2021 Virtual Convention! Our convention theme has been a generative one: “Tradition and Innovation: Changing Worlds Through the Humanities” has spoken to our lives as readers, as teachers, as parents, as neighbors, and as human beings. We’ve navigated a changing world with dramatic demands for innovation. We’ve seen that these radical, necessary innovations are most satisfying when we manage to affirm traditions, connections, and social responsibilities. Change is something we both wield and endure: voices demanding change roared into the center of our national discourse to insist that Black lives do and must matter, while a quick survey of our conference presentation titles reveals a staggering but inexorable fight to thrive has ignited a collective torch. Your work during the pandemic continues to light the way for others in myriad ways, and this virtual Conference feels so much more vital and necessary for its role in helping amplify that work. We are delighted to host, for our Thursday opening address, Professor Jed Esty, author of Unseasonable Youth: Modernism, Colonialism, and the Fiction of Development and Vartan Gregorian Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania. Our Friday keynote event will be given by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jennifer Egan, whose novel Manhattan Beach is the chosen text for our annual NeMLA Reads Together program. I want to thank Jed Esty, Jennifer Egan, and all of our special events speakers, who have graciously demonstrated the most incredible flexibility and cheerful optimism as we’ve worked to stage their talks from afar. 4 NeMLA is always indebted to the spirited and generous contributions of its many volunteers, sponsors, and organizers, and I want to applaud and thank them here. Our host institution, the University of Buffalo, provides us with crucial staffing, organizational, and administrative support. Our local host institution, the University of Pennsylvania and the Romance Languages Department at UPenn, have contributed the time and efforts of their notable scholars, local graduate student assistance, and branding and promotional support in spreading the word about our great conference. The executive Board, comprised of Past President Carole Salmon, First Vice President Bernadette Wegenstein, and Second Vice President Joseph Valente, have faced unique and challenging work in keeping our organization operational and successful in a year shaped by setbacks and unforeseen vulnerabilities. And our Board of Directors have worked diligently to promote an agenda representative of the diverse commitments our members to redefine, chronicle, create, celebrate, and rejuvenate our work as scholars, activists, teachers, healers, and bridge-builders. The most unsung hero of NeMLA is its Executive Director, Carine Mardorossian — not because we do not daily sing her praises, but because no praise could adequately regale a director who devotes countless hours, unremitting dedication, and such a singular focus toward our organization’s well-being as does Carine. Without her service, this conference wouldn’t have been, and her unflagging efforts are all the more visible in a year such as this. Ashley Byczkowski, Derek McGrath, and Claire Sommers, and a talented team of graduate fellows, offer key support to the many initiatives and programs administered by the organization — thank you, all of you, for your generosity and professional contributions. I will close my convention letter by noting that this is a unique and historical moment in our organization’s existence: a year ago, in bustling and beautiful Boston, I never could have imagined my conference theme of tradition, innovation, and changing worlds would meet its culmination in such a poignant, heartwarming state: with a virtual NeMLA conference that is as large — larger even — than any other convention year. Thank all of you for being part of this moment, and for bringing our vibrant, collegial community online together with such enthusiasm and goodwill. Whether this is your first virtual conference, or your tenth, our virtual conference is possible because the friends and colleagues we call NeMLA continue to show up. For NeMLA newcomers, I wish you the warmest possible welcome, and invite you to this of us simply as friends you haven’t yet met. To the inaugural membership of the first-ever virtual NeMLA convention, we thank you for embarking on this virtual adventure with us! I wish you a healthy and rewarding 2021, a relaxing, fun-filled convention, and most of all, I look forward to seeing all of you, IN PERSON, in Baltimore in 2022! See you online, Brandi So President of NeMLA New York Institute of Technology 5 February 2021 Dear NeMLA Members and Colleagues, On behalf of the University at Buffalo,N eMLA’s administrative host institution since 2013, I would like to personally welcome each of you to the 52nd Annual, and first ever virtual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association. This year’s theme, “Tradition and Innovation: Changing Worlds Through the Humanities,” is fitting in a year where nearly every aspect of our daily lives has been altered. Last March, with the swift shift to remote instruction, the University at Buffalo, like our peer institutions, discovered