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Announcements
This page contains announcements and important news of
interest to NEMLA members.
Conferences and Calls for Papers
Upcoming Conferences/Panels of interest to
NEMLA members.
2007 Canadian Association for American Studies Conference
The Americas: Drawing the Lines
Please note: the deadline for proposals has been extended to
August 1. We are also happy to announce our keynote speaker, Walter D. Mignolo.
Please visit our website for more information: http://myweb.dal.ca/js592681/CAAS2007/
CAAS invites proposals for its annual conference to be held
November 8-11, 2007 in Montreal.
Please send 500 word proposals by August 1 2007 to: CAAS 2007
Committee, c/o Christopher Lockett < clockett@mun.ca>.
The conference topic is intended to address the
transformations of the geographic, political, literary, historical, and
generally conceptual space of the "Americas."
Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:
* Borderlines" (geographic and political, or in terms of
identity, othering, and violence, among other topics) * the shaping of
"Americanness" * legal lines: how the law creates divisions within the
state (law and literature approaches also welcome) * lines of identity (racial,
gender, sexual, class, and so on) and their crossings * aesthetic lines--between
high and popular culture, etc. * lines between secular and religious cultures
(within the US and without) * the representation of North American spaces on
maps and in artistic renditions * the segmentation of metropolitan areas and the
development of urban sprawl * NAFTA policies and their effects * literal or
figurative borders * tracing narratives across time or countries * imagined
genealogies * the role of US visual culture in the world (this could include
topics ranging from advertisements, to the images of television news, to film
and visual art, and so on)
This is only a partial list, and CAAS invites proposals from
all areas of American Studies
Please send 500 word proposals by August 1, 2007 to: CAAS
2007 Committee, c/o Christopher Lockett clockett@mun.ca
2007 Modern Language Association Annual
Conference, Philadelphia, PA
December 27-30, 2007
Friday, 29 December
1:45-3:00 p.m., 308, Philadelphia Marriott
Session 460. Opportunities in Publishing, Research Assistance, and Leadership:
Your Regional MLA
Program arranged by the Regional MLAs
Josephine Ann McQuail, Presiding
Panelists and Paper Abstracts:
"Finding Funding at the Regional Level"
--Grady C. Wray, Executive Director
SCMLA, Univ. of Oklahoma
The six regional modern language associations allow scholars an additional
opportunity to present their research at other times throughout the year. They
also afford their members the opportunity to compete for prizes and fellowships
that many times are unavailable from universities within the six distinct
regions. This presentation outlines the many prizes that are
available from the regional MLAs and gives the eligibility requirements as well
as brochures that outline the application process for these awards. The
regional MLA conferences for 2007 are as follows:
Midwest (MMLA): 8-11 November 2007 - Cleveland
North East (NEMLA): 1-4 March 2007 - Baltimore
Pacific Ancient (PAMLA): TBA
South Atlantic (SAMLA) Date TBA - Atlanta
South Central (SCMLA): 1-3 November 2007 - Memphis
Rocky Mountain (RMMLA): 4-6 October 2007 - Alberta, Canada
The Joy of Leading by Following: Business as Unusual in the Postposturing Era
--Catherine Kunce
The personal and professional benefits derived from serving on a regional MLA
board are so numerous and profound that one might expect to expend a great deal
of time and effort in such service. But nothing could be further from
the truth. Indeed, to corrupt unconscionably Winston Churchill
words, "Never have so many done so little and received so much." Whereas
election to other boards might be impossible, one stands an excellent chance of
being elected to a regional board. Whereas the workload on other
service organizations proves onerous, due to executive directors' legendary
industry and due to the innate structure of regional MLA's, the "work"
is at once minimal and pleasurable. Whereas beefing up a CV
frequently requires many hours of research and the production of a published
essay, simply being elected to a regional MLA board offers a leg up to
tenure-track faculty. Additionally, any hiring committee will
consider a graduate student's service on a board a decided plus. Whereas
power maneuvers and dealing with complex issues sometimes make leading other
committees burdensome, clearly delineated duties that benefit fellow scholars
make "leadership" on a regional MLA board both simple and
democratic. In fact, the only downside to serving on a regional MLA
is that the term eventually ends.
MLA Regional Journals: Accountability, Innovation
--Laurence Roth, Susquehanna University
Editor, Modern Language Studies
As with other refereed, academic journals, editing and publishing an MLA
regional journal is fraught with professional, technical, and political
challenges. Foremost among these is maintaining accountability to the board and
the membership of the MLA regional. On a practical level, such accountability is
a necessity. The journal's reason for being is precisely to support the
research, teaching, and learning of its members and to be a site of
intellectual, cultural, and literary exchange. But as the cultural studies
scholar Toby Miller points out, on a theoretical and critical level
"accountability" also underscores the hegemony produced and reinforced
by a professional publication that arbitrates entry and success within a
discipline. While I do not think that Miller is correct in assuming that
journals of profession are inevitably conservative in their approach to
(inter)disciplinary innovation in the work they publish, I do think most editors
unwittingly subscribe to a conservative notion of what a professional journal
should look like. MLA regional journals offer an untapped opportunity for
experimenting with the form and look of an academic journal. Through such
innovation they can offer more avenues for entry and recognition within our
discipline (a goal of the regionals in general), and, at the same time, by
attending to a material signifier of the intellectual work we do they can help
reshape student and laypeople's perceptions of, and uses for, that work.
Plus, final comments by Josephine McQuail.
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