spring 2001 newsletter - modern language association · tions and experience. send nominations or...

N E W S L E T T E RMLA Spring 2001

Volume 33, Number 1

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In This Issue1 Executive Director Search

2 2000 Election Results

3 President’s Column • Sylvia MolloyMoving dialogue

4 Editor’s Column • Phyllis FranklinOctober 2000 employment trends

30 Findings from the MLA Survey ofStaffing in English and ForeignLanguage Departments, Fall 1999

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

CONVENTIONWinners of MLA prizes announced 2Calls for papers for 2001 convention 8ADE and ADFL department chairs’

hotel reservations 29

GOVERNANCERequests for comments on Delegate

Assembly resolutions 7Delegate Assembly meeting summary 32

MEETINGS2001 ADE and ADFL Summer Seminars 29

MLA WEB SITE NEWS 2

Other News and AnnouncementsReport on women in the profession 8MLA parliamentarian 8Correction 29Classified advertisements 35Fellowships and grants deadlines 35Upcoming MLA deadlines 36

JOB ANNOUNCEMENT

Search for New Executive DirectorPhyllis Franklin has announced her intention to retire at the end of her current term as execu-tive director of the association. Accordingly, the MLA Executive Council has established asearch committee, which invites applications for the position. The call for applications follows.

MLA EXECUTIVE DIRECTORUnder the direction of an executive council, the executive director administers the af-fairs of the association, working with a staff of ninety-two full-time employees at theheadquarters office in New York City. As an ex officio member of all MLA committeesand commissions and in conjunction with eight senior directors, the executive directorhas general oversight of the entire range of association publications and activities, in-cluding an annual budget of $12.8 million.

Applicants should combine appropriate financial and administrative experience withsubstantial scholarly credentials in a discipline represented by the MLA. The directormust be responsive to the wide spectrum of interests and concerns of association mem-bers and have a strong sense of the current and long-range needs of the profession andthe humanities. In addition, the director should possess the ability to articulate thescholarly and professional meaning of the association to the public at large, includinggovernment agencies and the many organizations with which the MLA has traditionallycooperated.

Starting date not later than the summer of 2002; salary commensurate with qualifica-tions and experience. Send nominations or résumés to Sylvia Molloy, Chair of the SearchCommittee, Modern Language Association, 26 Broadway, 3rd floor, New York, New York10004-1789. Preference will be given to applications received prior to 15 April 2001.

The MLA is an equal-opportunity employer.

Participants in the Presidential Forum “Creative Collaboration: Alternatives to the Adversarial Academy.” Stand-ing (left to right): Corinne Arraez, Linda Hutcheon, J. Edward Chamberlin, and Levi Namaseb; seated (left toright): Andrea A. W. Lunsford, Lisa Susan Ede, Frances Smith Foster, and Nellie McKay. The photographs hereand on pages 7, 13, 26, and 29 were taken at the 2000 MLA convention in Washington, DC.

New Orleans

2001Calls for papers begin on page 8.

MLA NEWSLETTER • Spring 2001 •

WWW.MLA.ORG

MLA Web Site NewsFeatured•Results of the 1999 MLA survey of

staffing in English and foreign languagedepartments are available in the fea-tured contents section of the MLA Website at http://www.mla.org. The surveyprovides information on staffing prac-tices from 1,988 departments in asearchable format.

New Reports and Documents•MLA Statement on the Significance of

Primary Records (originally published inProfession 95)

•Preserving Research Collections, a Collab-oration between Libraries and Scholars

•Summary of Data from Surveys by theCoalition on the Academic Workforce

Member and 2001 ConventionInformation•Calls for papers•Special-session proposal forms for the

2001 convention in New Orleans•Membership renewal•Publications information and sales•What’s the Word? (MLA radio series

streamed for modem or high-speedconnection)

2000 Election ResultsIn the elections conducted last fall, MaryLouise Pratt (Spanish, Stanford Univ.) waselected second vice president of the asso-ciation. Pratt will serve in that office in2001, will become first vice president in2002, and will succeed to the office ofpresident in 2003.

Judith Butler (Univ. of California, Berke-ley), Rey Chow (Brown Univ.), and TeyDiana Rebolledo (Univ. of New Mexico)were elected members of the ExecutiveCouncil for the term 2001–04. Butler andChow represent fields defined as “other”by the MLA constitution (art. 8.A.5), andRebolledo represents the field of Spanish.

Fifty-one new representatives wereelected to the Delegate Assembly. Sixteendelegates were elected to represent special-interest categories in the assembly, andthirty-five delegates were elected to repre-sent seven geographical regions in theUnited States and Canada. The names ofDelegate Assembly members will appearin the September 2001 PMLA.

In addition, eighty-four members wereelected to the division executive commit-tees. Their names will also appear in theSeptember 2001 PMLA.

The MLA Newsletter (ISSN 0160-5720) is published four times a year (Spring, Summer, Fall,Winter) by the Modern Language Association of America, 26 Broadway, 3rd floor, New York,New York 10004-1789. The MLA Newsletter is edited by the executive director of theassociation, Phyllis Franklin. The managing editor is Judy Goulding. The cost of an annualsubscription is $6. The subscription price is included in the dues of all members of theassociation. Periodicals postage paid at New York, NY, and at additional mailing offices.All news items and letters should be sent to the MLA Newsletter at the above address.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to MLA Newsletter, 26 Broadway, 3rd floor, NewYork, NY 10004-1789.

CONVENTION

Winners of MLA Prizes AnnouncedThe winners of ten annual prizes and four biennial awards given by the MLA were rec-ognized at the 2000 MLA convention in Washington, DC. Sylvia Molloy, first vice presi-dent of the association, announced and presented the prizes at a ceremony preceding thePresidential Address on 28 December.

William Riley Parker Prize: Rita Felski, “Nothing to Declare: Identity, Shame, and theLower Middle Class” (PMLA, January 2000)

James Russell Lowell Prize: Mary Baine Campbell, Wonder and Science: Imagining Worldsin Early Modern Europe (Cornell University Press)

Modern Language Association Prize for a First Book: Srinivas Aravamudan, Tropico-politans: Colonialism and Agency, 1688–1804 (Duke University Press). Honorable Mentions:Ian Baucom, Out of Place: Englishness, Empire, and the Locations of Identity (Princeton Uni-versity Press), and Yopie Prins, Victorian Sappho (Princeton University Press)

Kenneth W. Mildenberger Prize: Guy Cook, Language Play, Language Learning (OxfordUniversity Press)

Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize: A. Suresh Canagarajah, Resisting Linguistic Imperialism in En-glish Teaching (Oxford University Press)

Howard R. Marraro Prize and the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Italian Lit-erary Studies: Margaret Brose, Leopardi Sublime (Re Enzo Editrice), and Nancy L.Canepa, From Court to Forest: Giambattista Basile’s Lo Cunto de li cunti and the Birth of theLiterary Fairy Tale (Wayne State University Press)

Modern Language Association Prize for Independent Scholars: Steven J. Holmes, TheYoung John Muir: An Environmental Biography (University of Wisconsin Press)

Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize: Idelber Avelar, The Untimely Present: Postdictatorial LatinAmerican Fiction and the Task of Mourning (Duke University Press)

Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies: Leonard Barkan,Unearthing the Past: Archaeology and Aesthetics in the Making of Renaissance Culture (YaleUniversity Press). Honorable Mention: Sharon Marcus, Apartment Stories: City and Homein Nineteenth-Century Paris and London (University of California Press)

Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for French and Francophone Studies: MargaretCohen, The Sentimental Education of the Novel (Princeton University Press), and PhilipWatts, Allegories of the Purge: How Literature Responded to the Postwar Trials of Writers andIntellectuals in France (Stanford University Press)

Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Germanic Languages and Literatures: LutzKoepnick, Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetics of Power (University of Nebraska Press)

Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Literary Work: Norman R.Shapiro, One Hundred and One Poems by Paul Verlaine (University of Chicago Press)

Modern Language Association Prize for a Distinguished Bibliography: David W. Forbes,Hawaiian National Bibliography 1780–1900, 1: 1780–1830 (University of Hawai’i Press)

Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Publication Award for a Manuscript in Italian LiteraryStudies: Victoria Eulalia Kirkham, Fabulous Vernacular: Boccaccio’s Filocolo and the Art ofMedieval Fiction (University of Michigan Press)

The MLA’s prizes are awarded under the auspices of the Committee on Honors andAwards, which appoints the members of the selection committees and determines proce-dures, deadlines, and criteria for eligibility for all the prizes. Deadlines for upcomingprizes appear on page 36. To submit books or to obtain detailed information about any ofthe prizes, call or write the Office of Special Projects at the MLA office (646 576-5141;[email protected]).

Moving Dialogue

As in all MLA conventions, the one in Washington last Decem-ber used the services of a shuttle bus. Described in the MLA

brochure as a convenience, it seemed, at times, more like an un-avoidable nuisance. People standing on the pavement outside thehotels groused when they had just missed a bus and realized theywould have to wait all of ten minutes for the next one. Lookingirked, bored, or just resigned, they wondered out loud (an exercisewe academics seem to relish) why things had to be so compli-cated. It seemed as if every desirable event, whether it was apanel, a business meeting, the presidential forum, the DelegateAssembly, or the book exhibit, was unfailingly held at the otherhotel. Many of us took that shuttle during those three days, somany of us that we impressed one of the drivers, who jocularlyobserved, “I don’t know what you folks do exactly but whatever itis there are a whole lot of you doing it.” The remark was ad-dressed to me as I waited for other convention members to board,and I was not amused. “It seems all we really do is to take thisshuttle back and forth,” I said with some irritation. Only later,when reflecting on the ways in which our different fields and dis-ciplines function, did I realize how unexpectedly apt my feeblejoke was. Taking the shuttle back and forth is, indeed, a centralaspect of our intellectual activity. Or, at least, it should be.

I am referring here not to the institutional or professional linkswe establish with other colleagues as we deal with the manypressing issues facing higher education today but to another typeof connection. There are topics of concern that make for commonreflection and action without the explicit need of the cumbersomeshuttle: the uncertain role of the humanities in an increasinglycorporate-minded university system, the erosion of faculty gover-nance, the stealthy downgrading of the tenure-track system, andthe increased reliance on inadequately paid part-time labor are allissues that (despite specific local differences that by no meansshould be ignored) bring us together naturally or at least shouldbring us together, since they affect the future of higher educationas a whole. I am speaking instead of less evident connections, theones we do not always recognize or know quite how to forge,among all the “modern languages” of the MLA and the culturalpractices they represent. These connections, questioning territor-ial claims, challenging assumptions about “our” fields, and shak-ing us out of complacency, would ultimately lead to moreimaginative, although not always comfortable, intellectual exchange.And here is where comparison with the shuttle comes in handy.

I could have chosen a more noble metaphor to reflect on theseother links instead of resorting to the lowly shuttle. Say bordercrossings, say translation: as one born and raised in one country,trained in another, working in yet a third, and brought up trilin-gual, I know the full value, both literal and metaphorical, of theseterms, their decentering potential, both for good and for bad. Yetthe image of the shuttle, precisely because of its inescapable ba-nality, allows for a host of related experiences and feelings, usu-ally obscured or repressed in the more prestigious metaphors, tocome forth. Inconvenience, delays, obstruction, difficult traffic,and personal discomfort are the stuff of shuttle transportation.They are also the stuff of some of the connections I believe weshould strive to establish.

I am thinking specifically of languages, of the perception of lan-guages in our profession, an issue if not neglected at least often

glossed over in our more lofty literary and cultural debates. TheMLA has traditionally observed the division between English andforeign languages (with comparative literature caught somewherein the middle). Up until the not so distant past, this made for tidyMLA conventions in which territorial domains existed side byside, usually oblivious of each other and sometimes, when enroll-ments were at stake, suspicious of each other. Some of these do-mains, like French and German, formed alliances with othersthrough comparative literature. Others, like English, forgot thatthey too were “languages.” Yet others felt left out altogether and,instead of forging (or even forcing) links, raised battlements orabandoned the field. Spanish was in that position, with Hispanistsfleeing to other organizations where we felt we had a betterchance at dialogue. Underlying many of these conflicts, born outof mutual misunderstanding, was a perception that, to a point, ob-tains even today: that literature, theory, and most forms of criticalthought occur in English; that languages occur in varying degreesin, well, foreign languages.

In spite of welcome critical revisions and genuine attempts atdialogue, the perception that languages are “just” languages en-dures, has been given new credibility by the general public and,to the dismay of many of us, by administrators. Foreign languages(some seen as more “foreign” than others) are often gauged prag-matically, their worth weighed in terms of popular demand andimmediate utility, their future imperiled if they fail to measureup. Small language departments worry. They have every reason todo so. And while Spanish, due to its exceptionally high enroll-ments, escapes some of these pitfalls, it does not escape the per-ception that it too is “just” language. (Indeed, at times it wouldappear that its popularity with undergraduates disallows its beingconsidered anything else.)

Alliances can and should be formed to work against this stingyperception of language both within and without the academy, al-liances that should cross disciplinary lines and include all the hu-manities. Many of us working in more than one field say that wefeel comfortable with multicultural dialogue (or what we think ofas multicultural dialogue). But I wonder if comfort should not beread as a warning here. For all its talk about multiculturalism, theacademy, when it comes to languages, seems to be resolutelymonolingual. Perhaps we need to recover the value of discomfort,the kind of discomfort, for example, that comes with the labori-ous learning of a new language. It is that discomfort that I wouldlike to summon with the image of the shuttle: an image of move-ment back and forth, of some awkwardness, possible delays, ofpuzzling unfamiliarity and mutual impatience, to be sure. But theshuttle also promises renewed intellectual exchange, true multilin-gual awareness, and, ideally, multilingual critical work. In that re-visionary exchange, foreign languages would think of themselvesas cultural practices in relation to others and create new forms ofcross-cultural work; and English, not forgetting that it too is a lan-guage, would also revise its borders to participate fully in thatmultilingual, cross-cultural give-and-take.

Utopian? Perhaps. But pedestrian as well. It would be great totell my driver, he who wanted to know “exactly what we all did,”that, in fact, this is what we do: we shuttle.

Sylvia Molloy


P R E S I D E N T ’ S C O L U M N


October 2000 Employment Trends

Waiting for the annual count of the jobs announced in the Oc-tober Job Information List (JIL) is always difficult. I try not to

be a pest, but I know that I am, peering over colleagues’ shoul-ders, pressing them to guess at how the numbers will turn out,and knowing that only the most extraordinary improvementwould prevent the disappointment of many job seekers. Even so,I’m relieved to learn that this year’s count shows modest improve-ment in English and remains stable in foreign languages. Thenumber of English positions increased 6%, rising from 899 to 959.In foreign languages, the number of listings decreased by lessthan 1%, dropping from 672 to 666. Figure 1 presents trends inthe number of October JIL positions from 1975 through 2000.

The most desirable entry-level academic jobs are “definite” orfunded tenure-track assistant professor positions. The growth ratein this kind of position was particularly disappointing this year. InEnglish, the number of these appointments did not increase inproportion to the overall number of jobs announced. In the Octo-ber 2000 JIL, 528 of the listings in English were for definitetenure-track assistant professorships, an increase of only 2% from1999, whereas English tenure-track positions overall rose 7%,from 769 to 821. In foreign languages, definite tenure-track assis-tant professor positions decreased by 3.3%, from 343 positions in1999 to 333 in 2000. This decline mirrors a general drop in for-eign language tenure-track positions, from 521 in 1999 to 504 in2000. Figures 2 and 3 show trends since 1990 in all positions andthe definite tenure-track assistant professor listings in the OctoberJIL. Counts for 1982, the previous low, are provided as a refer-ence point.

Relatively few departments announce non-tenure-track posi-tions in the JIL, and the number of these positions remains small.Unfortunately, the number is growing. In the field of English,non-tenure-track positions increased by 68%, from 62 in 1999 to

104 in 2000. In foreign languages, the number of non-tenure-trackpositions decreased 2.3%, from 87 in 1999 to 85 in 2000. Thistrend in job listings is consonant with the growing use nationwideof part-time and non-tenure-track teachers and graduate studentteaching assistants.

Just as I wait each year for the count of the October job listings,so do I watch for the release of the Annual Survey of Earned Doc-torates from United States Universities, which is sponsored by theNational Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, Na-tional Endowment for the Humanities, United States Departmentof Education, and United States Department of Agriculture. Com-paring the number of entry-level positions with the number ofPhDs granted each year offers a gauge of the difficulty of findinga good academic job. Data from the newest Survey of Earned Doc-torates indicate that in the academic year 1998–99, 1,024 doctor-ates were awarded in English and American language andliterature and 628 were granted in foreign languages and litera-tures. While both numbers continue a three-year downwardtrend—English language doctorates have declined 6% since 1997;foreign language doctorates have decreased 4%—the number ofnew PhDs is still significantly greater than the number of jobsavailable. Moreover, each year those who earned degrees in previ-ous years join the new degree holders in competing for tenure-track employment. Figure 4 presents trends in the number ofdoctorate recipients in English and foreign languages from 1970through 1999.

Finally, I call your attention to tables 1 and 2, which indicatetrends in the kinds of expertise departments have looked for in re-cent years. Table 3 presents the number of positions announced invarious languages.

Phyllis Franklin

E D I T O R ’ S C O L U M N

Table 1Positions Listed by Field Specialization

1997 1998 1999 2000 2000 versus 1999 2000 versus 1997N % N % N % N % Difference % Change Difference % Change

British literature 134 19.3 177 20.0 194 21.6 226 23.6 32 16.5 92 68.7

American literature 63 9.1 95 10.7 103 11.5 85 8.9 –18 –17.5 22 34.9Multiethnic literatures by people

of color 74 10.7 109 12.3 85 9.5 101 10.5 16 18.8 27 36.5Subtotal 137 19.7 204 23.1 188 20.9 186 19.4 –2 –1.1 49 35.8

Rhetoric and composition 131 18.9 198 22.4 183 20.4 197 20.5 14 7.7 66 50.4Technical and professional writing 30 4.3 50 5.6 45 5.0 53 5.5 8 17.8 23 76.7

Subtotal 161 23.2 248 28.0 228 25.4 250 26.1 22 9.6 89 55.3

Creative writing 59 8.5 68 7.7 72 8.0 80 8.3 8 11.1 21 35.6English education 27 3.9 58 6.6 43 4.8 23 2.4 –20 –46.5 –4 –14.8Media and communication 21 3.0 17 1.9 41 4.6 61 6.4 20 48.8 40 190.5World literature 17 2.4 17 1.9 23 2.6 32 3.3 9 39.1 15 88.2Linguistics, history of the language 22 3.2 25 2.8 30 3.3 18 1.9 –12 –40.0 –4 –18.2Women’s studies 5 0.7 11 1.2 13 1.4 12 1.3 –1 –7.7 7 140.0Other 111 16.0 60 6.8 67 7.5 71 7.4 4 6.0 –40 –36.0

Total 694 100.00 885 100.00 899 100.00 959 100.00 60 6.7 265 38.2


Fig. 1Number of Positions in the October MLA JIL, 1975–2000

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434 440

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438512 523 551 544 523

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926

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620 624679

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700 694

885 899959

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385 412 420377

463 444499

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1975 1977 1979 1981 1983 1985 1987 1989 1991 1993 1995 1997 1999

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1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 20001976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000

● English ◆ Foreign languages

Fig. 4Number of Doctorate Recipients in English and Foreign Languages, 1970–99

Source: National Science Foundation, Annual Survey of Earned Doctorates

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1,093

1,243

1,3631,412

1,3671,290

1,215

1,0791,027

911951

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714 734 728 721669

716 720796

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1,094 1,0771,024

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● English ◆ Foreign languages

(continued on next page)

Fig. 2Definite Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Positions and AllPositions in the English Edition of the October MLA JIL

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1982 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000

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◆ Definite tenure-track assistant professorships

Fig. 3Definite Tenure-Track Assistant Professor Positions and AllPositions in the Foreign Language Edition of the October MLA JIL

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(continued from previous page)

Table 2Positions Listed by Field Specification

1997 1998 1999 2000 2000 versus 1999 2000 versus 1997N % N % N % N % Difference % Change Difference % Change

Literature by period (all languages) 101 16.7 90 15.3 101 15.0 96 14.4 –5 –5.0 –5 –5.0

Pre-16th-century literature 9 1.5 10 1.7 7 1.0 11 1.7 4 57.1 2 22.216th-century literature 3 0.5 2 0.3 6 0.9 3 0.5 –3 –50.0 0 0.016th- and 17th-century literature 12 2.0 10 1.7 11 1.6 8 1.2 –3 –27.3 –4 –33.317th-century literature 2 0.3 2 0.3 2 0.3 0 0.0 –2 –100.0 –2 –100.017th- and 18th-century literature 1 0.2 5 0.8 1 0.1 4 0.6 3 300.0 3 300.018th-century literature 6 1.0 5 0.8 7 1.0 4 0.6 –3 –42.9 –2 –33.318th- and 19th-century literature 5 0.8 0 0.0 2 0.3 5 0.8 3 150.0 0 0.019th-century literature 9 1.5 4 0.7 5 0.7 5 0.8 0 0.0 –4 –44.419th- and 20th-century literature 13 2.2 11 1.9 6 0.9 12 1.8 6 100.0 –1 –7.720th-century literature 20 3.3 26 4.4 28 4.2 23 3.5 –5 –17.9 3 15.0Period literature (period other

than above) 21 3.5 15 2.5 26 3.9 21 3.2 –5 –19.2 0 0.0

General literature, culture, and civilization (all languages) 75 12.4 78 13.2 84 12.5 88 13.2 4 4.8 13 17.3

Literature 69 11.4 58 9.8 72 10.7 68 10.2 –4 –5.6 –1 –1.4Culture and civilization 6 1.0 20 3.4 12 1.8 20 3.0 8 66.7 14 233.3

Ibero-American literature and studies 149 24.7 152 25.8 194 28.9 204 30.6 10 5.2 55 36.9

Latin American literature and studies 81 13.4 86 14.6 93 13.8 106 15.9 13 14.0 25 30.9

Peninsular literature and studies 38 6.3 49 8.3 63 9.4 59 8.9 –4 –6.3 21 55.3Hispanic literature and studies 30 5.0 17 2.9 11 1.6 26 3.9 15 136.4 –4 –13.3Ibero-American literature

and studies 0 0.0 0 0.0 27 4.0 13 2.0 –14 –51.9 13 —

Other regional literatures and studies 39 6.5 43 7.3 45 6.7 29 4.4 –16 –35.6 –10 –25.6

Ethnic literature and studies (general) 2 0.3 2 0.3 2 0.3 2 0.3 0 0.0 0 0.0

Francophone literature and studies 18 3.0 14 2.4 31 4.6 19 2.9 –12 –38.7 1 5.6Middle Eastern literature

and studies 2 0.3 1 0.2 2 0.3 0 0.0 –2 –100.0 –2 –100.0Asian literature and studies 7 1.2 12 2.0 4 0.6 1 0.2 –3 –75.0 –6 –85.7African literature and studies 1 0.2 0 0.0 2 0.3 2 0.3 0 0.0 1 100.0European literature and studies 6 1.0 13 2.2 1 0.1 2 0.3 1 100.0 –4 –66.7British or American literature

and studies 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 0.1 0 0.0 –1 –100.0 0 0.0Classics 3 0.5 1 0.2 2 0.3 3 0.5 1 50.0 0 0.0

Linguistics and comparative literature 79 13.1 86 14.6 103 15.3 109 16.4 6 5.8 30 38.0

Linguistics 64 10.6 67 11.4 85 12.6 86 12.9 1 1.2 22 34.4Comparative literature 15 2.5 19 3.2 17 2.5 23 3.5 6 35.3 8 53.3Philology and history of language 0 0.0 0 0.0 1 0.1 0 0.0 –1 –100.0 0 0.0

Other fields 160 26.5 141 23.9 145 21.6 140 21.0 –5 –3.4 –20 –12.5

Total 603 100.00 590 100.00 672 100.00 666 100.00 –6 –0.9 63 10.4


GOVERNANCE

Request for Comments on Delegate Assembly ResolutionsMLA members are asked to comment on the three resolutionsthat the Delegate Assembly approved at its meeting on 29 Decem-ber 2000 in Washington, DC.

The comment process will be conducted in a members-only areaof the Web site (http://www.mla.org). The text of each resolutionwill be posted at the Web site on 1 March, and members may entersigned comments at the Web site from 1 March to 15 April. Mem-bers who wish to comment but who do not have Web access mayforward comments to Carol Zuses for posting at the Web site. TheDelegate Assembly Organizing Committee, which proposed the useof the Web site for the comment process, encourages members tobe brief, to limit comments to the issues addressed in the resolu-tions, and to observe common rules of Internet etiquette. Mem-bers’ comments will not be subject to a word limit, nor will therebe a limit on the number of comments that an individual may post.

During the balloting period, from 15 April through 1 June, addi-tional comments will not be accepted but comments alreadyposted will remain available for review. Members who do nothave Web access may request hard copies of the posted com-ments from Carol Zuses.

To enter the members-only area of the Web site, you will needyour membership number and your password. Your membershipnumber appears in the upper right-hand corner of the mailinglabel for all MLA mailings. Your password is your five-digit zipcode if you receive mail at a United States address; if your mail isdelivered outside the United States, your password is the first fiveletters of the country on your mailing label.

The resolutions approved by the Delegate Assembly are printedbelow.* Members may reach Carol Zuses by mail (MLA, 26 Broad-way, 3rd floor, New York, NY 10004-1789), e-mail ([email protected]), and fax (646 576-5107).

Resolution 2000-1Be it resolved, That the Delegate Assembly and the MLA membershipformally recognize, appreciate, and congratulate the Executive Direc-tor and the MLA staff for their tireless efforts in the preparation andexecution of the survey on staffing, salary, and benefits in departmentsof English and of the foreign languages.

Resolution 2000-2Whereas the MLA strongly supports the teaching and scholarship ofliteratures by people of color in the United States and Canada,

Whereas the MLA encourages faculty in colleges and universities tobe sensitive to the cultures of people of color,

And whereas representations of native peoples and their cultural tra-ditions are frequently used as mascots and symbols by sports teams atuniversities, colleges, and high schools as well as by commercial teams,

Whereas educational institutions’ use of these symbols and mascotscan undermine their mission to educate students about the histories,cultures, and achievements of people of color,

Therefore, be it resolved that the MLA condemns the use of represen-tations of native peoples and other racial and ethnic groups and theircultural traditions as sports mascots or symbols.

Resolution 2000-3Whereas one of the effects of the increasingly globalized capitalisteconomy has been to accentuate not only the divide between rich andpoor nations but also divisions between haves and have-nots within


Table 3Foreign Language Positions Advertised in the October 2000 JIL

Language(s) Number Percentage

Spanish and Portuguese 339 50.9Spanish 335 50.3Portuguese and/or Lusophone 4 0.6

French and Italian 112 16.8French 88 13.2French and Italian 0 0.0Italian 24 3.6

Germanic and Scandinavian 59 8.9German and Germanic 58 8.7Scandinavian 1 0.2

Slavic 20 3.0Russian 16 2.4Other Slavic 4 0.6

Asian 25 3.8Japanese 10 1.5Chinese 9 1.4Other Asian 4 0.6Asian (general) 2 0.3

Other 21 3.2Arabic 3 0.5Hebrew and Judaic studies 3 0.5Other Near Eastern 0 0.0Classical languages 4 0.6Romance languages 9 1.4Other languages 2 0.3

Not specified 90 13.5Several languages 6 0.9Choice of languages 20 3.0Not specified 64 9.6

Total 666 100.0

JER

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Participants in the forum “What’s Happening in the Humanities?” Standing (left toright): Paul Lauter and George Louis Scheper; seated (left to right): Gerald Graff,Myrna G. Goldenberg, and Bette G. Hirsch.

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industrialized countries such as the UnitedStates; and

Whereas such divisions are, and have his-torically been, racist; and

Whereas dramatic tuition hikes and the ter-mination of affirmative action have ren-dered access to higher education in theU.S. increasingly difficult for all students,and for working-class people of color inparticular; and

Whereas higher education, while hardlyguaranteeing its graduates satisfactory em-ployment, is indispensable to securingwhatever stable and adequately remunera-tive jobs there are; and

Whereas Local 2334 of the American Fed-eration of Teachers (AFT), New York Chap-ter, has recently presented a resolutionfocused on the City University of NewYork (CUNY), affirming that the AFTstrongly supports the right of all highschool graduates to have an equal opportu-nity to obtain a college education at afford-able tuition (with the progressiveintroduction of free college education), andtherefore strongly supports the restorationof open access, developmental courses, andreduced tuition at CUNY; and

Whereas the MLA has gone on record insupport of affirmative action and in opposi-tion to racism in general and the racist ef-fect of the cutbacks in remediation atCUNY in particular;

Be it therefore resolved that the MLA inprinciple support open access and free tu-ition at public institutions of higher educa-tion in the U.S. and use its platform tovoice this support; and

Be it further resolved that the MLA pub-licly back the efforts of AFT Local 2334 tohave open access restored, developmentalcourses retained, and free tuition institutedat CUNY.

*At the end of February, the ExecutiveCouncil will review the wording of theresolutions as required by article 7.B.3 ofthe MLA constitution. Since the councilmay authorize nonsubstantive copyeditingchanges in the wording of the resolutions,the texts posted at the Web site may differslightly from those printed here.


Report on Women in the ProfessionMembers who wish to obtain additionalcopies of the report “Women in the Pro-fession, 2000” (published in Profession2000) to bring to the attention of theirdeans and provosts should contact theoffice of the Executive Director([email protected]).

MLA ParliamentarianMartha S. Grise, the MLA’s new parlia-mentarian, began her three-year term in2000. In her first year of service, she par-ticipated in a number of governancemeetings, including the 2000 meeting ofthe Delegate Assembly.

A member of the MLA since 1978, she isprofessor emerita of English at EasternKentucky University, where she special-ized in anglophone African literature. Shehas been an active parliamentarian for thepast fifteen years. Grise was granted profes-sional status by the National Association ofParliamentarians (NAP) in 1989 and is cur-rently a member of the NAP’s EducationCommittee. She has also been certified bythe American Institute of Parliamentarians.

Grise has taught many parliamentaryworkshops and is one of only a dozen NAPmembers to have been selected by theNAP Professional Development Commit-tee to teach that organization’s professional

qualifying and professional developmentcourses. She looks forward to serving theMLA’s membership as parliamentarianand by organizing sessions at the MLAconvention on parliamentary procedure.

The 2001 convention will be held in NewOrleans. Members should familiarizethemselves with the guidelines for theMLA convention, which appear in the Sep-tember 2000 PMLA (pp. 475–87), beforewriting to the organizers listed below. Ifnot provided, organizers’ addresses are inthe September 2000 PMLA. All partici-pants in convention sessions must be MLAmembers by 1 April 2001. Organizers areresponsible for responding to all inquiries.Members may participate in (i.e., organizeand chair, read papers, serve as speakers orpanelists, or participate in any other waythat involves having their names listed inthe Program) a maximum of two meetings.

Calls for papers are limited to thirty-five words, including the session title butnot the name or address of the organizer.Groups that announce two or more callsfor papers with the same contact personlist the contact person only once.

Divisions

American Literature

AMERICAN LITERATURE TO 1800Civic Writing in the Early Americas. Papersexploring colonial American representations ofgovernance and community organization or ofthe vox populi. 1-page proposals and vitae by1 Mar.; Frank Shuffelton.

Life Writing in the Early Americas. Papersexploring colonial American life writing. May

address biography, autobiography, letters, con-fessions, diaries, or any of the many forms inwhich life writing is found. 1-page proposalsand vitae by 1 Mar.; Susan Imbarrato.

Nature Writing in the Early Americas. Pa-pers exploring colonial American visions of thenatural world. 1-page proposals and vitae by1 Mar.; Timothy Sweet.

19TH-CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATUREAmerican Biographies. In the last few yearsthere have been major biographies of US writ-ers of the 19th century. What does this devel-opment say about the state of the profession?Must biography be a rejection of theory?1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Robert K. Martin.

Archival Research and New Technologies.How are the new technologies changing andenhancing research, especially archival re-search, in 19th-century US literature and cul-ture? What new directions and new methodsare being opened up? 1-page abstracts, elec-tronic or hard copy, by 1 Mar.; Carla Petersonand Jay Grossman.

Louisiana and the Crossings of Cultures.Explorations of 19th-century Louisiana, or anyspecific location therein, and issues such asmigration, creolization, expansionism, identity,trade, and transculturation. 1-page abstracts,electronic or hard copy, by 1 Mar.; Chris Casti-glia and Ivy Schweitzer.

LATE-19TH- AND EARLY-20TH-CENTURYAMERICAN LITERATURETransatlantic Crossings, 1870–1930 II: Dis-placements, Mobilities, Exchanges, Trans-formations. Cosponsored by the Division onLate-19th- and Early-20th-Century English Lit-

CONVENTION

Calls for Papers for the 2001 Convention in New Orleans

Martha S. Grise

erature. This session complements Transat-lantic Crossings, 1870–1930 I: Theorizations.Copies of proposals must be sent to eachcochair. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Susan K. Harrisand Douglas Mao, Dept. of English, HarvardUniv., 12 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA 02138([email protected]).

20TH-CENTURY AMERICAN LITERATURENew Orleans I: Traffic with Havana. Paperson cultural exchanges, literature, and literacies.New Orleans II: Miscegenation’s Traffic.Papers on connections between New Orleansand Chicago. Traffic in music, bodies, and cul-tures. 1-page abstracts and vitae by 15 Mar.;Sharon Holland ([email protected]).

Why Think about Race? 20th-CenturyAmerican Literature and the Environ-ment. Race and ecocriticism; US literatureand environmental racism; race and the envi-ronment in specific texts, especially by writersof color; new paradigms of environmentalism.1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Elizabeth Ammons.

AMERICAN INDIAN LITERATURESBridging Communications between Nativeand Non-Native Scholars. As Native scholarsenter the field, they alter the discourse sur-rounding American Indian literatures. How canwe hear and honor what has gone before andwhat is to come? 300-word abstracts by16 Mar.; Alanna K. Brown and Joyzelle Godfrey.

Oral and Written Narratives of IndianBoarding School Survivors in the UnitedStates and Canada. Papers exploring con-temporary as well as classic testimonies ofIndian boarding school residents. 1-pageabstracts by 15 Mar.; Virginia Carney([email protected]).

Simon J. Ortiz: Poet, Storyteller, Educator.Honoring Ortiz’s contributions to the develop-ment of American Indian literatures. Papersespecially invited on Ortiz’s poetics, aesthetics,ethics, politics (tribal, regional, indigenous) inhis poetry, stories, and essays. 2-page abstractsby 16 Mar.; Susan B. Brill de Ramírez.

ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATUREAsian Americans, Ethnographic Specimens,Native Informants. How have Asian Ameri-cans been implicated in (auto)ethnography,whether linguistically or through travel writ-ing, life writing, tourism, science, and museumdisplay? Also, through what genre crossings andnarrative or cinematic modes? 2-page abstracts(e-mail submissions accepted) by 15 Mar.;Rachel C. Lee ([email protected]).

Asian American Writers and Popular Cul-ture. Any aspect of “popular” literary formsby Asian American writers (e.g., horror, mys-tery, romance, sci-fi, detective fiction), includ-ing their relation to Asian American literatureor to other popular literatures. 2-page ab-stracts (e-mail submissions accepted) by15 Mar.; Karen Su ([email protected]).

Staging Asian Americanness: New AsianAmerican Playwrights. Who are the newAsian American playwrights? What imperativesshape their productions? How does the newtheater echo or depart from an earlier genera-tion of Asian American drama? 2-page abstracts

(e-mail submissions accepted) by 15 Mar.; Ra-jini Srikanth ([email protected]).

BLACK AMERICAN LITERATURE ANDCULTUREBlack American Writers from Louisiana.Novelists Ernest Gaines, Louis Edwards,screenwriter Kasi Lemmons, and others. 1-pageabstracts by 1 Mar.; Farah J. Griffin, EnglishDept., 602 Philosophy Hall, Columbia Univ.,New York, NY 10025 ([email protected]).

Comparative Studies

COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN MEDIEVALLITERATUREFood. Digestion, feasting, cookery, health, di-etary regimens, conspicuous display and con-sumption, rules for eating and not eating.1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Susan Crane([email protected]).

The Francophone Middle Ages. A generalsession: all proposals welcome.Performance. Reconstructions of performedpoetry from any of the vernacular medievaltraditions. Actual performances are preferred,but discussions or descriptions will also beconsidered. Audio cassettes (standard format)and/or 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; John MilesFoley ([email protected])

COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN RENAISSANCEAND BAROQUE LITERATUREEarly Modern Pedagogies. Papers concernedwith theories, institutions, and practices of earlymodern pedagogy in its bearing on early mod-ern poetry, rhetoric, and theater. Also papersconcerning representations of the pedagogicalscene, particularly in its erotic manifestations.Renaissance Cartographies. Papers dealingwith practices, ideologies, techniques, and con-sequences of early modern mapmaking; rela-tions between maps and literature or mapsand the visual arts. Papers concerned with lit-erature as a form of mapping.Renaissance Nationalisms and Counter-nationalisms. Papers addressing literary formand “national” identifications as well ascounteridentifications (religious, ethnic, eco-nomic, libidinal) in relation to alternative andremaindered communities. Abstracts by 15 Mar.;Margo Hendricks ([email protected]).

COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN 18TH-CENTURYLITERATUREChasing after the Event: Journalism in the18th Century.Laziness and Labor. 2-page abstracts by15 Mar.; Pierre Saint-Amand.

COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN ROMANTICISMAND THE 19TH CENTURYComparative Performativity I: Death Sen-tences. How is the death penalty represented,debated, justified, combated, 1789–1914? Con-ceptions of punishment, torture, and the body.Two fields (legal, historical, visual, philosophi-cal, literary studies) or two national cultures.1–2-page abstracts by e-mail (no attachments)by 10 Mar.; Jann Matlock.

Comparative Performativity II: Poetic In-terruptions. Interruption in poetic and other

discourses; performance of knowledge in rela-tion to and as consequence of interruption; in-terruption as figure of thought. 1-page abstractsby 10 Mar.; David S. Ferris.

Comparative Performativity III: Topogra-phesis. How does language create the spacesit purports to describe? How do representationand discourse form and deform spatial rela-tions and architectural objects? Abstracts orpapers by 10 Mar.; Sharon Marcus.

COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN 20TH-CENTURYLITERATUREComparing the Modern and PostmodernArts. Theoretical or applied studies of the in-terrelations between the verbal arts and eitherthe musical or visual arts. Proposals by15 Mar.; Linda Hutcheon.

EUROPEAN LITERARY RELATIONSThe Frankfurt School in America. Histori-cal, philosophical, or theoretical analyses of theFrankfurt School’s years in exile; its receptionin the United States; its impact on literary stud-ies and cultural theory. Abstracts by 19 Mar.;Beatrice Hanssen ([email protected]).

Women Writing History in Pre-20th-Century Europe. Earlier centuries of wom-en’s historiography in its many forms, amongthem pamphlets, treatises, memoirs, nonfic-tion prose, historical novels, poetry, drama.2-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Kari Lokke([email protected]).

English Literature

OLD ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATUREBeowulf. Any paper on Beowulf is welcome.Open session. Any paper on Old English lan-guage and literature is welcome. 1–2-page ab-stracts by 1 Mar.; Robert E. Bjork.

MIDDLE ENGLISH LANGUAGE ANDLITERATURE, EXCLUDING CHAUCERMedieval Speech Acts: Rules, Vows, Oaths.Treatments of the function and force of variousspeech acts in Middle English texts, includingwork informed by linguistic theory (speech acttheory, ordinary language philosophy, etc.).1–2-page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Patricia De-Marco, Dept. of English, Sturges Hall, OhioWesleyan Univ., Delaware 43015 ([email protected]).


Deadline for Audiovisual RequestsAll requests for audiovisual equipmentmust be made by the chair of the session by7 April. Requests must be received by mailor by fax by 5:00 p.m. on this date. Becausethe need for audiovisual equipment is amajor factor in the scheduling of meetings(and because the movement of equipmentis both costly and hazardous), the deadlineis firm. Participants who plan to use audio-visual equipment should check with thechair of the session or with the MLA con-vention office to be sure that the necessaryequipment has been ordered by 7 April.



Monasticism and Medieval English Writ-ing. Explorations of the interimplications ofmonastic institutions with the production, pub-lication and dissemination, and developmentof medieval English writing. 1–2-page abstractsby 10 Mar.; Nancy Bradley Warren, Dept. ofEnglish, 3200 Old Main Hill, Utah State Univ.,Logan 84322-3200 ([email protected]).

Visuality and Reading. Aspects of manu-script cultures in England from 1300 to 1500.1–2-page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Pamela Shein-gorn, PhD Program in Theatre, Graduate Cen-ter, City Univ. of New York, 365 Fifth Ave.,New York, NY 10016 ([email protected]).

CHAUCERThe Canterbury Tales: Shame and Pleasure.This session explores the mutually constitutiveand perversely unstable relation amongshame, pleasure, and ascesis and the identifica-tions and disidentifications, communal identi-ties, and national programs this relation makespossible. Paper abstracts by 1 Mar.; GlennBurger ([email protected]).

Intimate Relation: What Happens in Troi-lus and Criseyde III: 1086–1337; 1555–82?Papers limited to 8–10 minutes to allow ampletime for discussion. Abstracts by 15 Mar.;H. Marshall Leicester, Jr.

Postcolonial Chaucer. Abstracts by 15 Mar.;Sylvia Tomasch.

LITERATURE OF THE ENGLISHRENAISSANCE, EXCLUDING SHAKESPEAREHistoricizing Genre. Intersections of historyand genre; effect of context on interpretationand production of traditional and less traditionalgenres; incorporation of nonliterary visual andtextual forms within traditional literary forms.1-page abstracts by 7 Mar.; Elizabeth Harvey.

The Politics of Form. Investigations of local,domestic, ecclesiastical, or international politicsand received or invented form, including verse,prose syntactic, epigrammatic, epistolary, epic,authological, sermonic, visionary, or visual.1-page abstracts by 7 Mar.; Joseph Loewenstein.

Tudor Eros. Any aspect of sexuality or eroti-cism in pre-Elizabethan literature or culture.1-page abstracts by 7 Mar.; Richard Halpern.

SHAKESPEAREAvenging Women in Shakespeare. Submis-sions invited on women’s anger; relation offemale revenge to masculinist structures; sub-jectivity, agency, or physicality of characters;comparisons with other writers. Papers or ab-stracts by 5 Mar.; Susan Frye ([email protected]).

Shakespeare and Money. The application ofNew Economic Criticism, materialist analysis,or other economic approaches to such issues asprotocapitalism, inflation, poverty, corn hoard-ing, usury, inheritance, dowries, or the theatri-cal marketplace in relation to Shakespeare’sworks. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Linda Woodbridge([email protected]).

17TH-CENTURY ENGLISH LITERATUREClassical Republicanism and Its Discon-tents. While acknowledging the advantages of

classical republicanism as an explanatory cate-gory, this session seeks to examine its per-ceived or potential limitations in terms ofcritical practice, theoretical sophistication, orother historical approaches. 1-page abstracts or8–10-page papers by 15 Mar.; Laura LungerKnoppers ([email protected]).

New British History and English Litera-ture. This session encourages papers that en-gage with recent work on British history, e.g.,on the three kingdoms and the construction of“Britishness,” on revolution and republican-ism, on local communities, on women in earlymodern Britain. 500-word abstracts or 8–10-page papers by 10 Mar.; David Lowenstein,Dept. of English, Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison53706 ([email protected]).

Politics and Religious Difference in 17th-Century England. Possible topics includeChristian-Jewish relations, the role of religionin stimulating different forms of dissent, Ca-tholicism, radical religions and their politicalimplications. Proposals on poetry, prose, ordrama welcome. 1-page abstracts or 8–10-page papers by 15 Mar.; Achsah Guibbory([email protected]).

RESTORATION AND EARLY-18TH-CENTURYENGLISH LITERATURE

Back to the Future: The 18th Century in21st-Century Theory. Proposals for short(5-min.) comments.The Implications of Spectacle. Proposals for15-min. papers.W(h)ither the 18th Century: A Cross-Generational Assessment. Proposals for short(5-min.) comments; by 1 Apr.; Jean I. Marsden([email protected]). Graduate studentsare especially encouraged to submit proposals.

LATE-18TH-CENTURY ENGLISH LITERATUREBetween Men, between Women. Papers toaddress same-sex desire, romantic and eroticfriendship, love between women and betweenmen, and other forms of male-male and female-female intercourse in the later 18th century.10-page papers or 2-page abstracts by 1 Mar.;George Haggerty ([email protected]).

Historicizing the Text. Sociology and semi-otics of the physical object (book, pamphlet,broadside, manuscript); anonymity and pseu-donymity; attribution and canon; continua-tions and sequels; theoretical implications forauthor, period, or gender studies. 10-page pa-pers or 2-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; RobertGriffin, Fellow, Folger Shakespeare Library (asof 1 Mar.), 201 East Capitol St., SE, Washing-ton, DC 20003-1094 ([email protected]).

Religious Passions. Piety, devotion, enthusi-asm. Antireligious passions, secularization,anti-Catholicism, and anti-Semitism. Papers onreligion and gender, religion and politics, reli-gion and subjectivity, religion and literarygenre also welcome. 2-page abstracts or10-page papers by 15 Mar.; Charlotte Sussman([email protected]).

THE ENGLISH ROMANTIC PERIODCreole Romanticisms: Writing from theContact Zone. Papers on anglophone writingsfrom the Americas, the Indian subcontinent,

Africa, and other non-European zones, literaryand nonliterary genres. 300–500-word ab-stracts by 15 Mar.; Alan Richardson.

Romantic Numbers. In the light of the innu-meracy of Romantic studies, papers developingquantitative evidence (e.g., new publicationdata from Raven/Garside/ESTC, demographics)or other meanings of “numbers,” including po-etic numbers, literary-cultural uses of mathe-matics, etc.

Romanticism and the Power of Biography.As biography consumes more shelf space andbandwidth, we invite debate over the author-ity of lives within our discipline, the media,and society from Romanticism to the present.Abstracts by 5 Mar.; ([email protected]).

THE VICTORIAN PERIODVictorianism Abroad. Papers examining geo-graphical displacements: 19th-century exam-ples of cross-fertilization, cross-polination,graftings, mutations, varieties, re-formations,transformations of Victorian culture outsidethe British Isles. 250-word abstracts by22 Mar.; Elizabeth Langland.

LATE-19TH- AND EARLY-20TH-CENTURYENGLISH LITERATUREIn the Heat of the Noonday Sun: Britain’sTropical Imaginary. The impact “at home” ofthe traffic in objects, people, ideas, discoursesbetween and among British colonies; “contactzones” and patterns of cultural translation“abroad.” Hard-copy, 500-word abstracts by15 Mar.; Jennifer Wicke.

Inventing England. How was English na-tional identity reconstructed in response tosuch jarring forces as a waning empire, suf-frage and socialist activism, World War I, tech-nology, social and domestic change? Whattraditions gained currency as “English”? Hard-copy, 500-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; BonnieKime Scott.

Transatlantic Crossings, 1870–1930 II: Dis-placements, Mobilities, Exchanges, Trans-formations. Cosponsored by the Division onLate-19th- and Early-20th-Century AmericanLiterature. This session complements Transat-lantic Crossings, 1870–1930 I: Theorizations.Copies of proposals must be sent to each co-chair. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Susan K. Harris andDouglas Mao, Dept. of English, Harvard Univ.,12 Quincy St., Cambridge, MA 02138 ([email protected]).

20TH-CENTURY ENGLISH LITERATUREThe Politics of Reviewing in 20th-CenturyEnglish Literature. Studies of editorial andcritical policies, politics, and conflicts in jour-nals and journalism and of their cultural andcanonical impact. Abstracts or papers by7 Mar.; Jean Pickering.

ENGLISH LITERATURE OTHER THANBRITISH AND AMERICANNarrative and Linguistic Innovations inEnglish Literature of the Non-EnglishWorld. Papers addressing new narrative styles,linguistic hybridities, and the use of local colorand customs in Asian, African, and Caribbeanfiction. Send abstracts by 12 Mar.; K. S. N.Rao. No e-mail attachments.



Postcolonial Women Writers: Orality andPerformance. Papers addressing postcolonialwomen writers’ use of orality and perfor-mance-based culture to create new linguisticauthorities and poetics. Send abstracts by1 Mar.; Evelyn Hawthorne.

French Literature

FRENCH MEDIEVAL LANGUAGE ANDLITERATUREHistory and Pseudohistory.Prologues and Epilogues, Beginnings andEndings.Sickness, Dying, and Death. 2-page abstractsby 15 Mar.; Joan Grimbert, 1418 North NelsonSt., Arlington, VA 22201 ([email protected]).

16TH-CENTURY FRENCH LITERATUREFamily Matters. The representation and sig-nificance of family structures. How are mothers,fathers, children, and their interrelationshipsportrayed? To what use is the myth of familyunity put?Refiguring the Femme Fatale. In what waysand to what ends do writers create new im-ages as well as rework mythological, biblical,or courtly models of the femme fatale, whoseallure and attraction are linked to death anddestruction. 500-word abstracts or completedpapers by 16 Mar.; Dora E. Polachek([email protected]).

17TH-CENTURY FRENCH LITERATUREFilming the 17th Century: Why, How,When, for Whom? E.g., Tous les matins dumonde, La lettre, Saint Cyr, Le roi danse, etc.250-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Jeffrey Peters([email protected]).

Obscenity: Concealment, Divulgence, and(Self-)Censorship. How to express or avoidthe “indecent”: images, euphemisms, circumlo-cutions; conditions of publication; succès descandale, etc. 250-word abstracts by 15 Mar.;Joan DeJean, 12, rue de Saintonge, 75003Paris, France ([email protected]).

Social Mobility: Literary, Visual, and So-ciohistorical Perspectives. The dynamics ofsocial organization, class, gender; urbanization,fashion, décor; values, moral and material.250-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Erec Koch, Tu-lane Coll., 116 Cudd Hall, Tulane Univ., NewOrleans, LA 70118 ([email protected]).

18TH-CENTURY FRENCH LITERATUREFiguring the Foreigner in 18th-CenturyFrance. 300-word abstracts by e-mail by15 Mar.; Janie Vanpée ([email protected]).

Les journaux de Marivaux. 300-word ab-stracts by e-mail by 15 Mar.; Marie-PauleLaden ([email protected]).

The Revolution’s Exotic Corpses. 300-wordabstracts by e-mail by 15 Mar.; Anne Vila([email protected]).

19TH-CENTURY FRENCH LITERATURE19th Century: The Early Years. Abstracts by10 Mar.; Doris Kadish.

Readers and Reading(s). Abstracts by10 Mar.; Willa Silverman or Charles Stivale.

Representing the Disenfranchized. Out-siders, vagabonds, tramps, peddlers, downtrod-den, (Lumpen), proletariat, etc. Abstracts by10 Mar.; Rae Beth Gordon, 2, rue de Fossés St.Marcel, 75005 Paris, France.

20TH-CENTURY FRENCH LITERATUREFrench Poetry and Poetics Today. 300-wordabstracts by 15 Mar.; Steven Winspur ([email protected]).

Portraits of Women in ContemporaryFrench Cinema. Representation of the femi-nine (individual, collective, or mythical) in re-cent French films by male or female directors.300-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; MireilleRosello ([email protected]).

Transatlantic Solidarity and Problems ofGlobalization. Papers that locate real or imagin-able sites of Franco-American cooperation andengagement in describing and contesting thenew liberal economy and the effects of its globalreach. 300-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; RosemarieScullion ([email protected]).

FRANCOPHONE LITERATURES ANDCULTURESCinéma. 1-page abstracts by 25 Mar.; ClarisseZimra ([email protected]).

Francophonies européennes. 1-page abstractsby 25 Mar.; Jack Yeager.

Sexualités rebelles. 1-page abstracts by25 Mar.; Thomas Spear.

Genre Studies

DRAMADrama and History. Topics include the con-tribution of drama to (revisionist) history mak-ing; dramatizing the past; periodicity andcanons of dramatic literature; reenactments.300-word abstracts by 8 Mar.; Susan Bennett.

FILMIrony and Affect in Film and Television.Irony and affect are apposite structures whoseinterrelationships characterize many film andTV texts. Papers that investigate the doublevoice of irony in relation to the production ofaffect. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Kathleen McHugh,2121 Princeton Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90026.

NONFICTION PROSE STUDIES, EXCLUDINGBIOGRAPHY AND AUTOBIOGRAPHYNarratives of Science, Medicine, and Psy-choanalysis: Exposition, Evidence, Sub-jectivity. How do recent publications reflector influence contemporary theories of narra-tive and culture? Abstracts to Emily Budick([email protected]).

POETRYPoetry and Pedagogy II. The goals and conse-quences of teaching poetry and poetics; poetryin the curriculum, historically or now; relevanceof Arnold’s “idea versus practical conveniences”notes on praxis; etc. Abstracts by 15 Mar.;Lorenzo Thomas ([email protected]).

PROSE FICTIONProscribed Identities I: Bisexual Identities.Eruptions in prose fiction of sexual activities that

challenge the binary of hetero- and homosexual-ity and the notion of fixed, static sexual identity.500-word proposals by 15 Mar.; Donald E. Hall.

Proscribed Identities II: Cross-Class Identi-ties. Manifestations in prose fiction of indeter-minate or fluid class identity, multiple classidentifications, or movements among identifi-cations that challenge standard notions of fixedor singular class identity. 500-word proposalsby 15 Mar.; Carla Kaplan.

LITERARY CRITICISMThe Writer’s Study. The architectural spacesand material cultures of writing: houses,rooms, writing instruments, writing machines,papers, desks, design, art, mementos, books,manuscripts, collections. Abstracts or papersby 10 Mar.; Diana Fuss.

METHODS OF LITERARY RESEARCHTextual Criticism and Theory. Papers on ed-itorial theory, the theory and practice of tex-tual criticism, and the influence of criticaltheory on textual scholarship. Papers or 1–2-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Pamela Dalziel.

AUTOBIOGRAPHY, BIOGRAPHY, AND LIFEWRITINGText and Image I: Autobiography and Cin-ema. Abstracts up to 2 pages by 16 Mar.;Regenia Gagnier.

Text and Image II: Autobiography and Art.Abstracts up to 2 pages by 9 Mar.; Mary AnnCaws.

Text and Image III: Autobiography andComix. Abstracts up to 2 pages by 16 Mar.;Hertha Sweet Wong.

German Literature

GERMAN LITERATURE TO 1700

Medieval and Early Modern Literatureand History. Abstracts of 250–400 words by16 Mar.; Marianne Kalinke.

German Literature

18TH- AND EARLY-19TH-CENTURY GERMANLITERATUREAntifeminist/Conservative 18th-CenturyWomen Writers. Their literary, political, so-cial, didactic, educational, aesthetic works;their writings on the role and status of women;their reaction to major political events; theirreception by both traditional and feministscholars. 1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.Underground Poetologies, 1700–1830:Poetology and Aesthetics in AlternativeVenues. Papers invited on aesthetic-poetological writings in nontraditional forms(fiction, personalized writings like letters anddiaries, etc.) and/or by “other” authors (womenwriters, authors of “trivial” literature, satirists/lampoonists). 1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.;Susanne Kord ([email protected]).

19TH- AND EARLY-20TH-CENTURY GERMANLITERATUREImagining History. How is history defined,represented, “imagined” in literature and other



discourses? History as narrative, modes of his-torical writing, literary representations of his-torical events, literary historiography,nontraditional or marginalized forms. 2-pageabstracts by 1 Mar.; Nancy Kaiser.

20TH-CENTURY GERMAN LITERATUREVisual Culture in 20th-Century Germany.Submissions on the politics of visual culture, gen-der and visual culture, or the aesthetics of visualculture (theater, film, television, dance, musicals,stand-up comedy, performance art, painting,sculpture, or architecture). 1-page abstracts by12 Mar.; Gail Finney ([email protected]).

Hispanic Literatures

LITERATURE OF COLONIAL SPANISHAMERICAGestación del discurso nacionalista en lapoesía colonial. This panel will explore thebeginnings of a nationalist discourse in specifictexts of early and late colonial literature. 1–2-page abstracts and vitae by 15 Mar.; VeronicaSalles-Reese.

Consuming America: Food as ColonialCulture. The social and symbolic power offood: geographies of consumption, hunger andabundance, commensality and exclusions, thereligious significance of food and ritual con-sumption, taste and colonial subjectivities,cannibalism and the erotics of food consump-tion. Send 1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Luis Fer-nando Restrepo.

The Rhetorics of Life Writing in ColonialSpanish America. This session will explorelife writing as a subgenre of colonial history, asa public or private document, as a form ofcounterhistory, and how it relates to power,authority, and politics. Send 1-page abstractsby 1 Mar.; Santa Arias ([email protected]).

LATIN AMERICAN LITERATURE FROMINDEPENDENCE TO 1900Bodies in 19th-Century Latin America.Physical and figurative bodies: sexualized bod-ies, textualized bodies, bodies at and of work,(inter)national bodies, transgressive bodies, bod-ies of pain and pleasure, etc. 1-page abstracts inEnglish or Spanish by 12 Mar.; Lee Skinner.

Textos ficticios en el periodismo dec-imónico latinoamericano. The influence ofthe press; expressions of social action and liter-ary individuality through different manifesta-tions of fictive texts. 1-page abstracts in Englishor Spanish by 12 Mar.; Flor Maria Rodriguez-Arenas ([email protected]).

Theater and Performance in 19th-CenturyLatin America. All aspects of theater: plays,playwrights, theater companies, actors and ac-tresses, staging, alternative and popular theaters,etc. 1-page abstracts in English or Spanish by12 Mar.; María A. Salgado.

20TH-CENTURY LATIN AMERICANLITERATURENovedad y rupture I.Novedad y rupture II.

Novedad y rupture III. Provocative new cul-tural works, tendencies, or developments in1990s Spanish America by individuals orgroups. E-mail abstracts by 8 Mar.; CynthiaSteele ([email protected]).

SPANISH MEDIEVAL LANGUAGE ANDLITERATUREThe Body and Violence in MedievalIberia. 1-page abstracts by 10 Mar.; LouiseVasvári.

Medieval Spaces and Frontiers. Papers re-lated to the policing or crossing of geographic,cultural, or gender frontiers or addressinginner or outer, private or public, masculine orfeminine spaces. 1-page abstracts by 10 Mar.;Michael Harney.

Open Session. Any topic related to medievalSpanish language or literature. 1-page abstractsby 10 Mar.; Barbara Weissberger, Dept. of Ro-mance Languages and Literatures, PrincetonUniv., Princeton, NJ 08544.

16TH- AND 17TH-CENTURY SPANISHPOETRY AND PROSE“Textus Interruptus”: The Poetics of Inter-polation. The role and dynamics of interpo-lated texts within prose fiction.Visions of Utopia. An exploration of utopianimages and modes in the poetry and prose ofearly modern Spain. Myths of the Golden Age,Arcadia, the New World, etc. Abstracts by15 Mar.; María Cristina Quintero.

16TH- AND 17TH-CENTURY SPANISH DRAMAPedagogy and Golden Age Drama. Papersmay deal with any topic related to teachingGolden Age drama.Staging and Performance. Papers may dealwith any aspect of performance history ofGolden Age Spanish plays.Open Topic. Preference will be given to papers;abstracts will also be considered; by 15 Mar.;Patricia Kenworthy ([email protected]).

18TH- AND 19TH-CENTURY SPANISHLITERATURERepresentation of War in 18th- and 19th-Century Spain. Possible topics include visualdepictions (Goya), nonfictional works (testimo-nials, diaries, documents), and literature. Ab-stracts by 15 Mar.; Francisco LaRubia-Prado.

20TH-CENTURY SPANISH LITERATURERefigurations of Tradition in ContemporarySpanish Culture. The concept of “tradition” isreemerging in Spanish film and literature as asymptom of individual and social instability,particularly as seen in the representation of the“pueblo.” 2-page abstracts by 9 Mar.; José M. delPino ([email protected]).

LUSO-BRAZILIAN LANGUAGE ANDLITERATURECem anos de Os Sertões. Focus on the tradi-tions and legacies of Euclides da Cunha’s workand its relation to the lusophone world. Abstracts(100–250 words) by 10 Mar.; Renata Wasserman.

O Luso e O Trópico. 2001 marks the 40th an-niversary of the publication of Gilberto Freyre’sinfluential work. This session will focus on

uses and misuses of lusotropicalism. Abstracts(100–250 words) by 10 Mar.; Susan Quinlan.

Writing Dictatorship / Escrevendo Dita-dura. Representation and interpretation ofsocieties in dictatorial regimes in thePortuguese-speaking countries. Abstracts (100–250 words) by 10 Mar.; Anna Klobucka.

Interdisciplinary Approaches

ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACHES TOLITERATUREEthnography and Cosmopolitanism. Ab-stracts required by 15 Mar.; Marc Manganaro.

The Predicament of Clifford. The ongoingimpact of the work of James Clifford on “an-thropological approaches” to literary studies;anthropological arguments with or alternativesto his work. Abstracts and vitae required by15 Mar.; Bradley W. Evans.

CHILDREN’S LITERATURELost Boys. Papers are welcome on Barrie’soriginal Lost Boys or on the image of lost boysin children’s and young adult literature andfilm. 500-word abstracts by 1 Mar.; DonnaWhite ([email protected]).

Open Session. Innovative contributions to thetheory, history, and conceptualization of chil-dren’s literature. All critical perspectives wel-come; all topics and time periods admissible.1–2-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Katherine Cap-shaw Smith, English Dept., Florida Interna-tional Univ., University Park, Miami 33199.

The Politics and Poetics of Harry Potter.Papers that explore theoretically and criticallyRowling’s series as literary and cultural phe-nomenon. Two copies of detailed abstracts by15 Mar.; Daniel Hade ([email protected]).

ETHNIC STUDIES IN LANGUAGE ANDLITERATUREEthnic Writing in New Orleans: Beyondthe Black-White Binary. Literature in theCrescent City encompasses a variety of ethnic-ities, languages, possibilities; this panel wel-comes old and new favorites. 2-page abstractsand vitae by 23 Mar.; Rafia Zafar.

Teaching Multiethnic Literatures: Coursesand Syllabi. Comparativist approaches toteaching multiethnic literature courses. After apresentation, panelist will share syllabi anddiscuss pedagogy. Abstracts and syllabi by15 Mar.; James Ruppert ([email protected]).

GAY STUDIES IN LANGUAGE ANDLITERATURETaking Sodomy Literally. Considering liter-ary, cultural, cinematic, or mass-media repre-sentations of sodomy. 2-page abstracts by15 Mar.; Ann Pellegrini.

LINGUISTIC APPROACHES TO LITERATUREIconicities.New Philologies.Nonsense. 1–2-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; PaulaBlank.

LITERATURE AND OTHER ARTSThe Arts of (Making) Money. Narrative,filmic, visual, or acoustical texts; fictionality and


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paper money; metal, minting, alchemy; counter-feiting; money in the digital era; J. S. G. Boggs,etc. 1-page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Karen Pinkus.

LITERATURE AND RELIGIONBurden of the Bible: Bible Stories in Mod-ern Fiction. Appropriations, adaptations, mis-readings, strong misreadings, influences ofbiblical texts on 20th-century fiction (e.g.,Faulkner, Morrison, Hamilton, Roth, Yeho-shua, Diamond). Vitae and 1-page proposals(as e-mail text message) by 10 Mar.; BernardHorn ([email protected]).

Specters of Apostasy: Postmodernity, USLiterature, and Religious Studies in the1960s. Subjective, marginal, decentered forms

of spiritual authority; liminal discourses (nei-ther conventional conversion nor completerenunciation); religious syncretism and mysti-cism; writers such as Atwood, Barth, Bur-roughs, Coover, Cox, Daly, Kerouac, Kesey,Ginsberg, Oates, LeGuin, Malcolm X, Pynchon,Reed, Snyder, Vonnegut. Vitae and 1-page pro-posals (postal mail or e-mail) by 10 Mar.; PaulReifenheiser ([email protected]).

Voodoo in New Orleans. Voudou, hoodoo,Santeria, Creole, and Afro-Caribbean religioussyncretism, in regional literature, gothic nov-els, detective fiction, film, and postcolonial cul-tural criticism. Vitae and 1-page proposalabstracts (postal mail or e-mail) by 15 Mar.;Thomas Lawrence Long ([email protected]).

LITERATURE AND SCIENCE

Literature and Systems Theory. 1–2-page ab-stracts by 1 Mar.; Bruce Clarke.

Open Topic. 1–2-page abstracts by 1 Mar.;T. Hugh Crawford.

Science’s Rhetorical Figures. 1–2-page ab-stracts by 1 Mar.; James J. Paxson.

PHILOSOPHICAL APPROACHES TOLITERATURE

Experience. What is the philosophical signifi-cance of experience in writing? Does it takeplace through language, at its limits, as its fail-ure? Is experience related to passivity, silence,undergoing, ecstasy? Submissions on Blanchot,Agamben welcome. 2-page abstracts; StuartMurray, Dept. of Rhetoric, 7403 Dwinelle,Univ. of California, Berkeley 94720.

POPULAR CULTURE

Sex with Aliens. Papers exploring reeroticiza-tions of difference in recent science fiction, popu-lar culture, and subcultures. Abstracts by e-mailonly by 1 Mar.; Ira Livingston ([email protected]).

PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACHES TOLITERATURE

Critiques of Psychoanalysis. Papers explor-ing limitations or strengths of psychoanalysisvia genders or sexualities, race, class, ethnicity,age, feminism, queer theory, postcolonialism,theology, biomedicine, historicism, Marxism,politics, philosophy, cross-cultural perspectives,etc. E-mail as attachment or fax 500-word ab-stracts and 2-page vitae by 1 Mar.; MichelleMassé ([email protected] or 225 388-4129).

SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACHES TOLITERATURE

Who Needs the Third World? Increasingly,theorists find the Third World expendable(Kaplan, Rorty). Is the Third World only athreatening image of devastation (a negativepersuasion)? Or is it freedom from modernity’slibidos-for-sale? What is Third World value?Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Timothy Brennan([email protected]).

WOMEN’S STUDIES IN LANGUAGE ANDLITERATURE

Women and Experimentalism inWriting,Film, Art Performance, and Theory I. Issuesof reception and marginality (racial, ethnic, sex-ual, etc.): Experimental women writers (ClariceLispector, Hélène Cixous, MoniqueWittig, DjunaBarnes,Gertrude Stein, Diamela Eltit, etc.).Women and Experimentalism in Writing,Film, Art Performance, and Theory II. Is-sues of reception and marginality (racial, eth-nic, sexual, etc.): Experimentalism in film, art,and performance.Women and Experimentalism in Writing,Film, Art Performance, and Theory III.Issues of reception and marginality (racial, eth-nic, sexual, etc.): Women and theory of/in ex-perimentalism. Papers or 250-word abstracts;Cynthia Tompkins ([email protected]).


Terry Castle, above left, Robert Pinsky, Claire Kramsch, and M. H. Abrams in the session “MLA Members ReadTheir Favorite Poems.”


Italian Literature

MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE ITALIANLITERATUREOpen Session.Petrarch, Inc. The institutionalization of Pe-trarch and the Petrarchan corpus; Petrarch’simitators and detractors; publishing history ofPetrarch; long-term echoes; new directions onthe eve of his eighth century.Performance and Theatricality. Theatricaltexts and theatrical aspects of nontheater texts;onstage and offstage performance. Abstractsby 23 Mar.; Michael Sherberg.

17TH-, 18TH-, AND 19TH-CENTURY ITALIANLITERATUREThe Idea of Italy from Seicento to Otto-cento. E-mail abstracts by 15 Mar.; ErnestoLivorni ([email protected]).

Literature and Science in Italy from Sei-cento to Ottocento. E-mail abstracts by15 Mar.; Massimo Lollini.

Representing Passions in Italian Culturefrom Seicento to Ottocento. E-mail abstractsby 15 Mar.; David Del Principe.

20TH-CENTURY ITALIAN LITERATURECurrent Trends in Italian Cinema. Ab-stracts by 15 Mar.; Giancarlo Lombardi.

Existential Force and Political Discourse inItalian Diaspora Writing. Abstracts with ex-amples of creative writing to be presented by15 Mar.; Justin Vitiello.

Italian and Italian American Women Writ-ing. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Gabriella Romani,Barnard Coll., New York, NY 10027.

Language Studies

APPLIED LINGUISTICSOn the Cultural Divide: Studies in NNS-NSInteraction. Issues related to the interaction ofnonnative and native speakers, e.g., solicitationsof help and negotiation of meaning. Papersmust be grounded in a theoretical framework.Out of Class: Language Acquisition inNontraditional Settings. Language acquisi-tion beyond the framework of the traditionallanguage classroom, e.g., immersion, individ-ual instruction, distance learning. Papers mustbe grounded in a theoretical framework.Technology and Language Acquisition. Therole of technology in language gain, e.g., stud-ies of online discourse and interaction pat-terns. Papers should be theoretically groundedrather than merely descriptive of teachingpractice. Abstracts only by e-mail by 1 Mar.;Rafael Salaberry ([email protected]).

HISTORY AND THEORY OF RHETORIC ANDCOMPOSITIONThe Future of the History of Rhetoric andComposition.Rhetorics and Poetics: Historical and The-oretical Relationships.Rhetoric as Cultural Studies, CulturalStudies as Rhetoric. E-mail abstracts by1 Mar.; Catherine Hobbs ([email protected]).

LANGUAGE AND SOCIETYThe Language of Family Interaction. Analy-sis of conversational and literary examples in-cluding arguments, identity, gender ideology,cultural patterning among children or adult fam-ily members (siblings, mothers, spouses, etc.).500-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Deborah Tannen.

LANGUAGE CHANGEIssues of Use of Literary Evidence of Lan-guage Change. Topics include changes in sys-tems of versification in situations of linguisticcontact. Abstracts by 10 Mar.; Kristin Hanson.

Language Change and the Media and In-ternet. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Florencia Cortes-Conde ([email protected]) or Henry Biggs([email protected]).

Open Topic. Topics include “low” languages,slang, and canting languages in relation to a“standard” language. Literary (and other) rep-resentations of “vulgar” language and languagechange. Historical approaches welcome. Ab-stracts by 10 Mar.; Janet Sorensen.

LANGUAGE THEORYTopics or Issues in Language Theory. Pa-pers invited on language theory; any area,open to different theoretical approaches. Cur-rent issues encouraged. 1-page abstracts by15 Mar.; Domnita Dumitrescu ([email protected]).

Other Languages and Literatures

AFRICAN LITERATURESGender and Sexuality in African Literatures.Literature in African Languages: Theoryand Practice. May include discussion of the“Asmara Declaration.”Panel in Honor of Bernth Lindfors. Diversecontributions encouraged. Detailed 2-page ab-stracts or papers by 15 Mar.; Aliko Songolo.

EAST ASIAN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURESCross-Cultural Postmodernity: Eastern andWestern Thought and Theory. Continuitiesand oppositions in and across traditions; exem-plary authors (Salman Rushdie, Hak KyungCha, Haruki Murakami); intellectual influences(e.g., Zen and Lacan). 8-page drafts by 15 Mar.;Yoshinobu Hakutani ([email protected]).

Diasporas and Exchanges in ContemporaryEast Asia. Recent depictions and theorizationsof migration, border crossings, dislocation,relocation of people, economies, and culturalimaginaries among Asian countries as well asbetween East Asia and the “West.” 1-pageabstracts by 1 Mar.; Jung-Soon Shim ([email protected]) and Laikwan Pang([email protected]).

Utopian and Dystopian Visions in EastAsian Literatures. Images, tropes, loci, narra-tives, and genres in the expression (throughdistinct cultural matrices) of ideal human com-munities and their opposites; comparative andregional perspectives. 2-page proposals by15 Mar.; Chung-Hei Yun, 6109 Partridge Lane,Midland, MI 48640 ([email protected]).

SLAVIC AND EAST EUROPEAN LITERATURESDiasporic Desires. Interventions into the cur-rent discursive explosion around the concept

of diasporas, focusing on the articulations ofexperiences of displacement, desire, and(dis)identification, particularly by authors ofSlavic and East European backgrounds. Ab-stracts by 15 Mar.; Vitaly Chernetsky (fax: 212854-5009; [email protected]).

Rewriting Texts. Examines revisions of culturaltexts in any genre (verbal, visual, behavioral), byindividuals or groups, in any geographic area,for any purpose. Focus on motivation for revi-sion, nature or consequences of revision. Ab-stracts to Helena Goscilo ([email protected]).

Teaching

TEACHING AS A PROFESSIONDevelopment for Teaching Roles. Focus ondeveloping graduate students and faculty mem-bers as teachers. What practices demonstrate thecentrality of teaching and learning? the value ofteaching as scholarly work? Interactive formatsencouraged. 1–2-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; PatHutchings ([email protected]).

THE TEACHING OF LANGUAGEEthical Issues in the Teaching of Language.Linguistic and cultural variations; heritage ver-sus native language challenges; language regis-ters according to race, gender; definitions of“standard” language; exploration of what is ap-propriate, acceptable, useful language.Teaching Language with Technology. Inter-net resources; resources for technology train-ing for faculty members and GTAs; supportingmultimedia development; theorizing tech-nology; informational versus instructionaltechnology; lifelong learning; language main-tenance; technological literacies.Who Prepares Graduate Students forTeaching Language? Graduate faculty mem-bers’ responsibility for teaching preparation;writing about teaching; Standards-based teach-ing, teaching visibility; reward systems, assess-ment, peer evaluation, student evaluation,mentoring. 1–2-page abstracts by 15 Mar.;Diane Birckbichler ([email protected]).

THE TEACHING OF LITERATUREGlobalization in Literature Teaching:Borges, Gao, Kafka. The question of global-ization as well as cultural and language trans-lation is critical in understanding present-dayissues of teaching. Resolving the “translation”dilemma is a particular challenge in the teach-ing of literature.Representations of the English Language:The Postcolonial Legacy. Postcolonial textsoften embody alternative representations ofthe English language. What should literatureteachers know about these representationsand their implications for humanism, nation-alism, and multiculturalism? 500-word ab-stracts by 19 Mar.; Louise Z. Smith ([email protected]).

THE TEACHING OF WRITINGEthical Issues in the Teaching of Writing.Alternatives to the ethic of rights, such as femi-nist, collective, postcolonial, or the ethic of care.Preparing Graduate Students for TeachingWriting. Disciplinary, institutional, and politi-cal challenges and strategies involved in



preparing graduate students to teach writing.1–2-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Christine Farris.

Discussion Groups

ANGLO-IRISH LITERATUREThe Celtic Twilight and Modernism. Sub-missions that explore the relation betweenmodernism and the Celtic Twilight (Yeats, AE,the Nineties, folklore, second sight, and theother world). 250-word abstracts by 1 Mar.;Daniel Albright ([email protected]).

ARABIC LITERATURE AND CULTUREArabic Media Culture.Theoretical papers ad-dressing East-West encounters between mediaculture and politics: democracy and Internet;gender and sexuality; language and globalization.Also, how does virtual discourse imagine anddisseminate Arab subjectivity? Abstracts and vi-tae by 10 Mar.; Tarek El Ariss ([email protected]).

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND TEXTUAL STUDIESBibliography, Textual Studies, and theElectronic Environment. 1-page abstracts by23 Mar.; Robin G. Schulze ([email protected]).

CANADIAN LITERATURE IN ENGLISHCa(na)jun Representations. Proposals forshort papers designed to provoke discussionand dialogue, focused on literature and othermedia, and especially concerned with themesof homeland/exile, belonging/solitude, andcommunity/diaspora: the musics of Canada.15 Mar.; Shannon Hengen ([email protected]).

CELTIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURESMother Tongues, Other Tongues: Language,Bilingualism, and Translation in Celtic Lit-erature. Papers addressing any topic related todialect or language choice, bilingualism, andtranslation pertaining to the readership, teach-ing, politics, and/or publication of Celtic litera-ture. Send proposals by 10 Mar.; C. A. Prettiman.

CLASSICAL STUDIES AND MODERNLITERATUREGender and Classicism. 15-min. papers con-sidering practical and theoretical uses of genderdisciplines (feminisms, queer studies, genderstudies) in analysis of relations between ancientand modern literatures. Send abstracts by 1 Mar.;Theresa Krier, Dept.of English,Univ.of NotreDame, Notre Dame, IN 46556 ([email protected]).

COGNITIVE APPROACHES TO LITERATURENarrative. 2-page abstracts or full papers by2 Mar.; Lisa Zunshine ([email protected])and Alan Richardson ([email protected]).

COMPARATIVE ROMANCE LINGUISTICS20-min. talks in all areas of Romance linguis-tics. 1-page blind abstracts accompanied bycard with presenter’s name, title of paper, ad-dress, telephone number, fax number, ande-mail address by 15 Mar.; Holly J. Nibert([email protected]).

COMPUTER STUDIES IN LANGUAGE ANDLITERATUREDigital Approaches to Language and Text:Words, Images, and Beyond. Current studies

in stylistics, authorship, linguistics, pedagogy,quantitative, and qualitative analysis. Particu-lar interest in new directions and the state ofthe art. E-mail abstracts by 1 Mar.; HenryBiggs ([email protected]).

GENERAL LINGUISTICSTopics in Linguistics. All theoretical frame-works are welcome. 1-page abstracts and que-ries by 15 Mar.; Richard Page ([email protected]).

GERMANIC PHILOLOGYGermanic Philology. 1-page abstracts of pa-pers on topics in Germanic philology or Ger-manic linguistics. Abstracts and queries by15 Mar.; Richard Page ([email protected]).

HEBREW LITERATUREHistory, Politics, and Hebrew Literature,1880s–2000. Literary studies engage historyagain. Recent fiction reflects Israeli new histori-ography, but the preoccupation with politics, di-asporism, and revolution originates in the 19thcentury. Preference to historical or political lit-erary discussions. Abstracts by 1 Apr.; RachelFeldhay Brenner ([email protected]).

HUNGARIAN LITERATUREDreams and Nostalgia in PostmodernHungary. Detailed abstracts with brief vitaeby 15 Mar.; Eva L. Corredor, 4 Horizon Road,627, Fort Lee, NJ 07024 ([email protected]).

ITALIAN AMERICAN LITERATURELynchings and Linkings: Italian Americansin Hybrid America. Looking for dynamic in-terpretations of Italian American identities inliterature and film explored by race, class, or inrelation to other ethnic groups. 1-page ab-stracts, biographies by 15 Mar.; Fred Gardaphe.

JEWISH AMERICAN LITERATUREJewish American Literature: New Voices.Themes include religious return, biculturalidentity, changing gender roles, imagining Is-rael, diaspora and Israeli Jewish identities,Jewish history, intertextual readings, second-and third-generation Holocaust response.1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; S. Lillian Kremer.

JEWISH CULTURAL STUDIESSpacializing Jewish Cultural Studies. In-cluding, for example, media, private and pub-lic spaces, institutional spaces, exhibitions,home, homeland, geographies, political spaces.Abstracts or papers by 15 Mar.; MichelleEphraim ([email protected]).

LITERATURE OF THE UNITED STATES INLANGUAGES OTHER THAN ENGLISHLanguage Diversity and National Litera-tures. Comparative approaches to workswhose language challenges their status inmonolingually conceived national literatures.US literature as multilingual literature and gen-eral issues of bilingualism, translingualism, andcode switching in world literature. Abstracts(or 12-page papers) by e-mail by 31 Mar.;Werner Sollors ([email protected]).

LUSOPHONE LITERATURES AND CULTURESOUTSIDE PORTUGAL AND BRAZILImagens da Índia: Ontem e hoje—Análisesda presença portuguesa na sociedade Indi-

ana. Literature and documents portraying thePortuguese in India and Luso-Indian society fromthe end of the 15th century to the present. Ab-stracts, short bibliographies, and vitae by 16 Mar.(papers in Portuguese, English, or both); Maria deDeus Beites Manso ([email protected]).

MEDIA AND LITERATUREAdaptation. Papers discussing adaptations ofliterary works for radio, film, television: histor-ical implications, theoretical implications, gainsand losses, effects on work and/or on the me-dia. E-mail abstracts by 1 Mar.; Everett Frost.

NETHERLANDIC LANGUAGE ANDLITERATUREInternational Perspectives on Dutch Litera-ture. Interdisciplinary and theoretically in-formed approaches to Dutch literature; e.g.,gender studies, Jewish studies, postcolonial stud-ies, ethnic approaches, etc. E-mail abstracts by15 Mar.; Carl Niekerk ([email protected]).

OLD NORSE LITERATURE AND LANGUAGEThe Relation between Old Norse and OldEnglish Poetics. 250–400-word abstracts by16 Mar.; Judy Quinn, Dept. of Anglo-Saxon,Norse, and Celtic, Cambridge Univ., Cam-bridge CB3 9DP, England ([email protected]).

OPERA AS A LITERARY AND DRAMATICFORMThe Subject of Opera. 250–500-word ab-stracts by 15 Mar.; Richard Dellamora (fax:705 748-1826 ([email protected]).

PART-TIME FACULTY MEMBERSUnions. Writing activities within unions.Unions in literature. Unionization and aca-demic labor. Strategies for unionization of part-time faculty members. Abstracts by 10 Mar.;Carl Whithaus, 339 8th St., Jersey City, NJ07302 ([email protected]).

POSTCOLONIAL STUDIES IN LITERATUREAND CULTUREDigital Diaspora: New Media, IndigenousSpaces, and Postcoloniality. How do elec-tronic media reconceptualize identity and space,proposing a visual aesthetics of postcoloniality?Abstracts on Africa, the Caribbean, and LatinAmerica especially welcome; deadline 24 Mar.;Lynn Houston ([email protected]).

PROVENÇAL AND CATALAN LANGUAGEAND LITERATURECatalan and Occitan Literature, 1500–2000.Abstracts (hard copy only) by 16 Mar.; WilliamCalin.

PUERTO RICAN LITERATURE AND CULTUREEntrelazos caribeños / Caribbean Interre-lations: Homage to Nilita Vientós Gastón.Proposals for papers on relations (literary andcultural) between the Caribbean nations andPuerto Rico and papers honoring the interdis-ciplinary work of Nilita Vientós Gastón, by15 Mar.; Lúzma Umpierre, PO Box 568,Auburn, ME 04212 ([email protected]).

ROMANIAN STUDIESThe Disenchanted Lyric Muse: Romaniaand Its Neighbors. A comparative discussion



of trends in poetry and poetics of the 20th cen-tury, in Romania and neighboring countries.1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Domnica Radu-lescu ([email protected]).

SCANDINAVIAN LANGUAGES ANDLITERATURESPerformance in Scandinavian Culture. Pa-pers on any aspect of performance in Scandi-navian culture from the Middle Ages to thepresent. 200-word abstracts by 15 Mar.;Lynn R. Wilkinson.

SCIENCE FICTION AND UTOPIAN ANDFANTASTIC LITERATURE2001, a Cultural Studies Odyssey: ScienceFiction and Techno-Cultural Fact. Now, dur-ing the culturally auspicious year 2001, this panelwill take a cultural studies approach to discussingscience fiction in terms of the real techno-culturewe currently inhabit. Marleen Barr, 62-60 99thSt., Apt. 1707, Rego Park, NY 11374.

SEPHARDIC STUDIESSephardic Scribes and Manuscripts, Print-ers and Presses, Bookmen and Readers.Papers addressing commercial, sociological,ideological, and other aspects of the production,distribution, and commerce in Sephardic man-uscripts and books, holy as well as secular.16 Mar.; John Zemke ([email protected]).

SLAVIC LITERATURES AND CULTURESTheories of Representation: Frames andForm. Picturing likeness or distinction movesthe lens of the theorist through different fieldsand comparisons. Particularly welcome aresubmissions including central and Eastern Eu-ropean focus. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; ChristineTomei, 6409 Lone Oak Dr., Bethesda, MD20817 ([email protected]).

SOUTH ASIAN LANGUAGES ANDLITERATURESSouth Asian Writing in ComparativeContexts. Comparative readings of SouthAsian texts and texts from other back-grounds, especially African and Caribbean.Issues of colonialism, hybridity, language,and aesthetics; theoretical and pedagogicalperspectives welcome. 500-word abstracts by19 Mar.; Amritjit Singh.

SOUTHERN LITERATURENew Research in Southern Literature. Pa-pers invited on regionalism and the South, cul-tural studies in and of the South, new contextsfor the study of southern literatures. 1-page ab-stracts by 1 Mar.; Barbara Ladd.

TRANSLATIONTranslation and Reception. Talks on howtranslations are read, published, edited, mar-keted, reviewed, performed, or adapted by thetarget culture or on the influence of translationson that culture. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Rachel May.

THE TWO-YEAR COLLEGELiterature, Theory, and Composition. The re-lation between literary-theoretical training andcomposition pedagogy. Narrative as a model for

composition. Critical theory for students in thefirst two years. Literature and critical thinking.Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Douglas Eisner.

WEST ASIAN LANGUAGES ANDLITERATURESPostcolonialism and Pedagogical Mission:Approaches to Teaching West Asian Litera-tures. Strategies for the inclusion and teachingof West Asian literatures in college and univer-sity curricula. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Zjaleh Ha-jibashi, Dept. of Middle Eastern Languages andCultures, PO Box 400781, Univ. of Virginia,Charlottesville 22904-4781 ([email protected]).

YIDDISH LITERATUREThe Self in Yiddish Literature: Old andNew, Public and Private. Considerations ofhow Yiddish writers construct subjectivity.Open to all genres and periods of Yiddishwriting. Abstracts, preferably by e-mail, by16 Mar.; Jan Schwarz ([email protected]) andKathryn Hellerstein ([email protected]).

MLA Committees

AD HOC COMMITTEE ON THEPROFESSIONALIZATION OF PHDSHow I Got My Job. Recent assistant professorsto assess which aspects of their training weremost helpful in securing a tenure-track position(roundtable format). Abstracts by e-mail only by30 Mar.; John Lyon ([email protected]) andAnne Donadey ([email protected]).Pressed for Success: A Roundtable. Is a var-ied teaching portfolio the key to a tenure-trackposition, or does a “magic” number of publica-tions do the trick? Ideas and best practices ofgrad programs and job seekers. Abstracts, briefvitae to Rafia Zafar.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON FOREIGNLANGUAGES AND LITERATURESThe Academic Career: Research, Teaching,Family, Achievement, Burnout? Identifyingand coping with the pressures, conflicts, andmoral dilemmas of academic life, both pre-and posttenure. Proposals or abstracts by15 Mar.; Judith Liskin-Gasparro.

ADVISORY COMMITTEE ON THE MLAINTERNATIONAL BIBLIOGRAPHYWhen Is a Web Site Scholarship? How todefine “scholarship” on the Internet? Implica-tions for bibliography, tenure, promotion, peerreview, documentation. 250-word proposals by15 Mar.; Todd Taylor ([email protected]).

ASSOCIATION OF DEPARTMENTS OFFOREIGN LANGUAGESInteractive Technology in Foreign Lan-guages, Linguistics, and Literatures. Paperson how to evaluate the efficacy of new tech-nologies and their relevance to pedagogical ob-jectives of academic departments andinstitutions; by 2 Mar.; Alex Chapin, Sunder-land Language Center, Middlebury Coll., Mid-dlebury, VT 05753 ([email protected]).Preparing Graduate Students to Teach Lit-erature in Foreign Languages. Papers fromgraduate students and faculty members onpreparation to teach literature in target lan-guages. Can graduate programs model teach-

ing for undergraduates? Proposals by 2 Mar.;Geraldine Cleary Nichols.

Teaching Literature to Today’s Students.Explore ways to link the visual to the textual inorder to draw students, raised in an environ-ment emphasizing image, speed, and action, tothe study of literature. Abstracts to Phyllis Lar-son, Asian Studies Dept., Saint Olaf Coll., 1520Saint Olaf Ave., Northfield, MN 55057.

COMMITTEE ON ACADEMIC FREEDOMAND PROFESSIONAL RIGHTS ANDRESPONSIBILITIESElectronic Media and Intellectual Property.Ideas of intellectual property in relation tomodes of realization (oral, print, electronic).Ethics, etiquette of posting class notes on theWeb, borrowing online syllabi, quoting List-serv posts, etc. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Marie-Laure Ryan ([email protected]).

COMMITTEE ON COMMUNITY COLLEGESIs There a Community in This College? De-fining community; addressing diverse students;protecting constituencies and values in human-ities; negotiating administrative agendas andfaculty and student needs; community collegeimage in the community. 250-word abstractsby 15 Mar.; James Papp ([email protected]).

The Market and the College. Papers on theeffect of market forces, real or rhetorical, onchanging pedagogies and systems, includingapplied programs and certification replacinggeneral education. Abstracts by 10 Mar.; FéBrittain and Douglas Eisner.

Tools of the Trade: Literature Skills. Beyondthemes and theories, what skills do we teachwhen we teach literature? How? How do they al-low access to the life of the mind for student andteacher? Abstracts by 10 Mar.; Melissa Sue Kort.

COMMITTEE ON COMPUTERS ANDEMERGING TECHNOLOGIES IN TEACHINGAND RESEARCHTeaching Languages Online. The Internetprovides new resources and environments forteaching. The CCET seeks examples of newpossibilities, successful strategies, and caution-ary tales for teaching languages in the elec-tronic environment.Teaching Literature Online. The Internetprovides new resources and environments forteaching. The CCET seeks examples of newpossibilities, successful strategies, and caution-ary tales for teaching literature in the elec-tronic environment. Proposals by 22 Feb.;James Noblitt ([email protected]).

COMMITTEE ON DISABILITY ISSUES IN THEPROFESSIONCorporealities. Disability studies has gener-ally rejected the “medical model” of disability.But does the social-constructionist account ad-equately describe lived, embodied experi-ences? Can medical science contribute to newtheories of corporeality? 1–2-page abstracts by1 Apr.; Tobin Siebers.

COMMITTEE ON THE LITERATURES OFPEOPLE OF COLOR IN THE UNITED STATESAND CANADAAsian American Literature and PostcolonialDiasporas: Intersections and Interventions.



Exploring convergences and conflicts betweenAsian American, postcolonial, and diasporic lit-eratures and theories. Detailed abstracts orcomplete papers by 15 Mar.; Lavina D. Shankar.

COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OFGRADUATE STUDENTS IN THEPROFESSIONPapers addressing how issues of identity (in-cluding race, gender, class, sexuality, age, dis-ability) figure in the graduate school experience.1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Saundra Liggins, c/oPhyllis Franklin ([email protected]).

COMMITTEE ON THE STATUS OF WOMENIN THE PROFESSIONPresentations Responding to the CSWPReport Published in Profession 2000. Possi-ble topics: administrative (re)action on yourcampus; from problems to solutions; specificanalyses of the report. Abstracts by 15 Mar.;Rosemary Feal or Dana Dragunoiu.

OFFICE OF ENGLISH PROGRAMSThe Small College Department: Ambigui-ties of Intellectual Life. 12-min. presentationsaddressing the distinctive forms of collegialityand diplomacy small departments may require,as these affect innovation, tradition, dissent,disagreement, and intellectual vitality. 250-word abstracts by 10 Mar.; Lawrence Moe.

Allied and Affiliate Organizations

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR ITALIANSTUDIESItalian Humor across Genres. 1-page ab-stracts by 15 Mar.; Ernesto Livorni ([email protected]).

Mediterranean Crossroads. 1-page abstractsby 15 Mar.; Daniela Bini ([email protected]).

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF AUSTRALIANLITERARY STUDIESAustralia and Multiculturalism. Discus-sions of historical or current issues. Abstractsby 15 Mar.; Robert Zeller ([email protected]).

Peter Carey and Australia. Abstracts by15 Mar.; James F. Hoy, Div. of English, Empo-ria State Univ., Emporia, KS 66801.

AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF PROFESSORSOF YIDDISHReligion, Ethnic Identity in American Jew-ish Literature. Proposals by 20 Mar.; MichaelTaub, 3001 Henry Hudson Pkwy., W Apt.,Bronx, NY 10463-4717 ([email protected]).

Rural and Urban Experience in YiddishLiterature. Proposals by 20 Mar.; Alan Astro([email protected]).

AMERICAN COMPARATIVE LITERATUREASSOCIATIONOpen Call for Two Sessions: A New Gener-ation of Comparatists. Proposals may addressquestions of method, emergent topics, new re-search, and evolving models of the discipline,in teaching or research. Proposals by 20 Mar.;Steven Ungar ([email protected]).

AMERICAN FOLKLORE SOCIETYFolklore and Children’s Literature. Papersand abstracts by 15 Mar.; Debbie A. Hanson,Dept. of English, Augustana Coll., Sioux Falls,SD 57197 ([email protected]).

AMERICAN HUMOR STUDIES ASSOCIATIONEthnic Humor: Racial or Racist? Topics in-clude racial, ethnic, and other stereotyping;historic uses of humor; theory as it relates tohumor and aggression; individual authors andperformers. 10–12-page papers or substantialabstracts by 15 Jan.; Joseph McCullough, En-glish Dept., Univ. of Nevada, Las Vegas 89154([email protected]).

AMERICAN NAME SOCIETYTwo Open MLA Sessions. Fields include lit-erature, literary theory, philosophy, linguistics,geography, social-historical usage. Panels onsingle authors or subjects invited. 150-wordabstracts by 5 Mar.; Christine De Vinne([email protected]).

AMERICAN THEATRE AND DRAMA SOCIETYGlobal Influence on United States Theaterand Drama I: Africa, Asia, Middle East.Global Influence onUnited StatesTheaterand Drama II: South and Central America.Open to any period, genre, conventions, inno-vations, rituals, themes, tropes, theatricalities,acting styles, production elements. 250-word ab-stracts by 16 Mar.; BobVorlicky ([email protected]).

ASSOCIATION DES AMIS D’ANDRE GIDEPour ou contre André Gide? On the occa-sion of the 50th anniversary of Gide’s death,the AAAG welcomes papers dealing withGide’s legacy and his political supporters/ad-versaries and literary friends/enemies. 2-pageabstracts in French or English and brief vitaeby 10 Mar.; Frédéric Canovas ([email protected]).

ASSOCIATION FOR BUSINESSCOMMUNICATIONTransforming Technology: E-Writing, Dis-tance Learning, and Digital Discourse.How have changes in technology affected theteaching of professional communication? Howhave theory and practice responded to digitaldiscourse? What are the implications for re-search? 1-page abstracts (e-mail submissionspreferred), brief biographical statements, andproof of MLA membership by 26 Feb.; toMelinda Knight ([email protected]).

ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OFAMERICAN INDIAN LITERATURESAmerican Indian Protest Literatures. Papersthat critically engage the work of American In-dian and First Nations activists and writers (“lit-eratures” broadly conceived). Proposals by23 Mar.; Malea Powell ([email protected]).

Teaching American Indian Literatures inMulticultural Contexts. How, why, where,and to whom, working with broad, open-ended definitions of “multicultural contexts.”Multitribal, intertribal, multiracial, multieth-nic, transnational approaches; Native litera-tures across curricula; diverse studentpopulations; etc. 1-page proposals or brief pa-

pers by 16 Mar.; Eric Gary Anderson ([email protected]).

ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OF DADAAND SURREALISMSurrealism in Latin America. 1-page ab-stracts by 15 Mar.; Rudolf Kuenzli([email protected]).

ASSOCIATION FOR THE STUDY OFLITERATURE AND ENVIRONMENTThe Presence of the Social in Wild Places.How do writers and environmentalists bring so-cial assumptions into wild places and land-scapes? How do writers represent work andday-to-day living in the wilderness or less inhab-ited places? How do these questions relate to thelarger issues of how human culture and wildnessinteract? 1-page abstracts and vitae by 1 Mar.Representing Subjectivity in Animals. Howare animals represented by such varying meth-odologies as natural history, environmentalethics, animal rights, wildlife conservation?What is the role of anecdote, narrative, science,anthropomorphism in animal representation?What role do inherent value, consciousness, in-dividual life, subjectivity, or wildness play inthe representing of animals as individuals orspecies? 1-page abstracts and vitae by 1 Mar.;Bonney MacDonald. No e-mail submissions.

ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS OF SLAVICAND EAST EUROPEAN LANGUAGESThe Icon. Theoretical implications of the“icon”—religious, cultural, representational, oraesthetic. Papers considering the convergenceor divergence of understandings of the icon be-tween Slavic and non-Slavic cultures particu-larly welcome. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; CatharineNepomnyashchy ([email protected]).

Impostors and Pretenders. How have im-postors and pretenders been represented andrepresented themselves and their legitimatingclaims in history, culture, and literature? Inter-disciplinary, comparative approaches and inno-vative presentation formats welcome. 1–2-pageabstracts by 15 Mar.; George Gutsche([email protected]).

MARGARET ATWOOD SOCIETYMargaret Atwood’s The Blind Assassin. Opentopic on any aspect of the novel. 2–3-page ab-stracts by 15 Mar.; Shuli Barzilai and Ruth O.Saxton ([email protected] and [email protected]).

Comedy and Humor in Atwood. Papers thatexamine the roles and the constructions ofvarieties of comedy and humor in the novels,poetry, essays, performance pieces, or adapta-tions of works of Margaret Atwood. 250-wordabstracts or completed 10–12-page papers by16 Mar.; to both chairs: Alice M. Palumbo([email protected]) and CharlotteSturgess ([email protected]).

SIMONE DE BEAUVOIR SOCIETYOpen Session. Topics related to the work andlife of Simone de Beauvoir. 1-page abstractsand brief biographies by 1 Mar.; Yolanda As-tarita Patterson, 440 La Mesa Dr., Menlo Park,CA 94028-7455 ([email protected]).



BYRON SOCIETY OF AMERICAByron as Muse. How have English and Euro-pean painters (e.g.,Turner, Delacroix), musicians(e.g., Berlioz), and writers (e.g., Lermontov,Pushkin) been inspired by and, in turn, shapedinterpretations of Byron’s poetry? 500-word ab-stracts or 8-page papers by 23 Mar.; JonathanDavid Gross ([email protected]).

CERVANTES SOCIETY OF AMERICAOpen Topic. Preference for papers that treattexts within the context of literature per se(taken to include literary tradition, intertextu-ality, genre issues, etc.). Abstracts and bibli-ographies by 15 Mar.; James A. Parr([email protected]).

CHILDREN’S LITERATURE ASSOCIATIONChildren’s Literature That Explores theSouth. Stereotypes, undertones, environment,culture, social and economic structure; worksby Southern authors, with Southern settings,or involved in Southern culture. 8-10 pages by15 Mar.; Sylvia Iskander ([email protected]).

Women as Gatekeepers of Children’s Liter-ature. How have female authors, editors, andpublishers and women’s issues molded juve-nile literature? 200–500-word abstracts or8–10-page papers by 15 Mar.; Diana Chlebek([email protected]).

JOHN CLARE SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICAOpen Session. With special interest in papersthat relate Clare to other laboring-class andrustic poets. 1-page proposals by 15 Mar.; ScottMcEathron ([email protected]).

PAUL CLAUDEL SOCIETYLe poème en prose de Paul Claudel.Paul Claudel et André Gide: Confluenceset divergences. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; SergioVillani ([email protected]).

COLLEGE LANGUAGE ASSOCIATIONLiterature and the Americas: Roots andRoutes I. Submissions on literature and lan-guages of the Americas: literary theory; Afri-can, Asian, and European influences; historicalliterature; cross-cultural representation; liter-ary and critical trends in United States, SouthAmerican, and Caribbean writing.Literature and the Americas: Roots andRoutes II. Submissions on the literature andlanguages of the Americas: literary theory; his-torical literature; African Francophone, His-panophone, and Lusophone critical theory andinfluences; cross-cultural representation; liter-ary and critical trends in language studies andpedagogy. 1–2-page abstracts by 10 Mar.;Yakini B. Kemp, Dept. of English, FloridaA&M Univ., Tallahassee 32307 ([email protected]).

COMMUNITY COLLEGE HUMANITIESASSOCIATIONTeaching Local Culture: New Orleans. Paperson any aspect of teaching the culture of New Or-leans, especially interdisciplinary approaches in-volving literature, art, religion, or music. Papers

or abstracts by 1 Mar.; George L. Scheper (fax:410 523-1341; [email protected]).

JOSEPH CONRAD SOCIETYConrad and the Reader: Implied, Histori-cal, and “Other” Audiences. Papers soughton all aspects of reader relations, includingConrad’s ideal or excluded readers, gender andreading, characters as readers, postcolonialreaders, rereading Conrad intertextually, etc.1–2-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Brian Richard-son ([email protected]).

Conrad’s Sexualities. How is sexuality repre-sented in Conrad’s works? Such questions ashow same-sex male relationships affect our un-derstanding of Conrad’s representations ofwomen and conventional courtship and mar-riage might be productively addressed. 1–2-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Richard Ruppel([email protected]).

COUNCIL OF WRITING PROGRAMADMINISTRATORSRethinking the Relation between WritingPrograms and English Departments.The Role of Theory in First-Year Composi-tion. 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Duane Roen([email protected]).

JOHN DONNE SOCIETYDonne and Others. 8–11-page, 20-min. pa-pers by 1 Mar.; Judith Hertz.

Donne: An Open Session. 8–11-page, 20-min. papers by 1 Mar.; Noralyn Masselink.

FEMINISTAS UNIDASWorkshop: Pedagogy in Solidarity. Femini-stas Unidas session on practices of political andsocial commitment and service learning in His-panic literatures and cultures courses. Workshopformat: syllabi, teaching strategies, internships,community outreach. Abstracts by 15 Mar.;Beth E. Jorgensen ([email protected]).

ROBERT FROST SOCIETYFrost in History, History in Frost. Consider-ations of Frost’s earlier work as a registrationof changing New England economies between1890 and 1914 or the late work as an engage-ment with the Cold War. Abstracts and vitaeby 30 April; Mark Richardson ([email protected]).

MARGARET FULLER SOCIETYMargaret Fuller’s America.Visions of Ameri-can society, people, and places. Interpretation ofspecific political and historical events. Responsesto demographic and social changes in America.2–3-page proposals and vitae by 15 Mar.; JeffreySteele ([email protected]).

Open Topic. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Larry J.Reynolds ([email protected]).

GAY AND LESBIAN CAUCUS FOR THEMODERN LANGUAGESRace-ing and Engendering Queer Pedagogyand Scholarship. 1-page abstracts by 10 Mar.;Douglas Steward ([email protected]).

ELLEN GLASGOW SOCIETYNeurasthenia and Technology in Turn-of-the-Century America. Papers welcome on

any aspect of the relation between “nerve dis-course” and technology or mechanization intexts by Glasgow or others. 1–2-page abstractsby 15 Mar.; Barbara Will ([email protected]).

GOETHE SOCIETY OF NORTH AMERICAGoethe and the Idea of Truth. What impli-cations does Goethe’s way or style of thinkingabout the truth and truthfulness have for hisliterary and scientific work? What historical,conceptual, practical, and rhetorical considera-tions present themselves? 1–2-page abstractsby 10 Mar.; Karen I. Pagel ([email protected]).

NATHANIEL HAWTHORNE SOCIETYHawthorne and 19th-Century EmotionalLife. Papers discussing such topics as Haw-thorne’s evocation and suppression of readeremotion, use or critique of literary genrespredicated on emotional/sensational response,treatment of middle-class emotional repertoire(shame, sympathy, love, ennui). 500-word ab-stracts by 1 Mar.; Kristie Hamilton.

Transatlantic Hawthorne. Papers about awriter who, developing an American idiom,rewrites foreign contemporaries and rivals,whether English Romantics—e.g., Byron,Keats, Wordsworth—or Victorians—e.g., Dick-ens, Mayhew, Lamb—or Continental authors—e.g., Balzac, Hugo. 500-word abstracts by1 Mar.; Brenda Wineapple.

HEMINGWAY SOCIETYHemingway’s Cultural Afterlife: Four De-cades of Posthumous Productivity. Theposthumous narratives and attendant contro-versies; yet-unpublished manuscripts and frag-ments; revisionary theories of Hemingway’slater career. Papers, proposals, and inquiries by15 Mar.; J. Gerald Kennedy ([email protected]).

LANGSTON HUGHES SOCIETYLangston Hughes and the AmericanSouth. How the American South informs theart and imagination of Langston Hughes.1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Dolan Hubbard([email protected]).

INTERNATIONAL ARTHUR SCHNITZLERRESEARCH ASSOCIATIONSeriously Funny: Humor, Comedy, andSatire in Austrian Literature, Film, andPerformance. Papers from various theoreticalperspectives comparing texts, periods, cul-tures, and subcultures, Enlightenment to thepresent. 250–500-word abstracts by 15 Mar.;Geoffrey C. Howes ([email protected]).

INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF GALDOSSCHOLARSGaldós clásico y moderno. Galdós as acanonical classic and modern novelist. Paperscould discuss his use of the classics and my-thology, his role as innovator and precursor tolater literary developments. Papers may be the-oretical, intertextual, or both. Abstracts by16 Mar.; Theodore A. Sackett ([email protected]).

Galdós y sus contemporáneos. Contempo-rary theorists, journalists, novelists, historians,literary relations, or intertextuality, inside ofSpain or in Europe and Latin America. Ab-



stracts or 20-min. papers by 16 Mar.; Alan E.Smith ([email protected]).

INTERNATIONAL BRECHT SOCIETYJohn Willett: Politics, Theater, Criticism.Submissions that address any aspect of JohnWillett’s scholarly contributions on WeimarGermany or Bertolt Brecht. By 18 Mar.; MarcSilberman ([email protected]).

Brecht Cineast: Scripting and Making Films.The new German Brecht edition documents invols. 19 and 20 Brecht’s lifelong interest in thecinema. Submissions engaging this new materialor new aspects of Brecht’s fascination with thecinema are welcome. By 18 Mar.; Dorothee Ost-meier ([email protected]).

INTERNATIONAL COURTLY LITERATURESOCIETYPerformance and the Romance Manu-script. Papers by 15 Mar.; Mark Cruse, 18, rueCorvisart, Pte. 214, 75013 Paris, France([email protected]).

Early Modern Courtly Spectacle. Papers by15 Mar.; Sara Maddox ([email protected]).

INTERNATIONAL SPENSER SOCIETYTeach the Faerie Queene in a Week?Spenser in Today’s Curriculum. Panel dis-cussion abstracts by 15 Mar.; Sheila Cavanagh([email protected]).

Edmund Spenser: Open Session. Papers onany aspect of the works of Edmund Spenser.Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Roland Greene, Dept. ofEnglish, Stanford Univ. Stanford, CA 94305-2087 ([email protected]).

INTERNATIONAL VIRGINIA WOOLF SOCIETYWomen Who Ran with the Woolfs. Womenassociated (intimately, professionally, as sup-porters, as threats) with Leonard or Virginia orboth (e.g., Ethel Smythe, Trekkie Parsons, theViscontess Rhondda, Beatrice Webb). 1-pageabstracts or completed papers by 5 March.;Molly Hite ([email protected]).

Woolf and the Unsayable. How Woolf repre-sents the unsayable; what the dominant cul-ture renders taboo or incommunicable;experiences of body and spirit that seem be-yond or before words; the nonhuman world,animate or inanimate. 250–500-word abstractsby 15 Mar.; Diana L. Swanson, Women’s Stud-ies Program, Dept. of English, Northern IllinoisUniv., DeKalb 60115 ([email protected]).

INTERNATIONAL VLADIMIR NABOKOVSOCIETYNabokov Imitating, Imitating Nabokov.His hoaxes and parodies; fiction and poetry byothers that imitated or responded to his work.Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Charles Nicol (fax: 812237-3156; [email protected]).

Open Session. Abstracts on any topic dealingwith the author’s work, life, literary relationsby 1 Mar.; Zoran Kuzmanovich, Dept. of En-glish, Davidson Coll., Davidson, NC 28036([email protected]).

HENRY JAMES SOCIETYLessons of the Master. James and pedagogy;scenes of instruction; queer tutelage; James as

a theoretician; ethics in and of James’s writ-ings; relations between pedagogy and mastery.Specters of James. The ghostly tales; thespectral, liminal, or uncanny; bodies and spir-its; temporal anachronies; intertextual haunt-ings in and of James. Abstracts and vitae by15 Mar.; Sheila Teahan ([email protected]).

KAFKA SOCIETY OF AMERICAKafka and Architecture.Kafka and the City. Abstracts by 25 Mar.;M. Luise Caputo-Mayr ([email protected]).

KEATS-SHELLEY ASSOCIATION OF AMERICALabor and Romanticism. Topics include re-lations between Romanticism and working-class experiences, aesthetics, portrayals ofworkers, canon expansion, questions of audi-ence, and differences between industrial, arti-san, agricultural, and domestic writers. 1-pageabstracts by 1 Mar.; Kevin Binfield ([email protected]).

Romantic-Era Periodicals. Aesthetic, politi-cal, sociological, or commercial aspects of peri-odical culture; periodicals and the experienceof reading; the role of periodicals in the “age ofpersonality.” 1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; KimWheatley ([email protected]).

D. H. LAWRENCE SOCIETY OF NORTHAMERICAD. H. Lawrence: The Sacred and the Pro-fane. Papers invited on Lawrence’s representa-tion and opinion of the sacred and the profanein any of his works. 150-word abstracts or pa-pers by 15 Mar.; Elizabeth M. Fox, 2 SparksPlace, Cambridge, MA 02138 ([email protected]).

DORIS LESSING SOCIETYDoris Lessing and Kate Chopin: Affinitiesand Differences. 2-page proposals by15 Mar.; Brenda Bryant ([email protected]).

Doris Lessing: Fairy Tales, Mythology, andOther Folklore. Allusions and intertexts, in-cluding creation and journey myths, mon-strous birth legends, fairy-tale motifs, andother “old stories,” in any of her work. 1–2-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Sharon Wilson([email protected]).

G. E. LESSING SOCIETYLessing and the Seven Years’ War. Paperson 18th-century responses to (the) war byGleim, Ramler, Bräker, and others; Minna vonBarnhelm, Philotas; Lessing in Breslau; Lessingand Tauentzien, Frederick II, etc. 1–2-page ab-stracts by 15 Mar.; Anne Schmiesing([email protected]).

Reading in the 18th Century. The 18th cen-tury has been called the age of the “readingrevolution.” Who was reading, when, where,what, and how? How did reading influence theself-fashioning of the individual? 1–2-page ab-stracts by 25 Mar.; Barbara Becker-Cantarino([email protected]).

LYRICA SOCIETY FOR WORD-MUSICRELATIONSJazz Forms in Literature and Music. Inqui-ries and proposals by 20 Mar.; Denise Gallo([email protected]).

Technologies of Song. Inquiries and proposalsby 20 Mar.; Leslie Dunn ([email protected]).

MARLOWE SOCIETY OF AMERICAOpen Topic. Any aspect of Marlowe’s life andwork. Abstracts, proposals, or 8-page papers by1 Mar.; Robert A. Logan, 23 Dockerel Road, Tol-land, CT 06084-3602 ([email protected]).

MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE DRAMASOCIETYCatherine of Aragon and Tudor Drama. Pa-pers assessing records of Catherine’s marriagefestival (1501), its influence on Tudor dramaticforms, or Catherine as sponsor, actor, and sub-ject in dramatic performance.Saint Michael Is a Sissy: The Popularity ofDemons and Dragons in Early Drama.Papers assessing the compelling nature of evilentities in early drama, their portrayal, and so-ciocultural significance. 1-page abstracts by9 Mar.; Gloria J. Betcher ([email protected]).

MELVILLE SOCIETYNew Perspectives on Melville and Ethnic-ity. Papers should analyze Melville’s creativeand critical engagement with human diversityand difference. 3-page proposals and vitae by20 Mar.; Timothy Marr, Curriculum in Ameri-can Studies, CB 3520, Greenlaw Hall, Univ. ofNorth Carolina, Chapel Hill 27599-3520([email protected]).

MELUS: THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OFTHE MULTI-ETHNIC LITERATURE OF THEUNITED STATESThe Book Cooks! Multiethnic Recipes forAmerican Literature. Papers should explorethe relation between food and artistic perfor-mance in multiethnic literature of the UnitedStates. Presenters must be MELUS members.1-page abstracts and brief biographies by15 Mar.; Fred Gardaphe ([email protected]).

MILTON SOCIETY OF AMERICAJohn Milton: A General Session I. 8-pagepapers by 15 Mar.; Achsah Guibbory([email protected]).

John Milton: A General Session II. Recep-tive to newer voices in Milton studies. 8-pagepapers by 15 Mar.; Diana Trevino Benet([email protected]).

MODERN GREEK STUDIES ASSOCIATIONTransnational Fields of Neo-Hellenism:Greek Culture and Diaspora Studies. Schol-ars working within the field of Modern Greekstudies are invited to submit papers exploringGreek diaspora from a variety of perspectives.500-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Georgios Anag-nostu ([email protected]).

WILLIAM MORRIS SOCIETYMorris and the Pre-Raphaelites: Scienceand the Natural World.The Pre-Raphaelite Circle and Early Mod-ernism. Proposals by 15 Mar.; Florence Boos([email protected]).

NORTH AMERICAN CATALAN SOCIETYMultipolar Constructions: Relationsamong the Cultural Systems of Iberia.



Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Thomas S. Harrington([email protected]).

NORTH AMERICAN HEINE SOCIETYHeine and Modernity. Papers on any aspectof Heine’s role as a writer on the threshold tomodernity. Topics may include tradition andmodernity, a paradigmatic shift in German po-etry, Heine and the city, modern conceptionsof religion or philosophy. 1-page abstracts by1 Mar.; Roger Cook ([email protected]).

HAROLD PINTER SOCIETYTransliterations: Pinter for the Screen. Ab-stracts on any aspect of Pinter and film, espe-cially screenplays and adaptations, by 15 Mar.;Judith Roof ([email protected]).

PIRANDELLO SOCIETY OF AMERICALuigi Pirandello: The Marta Abba Plays.Papers sought for two sessions exploring theevolution of Pirandello’s style, subject matter,and vision in the final plays written specifi-cally for Marta Abba, his leading lady. 500-word abstracts and short vitae by 15 Mar.;Rose Fichera McAloon ([email protected]).

POE STUDIES ASSOCIATIONPoe and the Art of Violence. Revenge, en-tombment, crime, catastrophes, apocalypti-cism, hatred, death, or the death of a beautifulwoman in Poe’s literary and critical works.Comparative and contextual approaches areespecially welcome.Secrets and Lies in Poe. Duplicity, secretcodes, cryptography, hidden messages, verisi-militude, or hoaxing in Poe’s life and works.The significance and documentation of the ar-gument is more important than the critical ap-proach. Papers by 1 Mar.; Terence Whalen,English Dept., Univ. of Illinois, 601 South Mor-gan St., Chicago 60607 ([email protected]).

EZRA POUND SOCIETYEzra Pound in the Thirties. Pound’s responseto literary or political developments in the 1930s.Ezra Pound and Translation. Papers onPound’s translations or his influence on trans-lators. Proposals by 15 Mar.; Alec Marsh([email protected]).

RADICAL CAUCUS IN ENGLISH AND THEMODERN LANGUAGESAn Unwanted Guest: Class in BourgeoisLiterature. Class analysis plays an obviousrole in the study of proletarian literature. Howcan radical teachers apply such analysis tobourgeois literature, when class is an un-wanted guest in the drawing room?Using the Master’sTools? The Role of Radi-cals in Academic Organizations.What rolecan radicals play in the institutions that shape ac-ademic life? How, in particular, can we influenceunions and accrediting agencies and what formmight that influence take? 1–2-page abstracts by12 Mar.; Michael Bennett ([email protected]).

ROMANIAN STUDIES ASSOCIATION OFAMERICAThe Hapsburg Myth in East CentralEuropean Literature and Film. Abstracts

by 1 Mar.; Valentina Glajar ([email protected]).

GEORGE SAND ASSOCIATIONGeorge Sand and Her Artistic Circle.Artists, writers, friends, lovers, and their influ-ence on Sand’s life and works. Sand’s represen-tations of harmony, tension, inspiration basedon her relationships with other artists. Propos-als by 25 Mar.; Claire Marrone ([email protected]).

Préfaces de George Sand. Sand n’a paséchappé à la pratique de la préface, accompag-natrice obligée du roman au XIXe siècle. Cettesession s’intéressera aux marques distinctives,tant formelles que thématiques, de la préfacesandienne. Proposals by 25 Mar.; Eric Paquin,6800, ave. de Lorimier, Montréal, PQ H2G 2P9Canada ([email protected]).

SOCIETE RENCESVALS, AMERICAN-CANADIAN BRANCHThe Romance Epic I.The Romance Epic II. Abstracts by 15 Mar.;Catherine Jones ([email protected]).

THE SOCIETY FOR CRITICAL EXCHANGEMen in Feminism Revisited. Evaluating1980s debates about sexual politics and iden-tity politics; institutional places of masculinitystudies, gender studies, women’s studies;racial, class, ethnic valences of men in femi-nism; theoretical, pedagogical, activist dilem-mas. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Sally Robinson([email protected]).

Writing Jazz. Historically and theoretically in-formed papers on jazz aesthetics, poetics, com-position, improvisation; heroism, masculinity,sexuality; race, marginality, demonization; in-dividualism versus collectivism; art versuscommerce. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Mark Osteen([email protected]; [email protected]).

SOCIETY FOR GERMAN RENAISSANCE ANDBAROQUE LITERATUREDefinitions of Sex and Gender in EarlyModern Germany. Constructions of genderidentity, definitions of biological sexes, androg-yny, homosexuality, cross-dressing, deviantsexual practices. 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.;Peter Hess ([email protected]).

SOUTH ASIAN LITERARY ASSOCIATIONRadical Renegotiations: South Asians andAfrican Americans. Despite sharing the sameurban spaces, writers, filmmakers, and intellec-tuals, on both sides, have not often addressedinterethnic issues. Theoretical, pedagogical,cultural, and historical issues defining thesetwo communities. 500-word abstracts by19 Mar.; Lopamudra Basu ([email protected]).

South Asians in Public Culture. Papers thatexplore the situated presence of South Asiansin public spaces, media, popular culture. A cri-tique of their visibility and ethnic and gen-dered representation is encouraged. 350-wordabstracts by 15 Mar.; Shailja Sharma([email protected]).

WALLACE STEVENS SOCIETYEarly versus Late Stevens. Did Stevensspend his entire career essentially rewriting

the same poem, or did his work evolve to chal-lenge changing critical theories and culturalvalues? Abstracts or 10-page papers by15 Mar.; Maureen Kravec ([email protected]).

EDITH WHARTON SOCIETYEdith Wharton Goes Goth! “Being Goth isseeing beauty, and its coming destruction, atthe same time.”—Beatgrrl. Abstracts that con-sider Wharton’s work as it relates to this some-what idiosyncratic definition or moretraditional notions of the gothic, by 13 Mar.;Augusta Rohrbach ([email protected]).

War Writing by Wharton and Other WarWriters. Comparison of Wharton’s war writingwith other writers’, especially to men’s writ-ing, e.g., Hemingway. 1–2-page proposals by1 Mar.; Harriet Gold ([email protected]).

WILLIAM CARLOS WILLIAMS SOCIETYWilliams and British Poetry. Interested inproposals discussing Williams’s comments onor response to any aspect of British poetry orexamining an illuminating relationship coveredby the topic. Abstracts by 7 Mar.; Chris Mac-Gowan ([email protected]).

WOMEN IN FRENCHFemmes voyageuses, femmes déplacées.An investigation into the effects of displace-ment and travel on French and Francophonewomen’s voices. How do women write them-selves abroad? Can these texts find a place inthe literary canon? 1-page abstracts by 10 Mar.;Kimberley Healey ([email protected]).

Les femmes écrivent leur pays. Sujets possi-bles: le pays écrit du dedans, du dehors ou lorsdu retour; écrire le pays colonisé ou postcolo-nial; métaphores utilisées; écriture différentede celle des hommes? 1-page abstracts by10 Mar.; Michèle Bacholle ([email protected]).

WOMEN’S CAUCUS FOR THE MODERNLANGUAGESChanging Climates: Feminist Models for In-stitutional Change. 2-page abstracts by 5 Mar.;Magali Cornier Michael ([email protected])and Naomi Yavneh ([email protected]).

WORDSWORTH-COLERIDGE ASSOCIATIONThe Joseph Johnson Circle. Papers on any ofthe writers, artists, scientists, and political ac-tivists associated with Joseph Johnson, includ-ing Wordsworth, Priestley, Malthus, Godwin,Fuseli, Blake, Wollstonecraft, Barbauld, Dar-win, and Paine. Papers should examine howJohnson provided a vital center for intellectualcollaboration. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; JamesMcKusick ([email protected]).

Special SessionsThese proposed topics for special sessionsat the convention have not been ap-proved; the announcements are intendedto bring potential organizers and paneliststogether before organizers send in theirfinal proposals. Organizers and panelistsshould note the 1 April deadline for mem-bership and the 7 April deadline for sub-mission of final proposals.



Aberrant Women. Papers addressing issuesof female “aberrance” in any genre of women’sliterature. Papers may focus on any period andinclude treatment of any deviance from tradi-tional gender roles or cultural norms. Ab-stracts by 10 Mar. to Carol Osborne ([email protected]) or Sarah Aguiar([email protected]).

Acting and Performance in the Films ofDavid Mamet. The David Mamet Society in-vites papers addressing acting/performance infilms scripted by or scripted and directed byMamet, particularly with Mamet as director.1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Karen C. Blans-field ([email protected]).

Adoption Fiction and Nation Building.Narratives of adoption, child-exchange/relinquishment, or adoptees’ discoveries of an-cestry in relation to nation building, nationalidentity, national fantasy, acculturation, impe-rialism, decolonization, multicultural hybrid-ity. Proposals or abstracts by 20 Mar.;Marianne Novy.

Alexandria. Seeking papers investigating rep-resentations of the modern city of Alexandriafrom English, French, Arabic, Greek, Italian,or other literary and filmic traditions. Intercul-tural or interdisciplinary analyses encouraged.Abstracts and vitae by 10 Mar.; Deborah Starr([email protected]).

Alternatives to the Adversarial Academy,Revisited. Let’s build on the 2000 PresidentialForum by examining ways changes in concep-tual assumptions lead to applicable changes inscholarly practice. Queries or abstracts by10 Mar.; Kathleen McConnell ([email protected]).

The American Empire Writes Back. Papersinvited on literary texts that explore the work-ings of the American empire at home andabroad since 1945. Topics include internal col-onization, imperial interventions, proxies,“American Advisor,” and others. 1–2-page ab-stracts and vitae by 1 Mar.; Brady Harrison([email protected]).

American Indian Women’s Love Poetry andErotics. The past thirty years have seen abun-dant expressions of desire and sexuality by na-tive women, without critical acknowledgmentor treatment. Why? What is the work of suchan erotics? Abstracts by 16 Mar.; Deborah A.Miranda, 1102 North Sheridan Ave., C, Tacoma,WA 98403.

American Literature and the Social Sci-ences, 1870–1914. Authors as readers of so-cial sciences, or social scientists as readers ofliterature, in the US. Case studies or analysesof paradigmatic continuity and change. Ab-stracts by 15 Mar.; Michaela Giesenkirchen.

American Socialist Literature at One Hun-dred. From its founding in 1901 the SocialistParty attracted left-wing writers. Who werethey, and how were they “socialist”? AfterAmerican socialism’s supposed failure, whatare its literary legacies? 1–2-page abstracts by12 Mar.; Mark Van Wienen.

Amerindian Literacies versus WesternWriting in Spanish American Texts. Papersinvited on Amerindian communication sys-tems and their combination with western writ-

ing from 1492 until today in Spanish Americandocuments. 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; RocioQuispe-Agnoli ([email protected]).

The Art of Henry and Thomas Vaughan.Contextual studies; focused readings of poetryand prose. Abstracts or papers by 10 Mar.;Jonathan Nauman, Usk Valley Vaughan Associ-ation ([email protected]).

Arthurian Tradition in Children’s Litera-ture. Issues related to Arthurian literaturewritten for children. Various critical perspec-tives, genres, periods, age levels. Approachesinclude cultural, historical, social, gender-oriented, interdisciplinary, comparative. Papersor 1–2-page abstracts by 31 Mar.; Judith Kel-logg ([email protected]).

Aspects of Punctuation. General considera-tions of punctuation in writing, literature, orlinguistics. Papers exploring punctuation in dif-ferent literary genres or in the work of a spe-cific literary figure are welcome. Abstracts by1 Mar.; Albert E. Krahn ([email protected]).

Avant-Garde Intersections of Modern orPostmodern Literature and Film. 2-pageproposal abstracts by 1 Mar.; Laura Hinton([email protected]) and Susan McCabe([email protected]).

William Barnes at 200. Revisit WilliamBarnes in the year of his 200th birthday. Papersor abstracts examining Barnes’s life, career, orcritical reception as a poet, wood engraver, lin-guist, and ordained minister. Don Ulin ([email protected]).

Georges Bataille: Virility and the Critiqueof Idealism. Essays invited exploring Bataille’saesthetics of subversion, especially in the lightof a critique of idealism and his construction ofvirility. Marthe Aponte ([email protected]).

Bayou Voices: African American Writers ofLouisiana. Specific concentration on literarydepictions of Louisiana life, folklore, and cul-ture in the writings of Gaines, Komunyakaa,Bontemps, Gordon-Lane, and others. Abstractsby 28 Mar.; Pearlie Peters ([email protected]).

Alan Bennett’s Critical Reputation inBritain and America. Why hasn’t Alan Ben-nett’s standing as a public favorite in Britaintranslated into critical acclaim at home? Whyis his work so unfamiliar in America? Send1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Joseph H. O’Mealy.

Beyond the Metropole: Writing in Frenchoutside of France during the Colonial Pe-riod. Writing in French from the colonies,postcolonial venues like Louisiana, Canada,and others that differentiates itself fromFrench metropolitan writing. 1-page abstractsby 10 Mar.; Leonard R. Koos ([email protected]).

Beyond Uncle Tom’s Cabin: ReevaluatingHarriet Beecher Stowe. Examinations of un-expected departures, reversals, or continuitiesin Stowe’s post-1852 writing. Readings of laternovels, essays, poems, juvenile fiction thatchallenge current evaluations of Stowe’s poli-tics, artistry. 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Jen-nifer Mason, UCLA Humanities Consortium,310 Royce Hall, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1461([email protected]).

Blackness and Heterosexuality. Papers ex-ploring the relation between blackness and

heterosexuality: their structural continuitiesand discontinuities, anxious proximities, strate-gic interdependence, specific historical mani-festations. 1–2-page abstracts (e-mail preferred)by 15 Mar.; Mason Stokes.

Body and Marginality at the Fin de Siècle.Which bodies have come under suspicion at thefin de siècle? This panel seeks proposals thatengage literary and medical renderings of themarginalized body. 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.;Milla Rosenberg, Program in Intercultural Stud-ies, Franklin Univ., 201 South Grant Ave., Co-lumbus, OH 43215 ([email protected]).

Borges: His Prose and Fiction in Our Time.1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Joseph Tyler([email protected]).

Paul Bowles. Papers on any aspect of PaulBowles’s work, both his own writing and hisfacilitation of other writers. 1–2-page abstractsby 5 Mar.; David Racker.

Brantlinger’s Critical and Pedagogical Im-pact. For 25th anniversary of PatrickBrantlinger’s The Spirit of Reform, sessionweighs influence, pros and cons of all his pub-lications in critical and economic theory, cul-tural studies, imperialism, literacy, reformliterature and politics, Victorian studies. 1-pageabstracts and vitae (hard copies, no e-mail sub-missions) by 9 Mar.; William B. Thesing.

Building and Busting Comics Canons:Teaching American Comics. Is there (orshould there be) a canon of American comics?What core texts should an American comicscourse include? What problems (political, pro-fessional, pedagogical) must one overcome toteach a course in American comics? Edward A.Shannon ([email protected]).

“Camp” in Contemporary Spain. The aes-thetics and politics of camp in contemporarySpanish literature, film, and culture; its viabil-ity as a critical, political, or cultural term. In-novative approaches are encouraged. Abstractsby 1 Mar.; H. Rosi Song ([email protected]).

Canon Formation in 19th-Century Spain:Constructions of High Culture from Ro-manticism to Realism. Papers addressing theinteraction of gender, social class, cultural con-text, and genre are particularly welcome.1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Iñigo Sánchez-Llama ([email protected]).

Caribbean Literature and the Environ-ment. Proposals invited for ecocritical inter-pretations of 20th-century Caribbeanliterature. Send 1-page abstracts and brief bio-graphical statements by 15 Mar.; William Slay-maker ([email protected]).

Chairing Small Departments: Politics, Pro-tocol, and Pampering. When the departmentis family-sized, (how) can we keep it together?Open discussion to follow. 1-page abstracts of10-minute papers by 1 Mar.; Thom D. Chesney([email protected]).

Raymond Chandler. New readings, importantquestions: movies, technique, style, short andlong fiction, letters and essays; origins; genre,plot construction; how other writers (e.g., Oates,Parker) view Chandler; Chandler in context;Chandler in cultural studies. Papers, abstracts,proposals by 31 Mar.; Mervyn Nicholson.



Character Readings. Long after close readingof literary characters has become “traditional,” a“new analysis” of the personalities and tempera-ments of author, character, critic, and readermay (help to) elucidate how these figures collab-orate to produce texts. Abstracts before 31 Mar.;Paul Dambowic ([email protected]).

Charisma and Criticism. The scholarly per-sona; the philological personality; or what LisaJardine calls “the construction of charisma inprint.” Emphasis on medieval and early mod-ern studies. 1-page abstracts and vitae (e-mailpreferred) by 1 Mar.; Deanne Williams, En-glish Dept., York Univ., 4700 Keele St., Toronto,ON M3J 1P3, Canada ([email protected]).

Hélène Cixous: Toward a New PoliticalLanguage for the Postcolonial World. Ab-stracts by 7 Mar.; Janice H. Kaufman, Dept. ofForeign Languages and Literatures, 517 FitzelleHall, State Univ. of New York, Coll. atOneonta, Oneonta 13820.

The Class Structure of the Higher Learn-ing in America. A roundtable on the causesand effects of hierarchy in higher education.Proposals welcome from tenured and tenure-track faculty members as well as from non-tenure-track faculty members, adjuncts, andgraduate students. Vitae and proposals by15 Mar.; Sharon O’Dair.

Colonizers, Cajuns, and Creoles: Literatureof French Louisiana, 1680–1900. From theLaSalle expeditions to George WashingtonCable, New Orleans became the center of aunique culture. Papers on exploration narra-tive, colonial history, poetry, or fiction. GordonSayre ([email protected]).

The Confluence of Popular Music and Lit-erature in Contemporary Germany. Paperssought that explore the impact of popularmusic on literary culture (and vice versa) incontemporary Germany. Send 1-page abstractsby 15 Mar.; Sabine von Dirke.

Constructions of Womanhood and Man-hood in Early America. Papers examiningthe construction of womanhood and manhood,femininity and masculinity in early Americantexts. Interdisciplinary or comparative ap-proaches are particularly welcome. Abstractsand vitae (hard copy or e-mail) by 15 Mar.;Mary McAleer Balkun ([email protected]).

Contemporary Adoption Narratives. Howdo contemporary narrative or theoretical ac-counts of adoption transform familial models ofsocial connectedness along international, gen-dered, or class-conflicted lines? How is publicresponsibility for unaffiliated children recast by“organizational” adoptions (school, state, corpo-ration)? Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Lisa Fluet, En-glish Dept., 22 McCosh Hall, Princeton Univ.,Princeton, NJ 08544 ([email protected]).

Contemporary Multicultural Detective Fic-tion. This session will explore literary, histori-cal, and political contexts for the proliferationof nonwhite, especially African American, pro-tagonists in recent detective fiction. 1-page ab-stracts and vitae by 5 Mar.; Daylanne English([email protected]).

Copying/Creating: The Copy Clerk andNovelistic Consciousness. Papers exploring

author-hero relations, heroic self-conscious-ness, intertextual memory as modes of creativecopying in foundational narratives (Gogol,Dostoevsky, Melville, Flaubert, etc.), and 20th-century revisions (Nabokov, Borges, Saramago,etc.). Detailed abstracts by 1 Mar.; Sharon L.Allen ([email protected]).

Counter-Orientalism in French Culture.Since Said’s Orientalism, numerous studieshave been published on French literary texts,denounced as Orientalist. This panel examineshow some writers and artists succeeded in re-sisting this ideology. 2-page abstracts by 2 April;Cris Reyns-Chikuma ([email protected]).

Abraham Cowley and the English Revolu-tion. This proposed special session welcomesresearch that illuminates the controversies sur-rounding Abraham Cowley’s civil war era po-etry or prose. 8–10-page papers preferred,abstracts considered; send with vitae by15 Mar.; Hugh Wilson, Dept. of English, StateUniv. of New York, Plattsburgh 12901([email protected]).

Amanda Cross Mysteries: Detective in aTenured Position. Any aspect of the novels ofAmanda Cross (a.k.a. Carolyn G. Heilbrun).1-page abstracts and short vitae by 15 Mar.;Lydia Tonic Gooch ([email protected]).

Cross-Cultural Poetics of the Sufi Mystics.Appeal and accessibility of the language ofmysticism across cultural boundaries in Sufipoetry (e.g., Rumi and Iqbal) and its philosoph-ical legacy in American literature (e.g., Emer-son and Whitman). Mabel Khawaja ([email protected]).

Cuban American Studies in the 21st Cen-tury: Challenging Existing Paradigms. Thesession features three panels. (1) The Litera-ture of the Republic: Text, Context, andTransnationality; (2) The Cuban Diaspora:Theory, Continuity, and Change; (3) Reassess-ing 19th-Century Cuban Literature: Iconogra-phy and Independence. Patricia Pardiñas-Barnes ([email protected]).

Decolonization and Pedagogy. Beyondteaching dominant texts on the margins, pa-pers should elaborate on strategies for reveal-ing colonial dimensions of the contemporaryacademy: innovative classroom methods, texts,institutional histories, etc. Abstracts by 1 Mar.;Rob Canfield ([email protected]) or GordonBigelow.

Deterritorialization. This session will exploreboth utopia as a prospective conception of thefuture and exile as a painful remembrance of thepast. Papers on Hispanic authors of all periodsacceptable. Abstracts by 1 Mar.; José AntonioGiménez Micó ([email protected]).

Deviance and Early Modern Culture. Whatrole do literature and popular culture serve inregulating deviance or promoting pleasurableinterest in deviant behaviors? Particular inter-est in sociological and anthropological ap-proaches. 1–2-page proposals by 15 Mar.; JuliaGarrett ([email protected]).

Discrimination in the Teaching of ForeignLanguages. Papers should illustrate actualcases of discrimination at the college level.Preferred submissions: papers. Contact AndríıMalyc’kyı.

Dislocation: Exile, Expatriation, andTransnationalism at the End of the Millen-nium. Papers on German-language texts dis-cussing representations and discourses of loss;of the privileged expatriate position; of cross-cultural identity formation and postmodern no-madism. 1–2-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Helga G.Braunbeck ([email protected]).

Drama in the Academy. Studies of recentplays that attempt to critique the academyfrom within. Topics might include problems ofrepresentation, pieties on the left and right,and potential transformation. 500-word ab-stracts by 10 Mar.; Kelly M. Cresap.

Early Modern Letter Writing, 1500–1800(excluding Epistolary Fiction). Papers onany aspect of early modern letter writing, in-cluding historical, psychological, linguistic,material, transmissive, and theoretical compo-nents. 1-page abstracts and vitae by 15 Mar.;Gary Schneider ([email protected]).

Eastern Mysticism and Western Writers.Examining mysticism and Western writerscirca the 1930s, possible topics include essayson particular writers or prominent exponentsof mysticism (e.g., Krishnamurti or GeraldHeard). Abstracts by 1 Mar.; Paul Eros([email protected]).

The Emergence of Race in British Dis-course, circa 1650–1750: RepresentingAfrica and Africans. Imagining Africa, slav-ery and “the Origins debate,” articulatingwhiteness, race and piracy, transatlantic reso-nances, race beyond black and white. GeorgeBoulukos ([email protected]).

English Renaissance Literature and SexualBehavior. Relation of Renaissance literatureto the control of sexual behavior through legaland cultural practices, especially those con-cerning the “moral” Reformation, codes gov-erning marriage, pre- and extramarital sex,bigamy, prostitution, sodomy, intimacy. Sendproposals. ([email protected]).

Enlightenment Sexualities. Retheorizings ofscientific rationality and Enlightenmentcanons; links among sex, gender, and tropes ofexploration and discovery; Diderot; Marquisde Sade; Montesquieu; Rousseau; Swift; oth-ers. 500-word abstracts by 10 Mar.; Julie ChunKim ([email protected]).

Envelope-ing Genres. Since the 1800s, theepistolary genre has become virtually obsolete.Letters, however, continually infiltrate a vari-ety of genres. What are the cultural and narra-tological or generic politics behind thispersistence? 1-page abstracts and vitae by15 Mar.; Laura Rotunno ([email protected]).

Ex Libris: Britain, circa 1770–1880. Liter-ary representations (in prose or rhyme) of ex-perience in the library (private or public).What happens in the library during the timewhen modern print culture comes to be?1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; William McKelvy.

Exploring the Range of Life Writing inBritish Romanticism. 15-minute papers onautobiographies, memoirs, confessions, poetry,letters, journals, essays. 1–2-page abstracts by15 Mar.; Eugene Stelzig, English Dept., StateUniv. of New York, Geneseo 14454 ([email protected]).



The Female Epic: Texts, Histories, Theories.The focus is on female epics in English, butconsideration will be given to any well-argueddiscussion of epic texts written by women ofall periods and nationalities. Proposals andvitae by 10 Mar.; Bernard Schweizer([email protected]).

Fetishism in/and the Victorian Novel. Ab-stracts accompanied by vitae by 26 Mar.; EvaBadowska ([email protected]).

Fictional and Autobiographical Works ofAlbert Cohen: An Open Session. Send 1-page proposals and vitae before 10 Mar.; NellKupper, Dept. of Languages, Northern Michi-gan University, 1401 Presque Isle Ave., Mar-quette 49855-5375 ([email protected]).

Film and the Problem Body. Submissionsthat look critically at the normative body. We’reparticularly interested in papers that theorizethe body in all its problematic constructions: asill, obese, aged, disabled, etc. Biographies andabstracts electronically by 15 Mar.; SallyChivers ([email protected]) andNicole Markotic ([email protected]).

Fin de Siècle Marriages. What is the state ofmarriage at the end of the 19th century? Paperson the institution itself, literary depictions ofor specific “real-life” marriages. 1–2-page ab-stracts and vitae by 1 Mar.; Molly Youngkin([email protected]).

Food, Literature, and Culture. Importanceof food for issues of identity, memory, global-ization, postcoloniality, cultural theory, or “thepractice of everyday life.” How do recipes orimages of food function narratologically? Inter-disciplinary approaches welcome. Abstracts by24 Mar.; Lynn Houston, 2025 South ForrestAve., 4, Tempe, AZ 85282 ([email protected]).

Francophone Voiceovers: Negotiating Iden-tity in Another(‘s) Tongue. Aporia and tan-gentiality inherent in writing in French as anadopted language, particularly for women writ-ers struggling with the issues of self-translationand secondary status. Abstracts by 15 Mar.;Deborah Gaensbauer ([email protected]).

Anne Frank at the New Millennium. Rep-resentations of Anne Frank in theater, film, bi-ography. As Holocaust and universal symbol,has her Jewishness been forfeited in a halfcentury? Theoretical, political, historical con-siderations of Anne as diarist, symbol, text,Jew. Papers or 2-page abstracts by 20 Mar.;Sandra K. Stanley or Marilyn Moss, 6065Cashio, Los Angeles, CA 90035.

French Masculinities. Papers on construc-tions of hegemonic or marginalized masculini-ties in France from the Middle Ages to the 21stcentury. 2-page abstracts or papers before20 Mar.; Todd Reeser, Dept. of Languages andLiterature, Univ. of Utah, 1400 LNCO, SaltLake City 84112 ([email protected]).

Fright and Melville. Herman Melville oftenrepresents encounters with the colonial other,with disease, and with sexual “deviance”through the experience of fright. Presentationsinvited exploring fright and othering inMelville’s works. Proposals by 15 Mar.; Ken-neth Speirs ([email protected]).

From Cult Author to Classic: DeLillo andthe Canon. Has DeLillo achieved canonicalstatus? What does recurrent critical interest inand curricular inclusion of DeLillo’s workssuggest about the politics of canon formation?500-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Jeremy F.Green ([email protected]).

Carmen Martín Gaite, in Memoriam. Thispanel will explore women’s condition in Spainas seen in Gaite’s novels and essays. 1-pageabstracts by 10 Mar.; José L. Murillo Amo([email protected]).

Georgian Poets and Their Public. Papersthat consider the reception of individual poetsand poems included in the Georgian poetryanthologies or the Georgians as a group. 500-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Steven Woodward([email protected]).

Germanies 1977. Terror in the FRG, civil lib-erties dismantled. Biermann expatriated by theGDR, many others to follow. “Hamletma-schine,” “Kein Ort. Nirgends,” “Maennerphan-tasien,” queer writing degree zero, and Kleist200. Papers welcome that take into accountFrench influences. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; ArndWedemeyer ([email protected]).

“Get Cash for Your Papers!”: A RoundtableDiscussion. Is the buying and selling of stu-dent essays a problem? What, if anything, canor should we do about it? Abstracts by 15 Mar.;Marcy Tanter ([email protected]).

Global Fiction. Are we beyond the postcolo-nial moment? Any approaches and works wel-come. 1-page extracts by 15 Mar.; SangitaGopal ([email protected]).

Great Books and Canonicity: Great BooksPrograms, Politics, Power, Pedagogies.What do Great Books programs look like in theacademy today? Are they reactionary or pro-gressive? 2-page abstracts or 6–8-page papersby 15 Mar.; Cathy Milton, Norwalk Commu-nity Coll., Norwalk, CT 06854 ([email protected]).

Haiku as International Culture. How haikuinfluenced world cultures. 8-page drafts by15 Mar.; Toru Kiuchi, Nihon Univ., Narashino,Japan 2750005 (fax: 81-474-73-1227; [email protected]).

Haunting, Suspense, and the Confusion ofTongues: Film, Literature, Gender, andPsychoanalysis. Session explores relations be-tween haunting and gender identification, sus-pense and transference, “confusion oftongues,” and psychoanalytical healing. 500-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; Lance Duerfahrd([email protected] and [email protected] [copy]).

Healing and Literature. Interdisciplinary pa-pers that engage the dialogue between healingand literature in the Americas and in Africa.Send 250-word abstracts and vitae by 9 Mar.;Cécile Accilien ([email protected]) or ClaudiaNadine, Dept. of Languages and Literatures,Pacific Lutheran Univ., Tacoma, WA 98403([email protected]).

Hellenism in 19th-Century Britain. Paperson both scholarly and popular interest in Hel-lenism in 19th-century British writing andculture. Detailed abstracts or papers and vitae

by 16 Mar.; Kevin R. Swafford ([email protected]).

Histories of 19th-Century Popular FrenchLiterature. The field of popular literary pro-duction, democracy and literature, the “repre-sentativeness” of literature for differentreaderships, alternative uses and contested val-ues for literature, etc. 1-page abstracts by10 Mar.; Mark Wolff ([email protected]).

History, Memory, and Literature: FrenchIntellectuals Remember World War II. Ses-sion will focus on literary memories and theexperience of WWII in all genres. Papers thatfocus on the teaching of these texts are encour-aged. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Mary McCullough,Dept. of Modern Foreign Languages, BaylorUniv., Box 97391, Waco, TX 76798 (254 710-4425; fax: 254 710-3799).

El iberismo en la literatura. La relaciónentre España y Portugal a través de los siglos.Álvaro A. Ayo.

Images of Latinas in 21st-Century Amer-ican Literature. Papers on the images ofHispanic women in literary works by contem-porary authors. Nicolás Kanellos.

Imagining German Masculinities: GermanMen’s Studies in the American and Ger-man Academy. Papers addressing the form,effect, validity, feasibility of men’s studies inGermanic studies in the US and Germany. Pa-pers or 250-word abstracts by 15 Mar.; RoyJerome ([email protected]).

The Impact of the Journalist-Critic, 1900–40. Papers that address the powerful influenceof nonacademic critics writing in magazinesand newspapers on modern American lettersand criticism—including Mencken, Wilson,Van Doren, Mumford, Rascoe, Monroe. Com-plete papers by 15 Mar.; Gail Shivel ([email protected]).

Indefinable Boundaries: Rachel Carson be-fore Silent Spring. Any aspect of Carson’s “ma-rine” science writing, from Under the Sea Windto The Edge of the Sea, with possible influenceson Silent Spring. Interdisciplinary approachesespecially welcome. 1–2-page abstracts by1 Mar.; Christoph Irmscher, English Dept.,Univ. of Maryland, Baltimore County, Balti-more 21250 ([email protected]).

The Information Super-Railway. Literaryand cultural relations of the 19th century’smedia and information systems: e.g., pennypost, photograph, electric telegraph, phono-graph, motion picture, bureaucracy. Literaturein the 19th-century media ecology. Proposals,brief vitae by 15 Mar.; Richard Menke([email protected]).

Innovations in Spanish Epistolary Fiction.The aesthetic and political uses of letter writ-ing; evolution of the genre of epistolary fiction.Innovative approaches to epistolarity such ase-mail are particularly encouraged. 1–2-pageabstracts by 1 Mar.; Patrick Paul Garlinger([email protected]).

Intertextualité durassienne. La session sepropose d’explorer les modalités de l’emprunt,de la citation ainsi que les procédés de réécrit-ure dans l’oeuvre de Marguerite Duras. 2-pageabstracts before 15 Mar.; Cécile Hanania.



Irritable Tension in Postcolonial Contexts.Intellectuals’ strategies to connect with the“social ground” (Jameson); “modesty” of theory(Hall); area-specific historical considerations ofliterature in/and society; “organic” moments inwriting, theoretical work, pedagogy, academy.Detailed abstracts by 10 Mar.; Anjali Prabhu.

The Italian Avant-Garde. Papers examiningaesthetics, politics, or gender in representativeworks of the Italian avant-garde. Comparisonsbetween the Italian and other avant-garde move-ments are welcome. 1-page abstracts and vitaeby 1 Mar.; Paola Sica ([email protected]).

Kabbalism and British Romaniticism. Ap-proaching Kabbalism rather broadly, paperscan be about either Jewish or Christian modesand can take a contemplative, speculative, orpractical approach. Abstracts by 15 Mar.;Sheila Spector ([email protected]).

Labored Texts: Social Class Theory andLiterature. Examinations of poverty-class andworking-class experience against canonical lit-erary portrayals of poverty, labor, unionism,and social-class theory. Abstracts and vitae by2 Mar.; Sandra L. Dahlberg ([email protected]).

Lacanian Approaches to ContemporaryAmerican Culture. Papers invited that em-ploy Lacan’s psychoanalytic concepts to exploreissues such as identity (race, gender, class), de-sire, and aggression in film, art, and literature.1–2-page abstracts and vitae by 15 Mar.; ErikRedling ([email protected]).

Languages of Neoliberalism. Papers consid-ering specific literary or theoretical engage-ments with any aspect of contemporaryfree-market discourse: financial journalism,trade policy, “development,” neoclassical eco-nomics, financial services, choice, “flexibility,”etc. Brief proposals by 9 Mar.; Gordon Bigelow.

Late Colonial British Novels. How do post-WWII British colonial novels (e.g., Burgess’s,Durrell’s, Greene’s) relate to the crisis of decol-onization in Britain? to previous colonial nov-els? to postcolonialism? 1–2-page abstracts by15 Mar.; Ken Seigneurie ([email protected]).

Law and Native American Literatures: Ne-gotiating Tribal Sovereignty. Consideringboth Native and non-Native systems of law,how have notions of tribal sovereignty or fed-eral Indian policies shaped Native literary ex-pression? Detailed abstracts, bibliographies,and brief vitae by 15 Mar.; David Lewis Moore([email protected]).

Law as Literature. Papers sought for panelexploring law as literature, e.g., language oflaw, literary criticism of legal writing, literaryinfluences on legal writing. 1-page abstracts by15 Mar.; Bruce Carolan ([email protected]).

T. E. Lawrence: Myth and Genre. Evalua-tions of Lawrence as writer (autobiography,travel writing, translation, letter writing,etc.); relation between his life and his lifewriting. 1-page e-mail abstracts (no attach-ments) by 15 Mar.; Mary Bryden ([email protected]).

Lenz in 2001: Storm and Stress Re-assessed. 1-page abstracts; Helga Madland.

Le transcolonialisme dans les textesmaghrébins. Send a 1-page abstract in Frenchor English. Yolande Aline Helm ([email protected]).

The Literacy Narrative. Papers invited onhistorical or contemporary “literacy narratives”(F. Douglass, R. Wright, K. Gilyard, L. Brodkey,etc.) that explore race, class, gender issues ineducation or define the genre. Also, originalnarratives. Send 1–2-page proposals with briefbiographies by 10 Mar.; Caroline Pari ([email protected]).

Literature and the Bible in Early ModernFrance. Literary representations of biblicalsubjects, accounts of the creation of the world,exploration of the interconnections betweenthe literary and the biblical. Proposals (in En-glish or French) by 15 Mar.; Andrzej Dziedzic([email protected]).

Local Englishes. Papers describing how localforms of language and literature in Englishpersist and emerge because or in spite of 20th-century trends toward globalization. E-mailabstracts and vitae by 10 Mar.; John Marx([email protected]).

Locating the Self inside the Vesalian Body.Construction of private spaces for the earlymodern self inside the new post-Vesaliananatomy. Abstracts and brief vitae by 15 Mar.;Enrique Fernandez ([email protected]).

The Lost Voices of Our Hispanic Heritage:Recovering the US Hispanic Literary Her-itage. Papers on recovered Hispanic literature(written between the colonial period and 1960)that reflect the Hispanic contribution to Amer-ican literature and history. Alejandra Balestra([email protected]).

Magical Practices in Medieval and Renais-sance Literature. Literary representations ofobjects and activities connected to the practiceof magic and the occult. Proposals (in Englishor German) by 15 Mar.; Elizabeth Wade([email protected]).

Making Pedagogy Visible. Calls to documentteaching make new demands on scholar-teach-ers. How can (complex) teaching practices bemade visible? How should such “visibility” betheorized? What are the implications (for indi-viduals, for the profession) of such demands?E-mail proposals by 10 Mar.; Margaret Willard-Traub ([email protected]).

Mann in the New Millennium. Criticalreevaluations of Thomas Mann invited in thelight of recent theoretical debates. Topics en-couraged include the body and technology, dis-ease, medical discourse and the clinic, gender,dandies, national identity, and fascism. JulianNelson, Modern Languages and Literatures,Catholic Univ. of America, Washington, DC20064 ([email protected]).

Harriet Martineau: Spirit of theVictorianAge. In honor of Martineau’s bicentenary in2002, proposals are invited for papers addressingher impact onVictorian culture.Topics reflectingthe interdisciplinary aspects of Martineau’swork especially welcome. By 15 Mar.; DeborahLogan ([email protected]).

The Meaning(s) of History in the ScottishEnlightenment. Papers on the articulation ofmodels of modernity, the primitive, historywriting itself, and the relation of history toother genres, including philosophy, fiction,travel writing, and journals. 1-page abstractsby 5 Mar.; Maureen Harkin ([email protected]).

Medicine in a World Gone Mad, 1914–45.Examination of works by European writersthat explore the physical, sociopolitical, andethical challenges of medicine from WWI tothe Holocaust. 1-page proposals by 10 Mar.;Melanie G. Krob ([email protected]).

Medieval Textual and Political Communi-ties. This panel invites papers on communitiesas defined by late medieval writers and read-ers, particularly where ideas of political com-munity overlap with reading communities.Abstracts by 30 Mar.; George Shuffelton([email protected]).

Melodrama and Popular Culture, 1790–1930: Theater, Opera, Operetta, Novel,Film. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Anastasia Niko-lopoulou, Dept. of Foreign Languages andLiteratures, Univ. of Cyprus, Kallipoleos 75,POB 20537, 1678 Nicosia, Cyprus([email protected]).

Minority Criticism and International Or-ganizations. Examinations of the relation be-tween minority issues in literary and culturalstudies and the discourses and policies of in-ternational organizations such as the UnitedNations and the World Trade Organization.Perspectives from non-Western nations partic-ularly welcome. 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.;Steven Venturino ([email protected]).

S. Weir Mitchell and Pain: Civil War toRest Cure. Papers addressing Civil War medi-cine, including such topics as gunshotwounds, causalgia, and phantom limbs andtheir representations in medical and literarydiscourse. Proposals by 15 Mar.; NancyCervetti ([email protected]).

Modernism, Partition, and the End of Em-pire. How do modernist texts account for pres-sures on metropolitan culture from theimperium? To what extent do modernist textsregister the spatial disjunction between thecolony and the metropole? E-mail 1–2-page ab-stracts and short vitae by 15 Mar.; AndrewRubin ([email protected]).

Modernist Materiality: Aestheticizing theCommodity. The ideological valences and ten-sions of aestheticized representation of the ma-terial. Emphasis on modernist narratives thatengage commodified culture. 1-page abstractsand vitae by 5 Mar.; John Hilgart ([email protected]).

Toni Morrison’s Paradise and the Ameri-can Canon. Morrison’s revision, appropria-tion, or reclamation of “controlling narratives,”dominant tropes, and formal devices from theclassic American literary canon. 2-page ab-stracts or drafted papers by 1 Mar.; MichaelNowlin ([email protected]).

Multiculturalism and the Gothic. How doesliterary multiculturalism turn to the Gothic fora critique and (re)articulation of resistance andidentity? Papers on any area of 19th- or 20th-



century literature are welcome. Dana Luciano([email protected]) or Yung-Hsing Wu([email protected]).

Mystical Convulsions and Hysterical Con-version in the Age of Charcot. This panelinvites interdisciplinary investigations on thecontinuities and discontinuities of the divineand the pathological in literary, iconographi-cal, and/or historical discourses of 19th-century France. Send 1–2-page proposals by1 Mar.; Nancy I. Rubino, Univ. of Washing-ton, Box 354361, Seattle 98195 ([email protected]).

Narrative and Gay Liberation. The relationbetween a lesbian-gay movement aesthetic andsuch formal concerns as narrative syntax,voice, structural (in)coherence, and closure intexts of the 1970s. 2-page abstracts by 15 Mar.;Matthew Bell.

Narrative Ethics: Approaches to LiteraryTheory. How do the discussion and use ofnarrative ethics in philosophy, medicine, andlaw intersect and inform literary theory? Canwe distinguish between “narrative ethics” andthe ethics of fiction? 1–2-page abstracts by23 Mar.; Rebecca Potter ([email protected]).

Narratives of Return: Exile, Expatriation,Homecoming. Examinations of narratives ofreal, projected, or imagined homecoming,exploring how the end of exile challenges,changes, ratifies the terms in which it is con-ceived. Abstracts by 10 Mar.; Susan Winnett([email protected]).

The Native American South: New Constel-lations. Papers addressing intersections be-tween Native American and Southern studies,i.e., the role of Indians in the Southern imagi-nation (and vice versa), the politics of canon in-clusion and exclusion, etc. 1-page abstracts andvitae by 1 Mar.; Annette Trefzer ([email protected]).

Negotiating Masculinities in the Works ofRobert Penn Warren. Topical papers soughton critical applications lacking in previous ex-plorations of Warren’s works: manhood andmasculinity, identity performativity, queerness,miscegenation, feminism, trauma, simulacra,or the postmodern “self.” 250-word abstracts by1 Mar.; Nathan G. Tipton ([email protected]) or Aaron Shaheen ([email protected]).

New Approaches to Elizabeth StuartPhelps. This panel seeks papers that contextu-alize works by Phelps other than the threeGates novels. Papers considering Phelps’s aes-thetic concerns are especially welcome.250–500-word abstracts by 1 Mar.; NaomiSofer ([email protected]).

New Historicism and the “Novela HistóricaEspañola.” Evolution of the genre, timeframe, settings, and theoretical perspectives.1–2-page abstracts by 12 Mar.; Julia BordigaGrinstein ([email protected]).

New Media Art. How does new media art—Web-based textuality, interactive CD-ROMs,digital and virtual reality environments, etc.—impact the materiality of the signifier? Boththeoretical and practical explorations welcome.1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; Mark Hansen.

New Paradigms for Fiction-Film Study.What kinds of “crossovers” between fiction andfilm can we envision for our writing and teach-ing? Theoretical and text-oriented submissionswelcome. 1–2-page submissions by 1 Mar.;Gavriel Reisner ([email protected]).

New Research in English Literature,1660–1840. Emphasis on primary documentsresearch rather than critical spin or pedagogic ap-proaches. Airmail papers or 1–2-page abstracts,plus concise vitae, by 5 Mar.; Helene Solheim.

The New Transatlantic Novel. Papers oncontemporary novelists writing in Englishwhose fiction transgresses Anglo-Americancultural, national, and textual boundaries tospeak, in some significant way, of “France.”2-page abstracts by 8 Mar.; Carolyn Durham.

Nonspeaking Characters. Speech and lan-guage disorders in literature and other dis-courses, from early modern to contemporary.Especially interested in cultural status of non-verbal conditions and individuals and in rela-tions between aesthetic and scientific-medicalrepresentations. 10 Mar.; James Berger.

Patrick O’Brian’s Aubrey-Maturin Novels.Papers requested, addressing genre questions(aesthetics, traditions, relation to historical fic-tion), literary antecedents, contexts (historical,scientific, or political), or theories of popularity.350 words before 15 Mar.; Michael Sinowitz([email protected]).

The Oedipus Family and Modern Kinship.Reinterpretations or rewritings of Oedipus,Antigone, etc., in relation to family and kin-ship issues. Proposals or abstracts by 15 Mar.;Marianne Novy.

Of All Sorts and Conditions: Class andClass Consciousness in Late Victorian andEdwardian Narrative. Analysis of the codingof class in late-19th- and early-20th-century Brit-ish literature. Abstracts and vitae by 16 Mar.;Kevin R. Swafford ([email protected]).

Orientalist Representation in Latin Ameri-can Literature. Concept of Orientalism hasbeen useful as a tool to examine literary repre-sentation, to uncover discourses of domina-tion, production of knowledge, configurationsof self/other, etc. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; SilviaNagy-Zekmi ([email protected]).

The Overhearing of Lyric. After Mill, Eliot,Frye, after critiques of subjectivity, voice, posi-tionality, how do we conceptualize lyric utter-ances’ position vis-á-vis readers? Theorizingand qualifying the unconscious nearness Mill’smetaphor pointed to. Abstracts and vitae by15 Mar.; William Waters.

Paris-Vienna. Papers will treat aspects of thecultural intersections between Paris and Vienna.Possible topics include decadence, aestheticism,psychoanalysis, symbolism, the flaneur, archi-tectonics, sexuality. Papers or abstracts by1 Mar.; Peter Schulman ([email protected])or Heidi Schlipphacke ([email protected]).

Parisian Thoroughfare: Jazz and FrenchCulture. This panel will explore the impor-tance and influence of jazz on French culturein terms of reception, film, literature, or dis-course. Papers or abstracts by 1 Mar.; PeterSchulman or Terri Gordon.

Parody, Popular Culture, and the Contem-porary Latin American Novel. This panelwelcomes new, critical inquiries into how con-temporary Latin American novels use parodyas a strategy to critique commodity culture.Rachel Aponte ([email protected]).

Performing DeLillo. Papers sought on any as-pect of performance and performativity inDeLillo’s fiction or theater works. 500-wordabstracts by 15 Mar.; Jeremy F. Green ([email protected]).

Perspectives on 15th-Century England. Weinvite papers on any aspect of 15th-centurypoetry or drama for a panel that will exploreliterary and material culture in late medievalEngland. 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; SeetaChaganti ([email protected]) or Rob-ert J. Meyer Lee ([email protected]).

Phantom Bodies in the Enlightened PublicSphere. Abstracts on the persistence of thecorporeal in 18th-century discussions of pub-licness. Why or how the disembodiment thatproduces a disinterested “public spirit” is im-aged in terms associated with haunting. 10 Mar.;Deidre Lynch (e-mail only) or Janet Sorensen.

Philosophical Approaches to Literatureafter Cultural Studies: German Romanti-cism. What are the best approaches to Ger-man Romanticism today, and what is theirrelation to the philosophical? What speaks foror against philosophical approaches to litera-ture? Abstracts by 20 Mar.; Laurie Johnson([email protected]).

The Physicality of Literary Labor. How andwhy do authors call attention to their own la-boring bodies? What significance has been orshould be ascribed to physical components ofthe act of literary creation? 500-word abstractsby 15 Mar.; Daniel Hack.

The Poetics and Politics of Fashion in LatinAmerica. Will explore 19th- and 20th-centuryLatin American fashion narratives and theories.What role do fashion, excess, and disguise playin literature? Abstracts by 20 Feb.; Regina Root([email protected]).

Pokémon: Rethinking (American) CulturalImperialism. How does it read as a text in theage of commercial capitalism? What is its sexual-cultural politics? How does it compare withDisney or other (jap-)animations? Perspectivesof non-Japanologists welcome. 1–2-page ab-stracts by 15 Mar.; Takayuki Yokota-Murakami([email protected]).

The Politics of Mobility in 19th-CenturyAmerican Literature. Papers are sought thatinvestigate the intersections between geo-graphic mobility, movement, displacement,and other “mobilities” (i.e., social, economic,legal, political, creative, subjective). 2-page ab-stracts by 10 Mar.; Susan L. Roberson.

Politics of Power, Identity, and Perfor-mance in the Humanities. How is one’sidentity constructed and defined in relation topower dynamics and “performance (anxiety)”in the profession? E-mail 1–2-page proposals by10 Mar.; Barbara Tilley ([email protected]).

Pop Watanna: Winnifred Eaton in Context.Possible topics include Eaton’s negotiationswith the literary marketplace and Hollywood;


fanzine articles on Maurice Chevalier, etc.;collaborative culinary projects with her sister.Send 1-page abstracts and brief vitae by 23 Mar.;Lisa Botshon ([email protected]).

The Portuguese Diaspora in the IndianOcean and Beyond. Portuguese presence fromMozambique and “O Estado de India” to Ma-cao, East Timor, and Malacca, from the end ofthe 15th century to the present day. Abstracts,short bibliographies, and vitae by 16 Mar. (pa-pers in Portuguese, English, or both); JosephAbraham Levi ([email protected] [email protected] [with attachments]).

Postcolonial Pynchon and the Re-vision ofHistory. Pynchon’s works in terms of dramati-zation of historiography, imperialism and nar-rative form, Western adventurism versusethnic Otherness, recycling or parodying his-tory to question Western sociopolitical as-sumptions. E-mail abstracts by 1 Mar.; VictoriaRamirez ([email protected]).

Postmodern Freaks: Disability, Metaphor,and Performance. This panel invites investi-gations of the tension between disability repre-sentations as metaphors for the postmoderncondition and the depiction of lived experiencein contemporary films and performances.1-page abstracts and vitae by 1 Mar.; PetraKuppers ([email protected]).

Postuniversal Aesthetics. What aestheticshave emerged from the ashes of postmod-ernism and its so-called dismantling of the uni-versal? What has taken the place of irony andpastiche? Why the “return” for formalism?1-page extracts by 15 Mar.; Sangita Gopal([email protected]).

Probing the Limits of Genre: DepictingCatastrophes in Recent Theoretical De-bates. Deconstruction and new historicismraise questions about generic fault lines be-tween different narratives of catastrophes:what sorts of disciplinary, historical, ethical,and political implications result from alterna-tive lines of emplotment? Amir Eshel.

Provincial Playing in Early Modern En-gland. This session aims to balance London-based drama studies with a panel of papers onpublic and popular entertainments in provin-cial towns of England. Of particular interestare papers making connections such as thosebetween performing, playing, and punish-ment; music, oration, and drama; English andforeign performers; tricks, freaks, and won-ders; local and national acts; England versusWales, Scotland, Ireland, or the Continent. Pa-pers or abstracts by 15 Mar.; Lloyd EdwardKermode ([email protected]).

Psychoanalytic Ambivalence, SubjectivePain Effacement, Ontological Ethics. Pa-pers dealing with shame, trauma (especially in-terdependency), masochism (especiallyWurmser and Lacan) using Butler, Bourdieu,Caruth, Deleuze (and Guattari), Derrida, Jame-son, Levinas, Wittgenstein, Zizek. Papers by1 Mar.; William Alejandro Martin ([email protected]).

The Pub. The political, social, literary, andcultural space of pubs in 19th- and 20th-century Britain. Especially welcome are papers

addressing class, gender, and national identity.1–2-page proposals and vitae by 10 Mar.;Christine Roth ([email protected]).

Queer Reason. Reassessing the FrankfurtSchool. Queer theory and individual thinkers(Adorno, Benjamin, Bloch, Habermas, etc.); re-visiting Enlightenment legacies through queerthought; problematics of critical theory, moral-ity, culture industry, social integration, etc.; andqueer politics and culture. 1–2-page abstractsby 1 Mar.; Eric Clarke ([email protected]).

Race and Identity in Postwar EuropeanCinema. 500-word abstracts electronicallyby 1 Mar.; Colleen Ryan-Scheutz ([email protected]).

Racing and E-race-ing: Multiraciality inLiterature, Film, and Performance. In anera preoccupied with racial classifications, howdo the various experiences and representationsof multiraciality operate within and againstsuch classifications? Proposals by 15 Mar.;SanSan Kwan ([email protected]).

Radical Poetics and theWriting of History.We seek to challenge in diverse ways the notionthat radical formalism in 20th-century literatureis necessarily ahistorical or counterhistorical andto redefine how the avant-garde constructs his-tory.Georgette Fleischer ([email protected])and Barrett Watten ([email protected]).

Reading Contemporary South Asian En-glish Literature, 1980–2000. What criticalchallenges does this new writing present? Howcan we attend to both the literariness and poli-tics of individual writers and trends? Proposalsand vitae by 15 Mar.; Ambreen Hai (fax: 413585-3339; [email protected]).

Reading Sexual Violence. What’s at stake?How is interpretation impacted by feminist andother activist agendas? Issues of historical andgeographical specificity, feminist or antifemi-nist history. Various critical approaches wel-come. Abstracts by 15 Mar.; Sondra Guttman([email protected]).

Reciprocating Rhetorics of Identity. Papersinvited exploring formations of identity cross-ing lines of nation, gender, or sexuality in latemedieval and early Renaissance cultures. Howdo performances of identity seek to persuadethrough reflection, situation, or appropria-tion? 1–2-page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Holly A.Crocker, English Dept., Saint Lawrence Univ.,Canton, NY 13617.

“Red Blues”: Jazzy Natives. Rural Deltablues and roots of American jazz have influ-enced aesthetic forms of expression and liter-ary focuses of Native American writers suchas Alexie, Harjo, and Welburn. Papers linkingNative oral traditions and folk blues and jazzmusical traditions especially welcome. Ab-stracts by 16 Mar.; Susan Scarberry-García.

Redefining Graduate Studies. This panelseeks papers about the graduate school experi-ence and professionalization. Issues to be con-sidered include job preparation; interviews andrésumés; balancing classes and teaching, pub-lishing, conferences; economic impact and fu-ture of graduate studies. Cécile Accilien([email protected]) and Katherine Gracki([email protected]).

Reimagining English Renaissance PoeticSubjectivity. Complicate the period’s theoriza-tion of poetic subjectivity beyond Freudian,Foucauldian, Marxist formulations. Explore



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ideological, rhetorical, phenomenological, andaesthetic pressure on interiority. 1-page ab-stracts and vitae by 1 Mar.; Gary Ettari, Dept. ofEnglish, Box 354330, Univ. of Washington, Seat-tle 98195-4330 ([email protected])and Joseph Tate ([email protected]).

The Reinvention of Jean-Paul Sartre. Onthe twentieth anniversary of his death, newbooks reevaluating Sartre’s career were pub-lished in France. How is Sartre rewritten, andwhat is his significance in the intellectual cli-mate of contemporary France? Abstracts by23 Mar.; Martha Kuhlman ([email protected]).

Re-placing Social Conscience: Politics, So-cial Justice, and Contemporary UnitedStates Fiction. Seeking papers that analyzeany aspect of social justice and contemporaryUS fiction. 1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.;Stephanie Girard ([email protected]).

Rethinking Genres for Medieval Drama.The question of the utility of generic classifica-tion; generic blending and bending; prolegom-ena to new approaches; English and othertraditions. E-mail 500-word abstracts by10 Mar.; Ruth Sternglanz ([email protected])or Erick Kelemen ([email protected]).

Rethinking the “Spätaufklärung.” Innova-tive approaches to German literature,1770–1800. Theories of Enlightenment; interdis-ciplinary readings of texts focusing on the prob-lematic legacy of the Enlightenment. Selectedpapers will be published. E-mail abstracts by15 Mar.; Carl Niekerk ([email protected]).

Revisiting Stephen Henderson. Seeking pa-pers on the historical and theoretical signifi-cance of Understanding the New Black Poetry.Also seeking fresh applications of Henderson’stheories. Abstracts and 2-page vitae by 9 Mar.;Kevin Meehan.

Rhetoric of Postcoloniality in America. Pa-pers on the rise of postcoloniality; its rhetoricaltransference. How does postcolonial discoursebecome localized, domesticated, and translatedwithin American literary, political, and aca-demic dimensions? Abstracts and vitae by10 Mar.; Moneera Al-Ghadeer ([email protected]) and Moustafa Bayoumi ([email protected]).

The Rise of the “Public Sphere” in 18th-Century Spain. Analysis of 18th-century in-tellectual discourses confronting print cultureor feminist approaches on the 18th-centurySpanish “public sphere” are particularly wel-come. 1-page abstracts by 15 Mar.; IñigoSánchez-Llama ([email protected]).

Rituals, Tradition, and Contemporary Af-rican Literature. Discussion of rituals and tra-ditions in African cultures introduced inoriginal or modified form in contemporary lit-erature. Papers in English, but seeking pan-elists representing different languages ofAfrica. 1-page abstracts; Cheryl Toman.

Romantic Geopoetics. Papers concerning theways poets such as Smith, Williams, Southey,Wordsworth, and Coleridge synthesize georgic,pastoral, and sentimental topoi and develop apoetics that speaks to their geographical andgeopolitical circumstances. Abstracts by10 Mar.; Jack Vespa, Univ. of Utah, 255 South

Central Campus Dr., Room 3700, Salt LakeCity 84112 ([email protected]).

Romanticisms in Translation. Translationhas moved from the periphery to the center ofthe humanist curriculum. Session devoted totranslation, in any language or tradition, as itwas practiced or theorized during the Romanticperiod. By mid-Mar.; George Rueckert, V. Or-missoni 1, Tartu 51011, Estonia ([email protected]).

Edward Said’s Modernism. The significanceof Said’s provocative appeal to high modern-ism (Joyce, Freud, Woolf, et al.) as the sourceof heroic renewal of contemporary intellectuallife. Tensions between political commitmentand mental self-reliance. Proposals by 10 Mar.;David Heckerl ([email protected]).

Self-Assessment: Theory, Practice, Prob-lems. This panel seeks to present a facultyperspective on the challenges of assessing pro-grams, including creating appropriate methodsof assessment, implementing assessment re-quirements of university administration andresponding to the results of a completed as-sessment. Ted Hovet ([email protected]) orKaren Schneider ([email protected]).

Self-Reflexive Cinema. This panel will ex-plore narrative and thematic issues in self-referential films (Hollywood, indie, orotherwise). Papers treating individual films,genres, and directors welcome. E-mail full es-says or 1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; ChristopherAmes ([email protected]) and BenjaminSchneider ([email protected]).

Sexual Difference, Encore. Sexual differenceversus “gender” in Anglo-American and Frenchfeminisms; sexual difference and homosexual-ity; nature, culture, and the real; identificationand object choice in the clinic; Lacan with fem-inism and queer theory. 400-word abstracts by9 Mar.; James Penney, 2011⁄2 Wycoff Ave.,Ithaca, NY 14850 ([email protected]).

Sexuality and Subjectivity. What is the rela-tion between a period’s sex-gender-marriagesystem and its representations of inwardness?How are the sexual and domestic codes of, say,Christianity, the Reformation, or capitalismconnected to models of subjective depth? Pro-posals to Philip Mirabelli ([email protected]).

Shadow, Foil, and Doppelgänger: ReadingPsychological Fiction in a Post-JungianWorld. 250-word abstracts by 1 Mar.; E. Flynn(510 723-6816 [info]; [email protected]).

Slavery and the Contemporary LiteraryImagination. Why do so many contemporarywriters of the African diaspora place their sto-ries in settings that depict slavery? Single-author or comparative essays. Proposals withvitae by 15 Mar.; Renee Schatteman([email protected]).

Slavery: History and Memory in Postcolo-nial Francophone Literatures. Doris Garra-way, Dept. of French and Italian, Kresge 152,Northwestern Univ., 1859 Sheridan Road,Evanston, IL 60208-2204 ([email protected]).

The Sound of Writing. The role of sound inliterature: writing about music, reading aloudor in silence, nib meets paper, the telltale

heart, etc. Comparisons across arts welcome.1–2-page proposals by 15 Mar.; Aden Evens, 76Brantwood Road, Arlington, MA 02476-8004([email protected]).

Southern Africa, North America: AtlanticCrossings and Encounters. Abstracts wel-comed on mutual ties and exchanges in fiction,nonfiction (history, philosophy, politics, trade,etc.), arts and cultural studies between SouthernAfrica and North America. 300-word abstractsby 1 Mar.; Thomas Olver, Dept. of English, Zu-rich Univ., Plattenstrasse 47, CH–8032, Zurich,Switzerland ([email protected]) andStephan Meyer ([email protected]).

Madame de Staël in International Perspec-tive. Staël’s widespread literary and political rep-utation left a lasting impact on the intellectualsof her age, especially women. Papers welcomeon any comparative aspect of Staël’s influence,literary or extraliterary. 1-page abstracts by1 Mar.; Judith Martin ([email protected]).

Staging the Academy: Theatrical Represen-tations of Academic Life. How do contempo-rary stage representations of academics and theacademy support, challenge, or complicate pub-lic opinion? How do they differ from treatmentin other genres? 1-page abstracts by 20 Mar.;Janet E. Gardner ([email protected]).

Stalking the Mouse: Doing Disney Studies.Why “do Disney”? Papers that explore new di-rections for this field of critical inquiry. Inter-disciplinary projects encouraged. Abstracts orpapers with brief vitae by 16 Mar.; D. K. Peter-son ([email protected]).

Stoppard and Shakespeare, Coward,Gleick, et Al. Postmodern parody? Pastiche?Pointless pyrotechnics? Papers addressing thechanging relations of Stoppard’s plays to theirarray of sources and ongoing critical contro-versy concerning this signature feature of hiswork. 1–2-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; LeighHarbin ([email protected]).

The Surrealist Journals: Literature, Art,and Politics. This panel will explore themajor role played by the various Surrealistjournals in the ongoing expression of themovement. It will focus on both their aestheticand their political dimensions. 1-page abstractsby 15 Mar.; Pierre Taminiaux ([email protected]).

Tea. Representations of tea during the periodof the East India Co., 1600–1858. Circulationsof this commodity within imperial economies,especially British and American. Travel writ-ings, Sinophilia, missionary societies, domesticrituals, China trade, Orientalist critiques.1-page abstracts by 9 Mar.; Brigitte Bailey andRachel Trubowitz.

Teaching Composition and Literature inProprietary Colleges. How does teaching infor-profit, higher-education institutions reflectthe impact of business interests on the human-ities? 5–7-page papers or 1-page abstracts andvitae by 15 Mar.; Michael Gooch ([email protected]).

Teaching Smarter. Short papers on princi-ples and practicalities of improving teachingin literature, languages, and writing withoutincreasing workload. Analyses rather thandemonstrations; should lead to discussion.



250-word abstracts by e-mail by 22 Feb.;James Papp ([email protected]).

Teaching Writing in and across the Disci-pline: A Roundtable Discussion on Teach-ing Writing. An opportunity for us instructorsto compare experiences (theory and practice)and envision future models of writing courses.Abstracts by early March; Li-Ping Geng.

Textual Constructions of Authorial Mythin Latin America. Deduction from fictionaland poetic texts of authors’ efforts to manipu-late reputation and biography toward theirown mythification. Preference for postinde-pendence authors. 250-word abstracts andvitae by 9 Mar.; Todd S. Garth, Language Stud-ies Dept., US Naval Acad., 589 McNair Road,Annapolis, MD 21402-5530 ([email protected]).

Theater in the Digital Age. Papers discussingmultiple aspects of theater productions involv-ing new technology. Contribution to the role ofinternet and live Internet performance arewelcome. 1-page abstracts by 10 Mar.; Johan-nes Schmidt ([email protected]).

The Theater of Beth Henley. Send abstractsand vitae by 23 Mar.; Gene A. Plunka.

Traveling Literature: American LiteraryStudies Abroad. Presentations investigatingthe ways American literature “travels” to othercultures. How is it received globally? How canwe apprehend the multicultural dimensions ofAmerican literature? Proposals by 15 Mar.;Kenneth Speirs ([email protected]).

“The Troubles” on Stage: Performance andOral Interpretations of the Northern Ire-land Conflict. Formal papers on theatricalarts, individual or group performances in theform of monologues, dramatic readings, etc.,or multimedia presentations that could includeoriginal video or creative composites of docu-mentary footage, film clips, etc. that engage is-sues relating to the Northern Ireland conflict.Detailed 1-page abstracts for 15-minute presen-tations by 15 Mar.; Khani Begum ([email protected]).

A True Religious Alchemy. The role and usesof alchemy and hermetic philosophy in the lit-erature and scientific thought of the early 17thcentury. An interdisciplinary discussion on therole played by alchemy and occultism in theEnglish rise of scientific empiricism. YaakovAkiva Mascetti ([email protected]).

“Turning Pro”: Sex, Scandal, and the 18th-Century Stage. “She-males,” transvestitism,incest, prostitution, murder, and divorce scan-dals, in life and in fiction; the prominence ofwomen authors and actors; audience appetiteand outrage. Abstracts by 9 Mar.; NoraNachumi, Stern Coll., 245 Lexington Ave.,New York, NY 10016 ([email protected]).

(Un)Covering Lost Voices: Serialized Fictionfor the 19th-Century Working Class. Exami-nations of discourses within fiction for British orAmerican working-class audiences. Any aspector approach. 1–2-page proposals and vitae by5 Mar.; Juliette Berning Schaefer, 1697 SheffieldDr., Ypsilanti, MI 48198 ([email protected]).

(Un)Covering the Holocaust? How can an“unspeakable” event such as the Holocaust ef-fectively and appropriately be presented in theclassroom? Papers invited that examine disci-

pline-specific challenges and explore innova-tive approaches to Holocaust pedagogy. 1-pageabstracts by 1 Mar.; Amir Eshel.

Untouchable! Caste and Postcoloniality.Papers may deal with the occlusion or elabora-tion of caste and class in postcolonial theory orin the construction of the normative citizensubject in postcolonial fiction pertaining toSouth Asia. Karni Bhati ([email protected]).

Unveiling the Middle East in the West:Reading and Teaching the Literature ofWomen and Islam. Formal papers or othercreative presentations addressing pedagogicaland interpretative problems in reading andteaching literary and media representations ofIslamic culture and the role of women andgender. Of particular interest are presentationsthat could suggest strategies for interrogatingthe role of literature and media in explainingIslamic culture to the West. Detailed 1-pageabstracts for 15-minute presentations by15 Mar.; Khani Begum ([email protected]).

Utopia and Technology: French Novelistsand the New Millennium. How do youwrite novels in a world of total illusion? Areading of postmodern times and spaces in thetexts of Dantec, Echenoz, Houellebecq, andothers. 250-word abstracts by 1 Mar.; FrédéricPallez ([email protected]).

Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and CulturalAnxiety and Its Afterlife Ten Years Later. Lit-erary or theoretical influences of this text regard-ing traditional English studies (Renaissance);cultural, gender, or gay and lesbian studies wel-come. Where are we now in relation to this text?1–2-page abstracts by 30 Mar.; W. Reginald Ram-pone, Jr., English Dept., Univ. of Connecticut,337 Mansfield Road, Storrs 06269-1025.

Victorian Heroines, Queer Readers. Papersexploring relations and disjunctions betweenwomen in Victorian novels and poetry andtheir queer audiences, including (dis)identifica-tions with or desire for fictional heroines andother alternatives to heteronormative reading.1-page abstracts (e-mail preferred) by 15 Mar.;Vincent Lankewish ([email protected]).

Victorian Music and Literature. Papers thathistoricize Victorian musical culture and subse-quent literary responses. Papers might addressissues of sexuality, morality, spectacle, consum-erism, or spirituality. 1-page proposals by 5 Mar.;Alisa Clapp-Itnyre ([email protected]).

Victorian Poetry of Self. “The selfless self ofself, most strange, most still” (Hopkins). “Andah for a man to arise in me, / That the man Iam may cease to be!” (Tennyson). Abstracts by1 Mar.; Paul Beidler ([email protected]).

Virtual Embodiments. Consider relationsbetween “virtual” and “real” body states; im-pact of technologies (cyber-, genetic, prothetic,hormonal, imaging) on subjectivity, sexuality,(trans)gender, race, (dis)ability; technoroman-ticism, technoimaginary; digital citizenshipand community, MUDs; “natural” versus “arti-ficial” embodiments. 2-page abstracts andvitae by 1 Mar.; Kim Surkan ([email protected]).

Eudora Welty’s and Our Usable Pasts:Scribbling Female Forebears. Route/root au-thorizing tradition of 19th-century popular ad-venturesses and angels through and in

precocious Welty’s modernist disguises forpostmodern salvage and critique. QueriesASAP; proposals by 20 Mar.; Jo Ellyn Clarey([email protected]).

When Hate Groups Target Campus News-papers. Practical and theoretical approaches;case histories; First Amendment considerations;students’ rights; the role of the faculty adviser.Proposals by 1 Mar.; Laraine Fergenson.

Women and Class in Contemporary Fic-tion. Issues of class broadly construed: urban,rural, regional, environmental, prison. Recep-tion analysis: tension between political andaesthetic critiques. Examples: Chute, Allison,Wozencraft, Bambara. 250-word abstracts by15 Mar.; Sandra Baringer ([email protected]).

Women Artists in 18th- and 19th-CenturyLiterature. Representations of female cre-ativity in literature (by women or men). Havewomen authors successfully depicted femalecreativity? Can femininity and genius be rep-resented as anything but incompatible?1-page abstracts by 1 Mar.; Judith Martin([email protected]).

Women at Teaching Institutions. Whatproblems and possibilities do women en-counter at teaching institutions? What’s lifelike for women under a heavy teaching load?How do women balance academic careers andliving a life? Abstracts and vitae by 15 Mar.;Ann E. Green ([email protected]).

Women’s Literary Tradition. Does women’sliterary tradition exclude or distort marginal-ized women? Does the mother-daughter con-struct prevent multiple subjects andsocial-situated knowledge? Should the traditionbe dismantled? If not, how can it be reenvi-sioned for the twenty-first century? LucindyWillis ([email protected]).

Women’s Speculative Fiction. “Alternative”fiction by, for, and about women. What con-cerns (political, pedagogical, professional) re-side within the study of these texts? Papers onutopianism, transgression, and noncanonicalworks appreciated. Abstracts by 15 Mar.;Michelle M. Sauer ([email protected]).

John Woolman Speaks to Our Time. This18th-century Quaker can speak to students inways that today are underappreciated. Howcan his life and journal be explained and un-derstood? 1-page abstracts; Allan Kohrman.

Writers, Politics, and Occultism. Examplesinclude Bulwer-Lytton’s influence on proto-Nazi ideologues; Yeats’s occultism as an impe-tus for cultural nationalism; Aleister Crowleyas poet/spy; Dion Fortune’s Magical Battle ofBritain. 1-page abstracts by 9 Mar.; Susan John-ston Graf ([email protected]).

Writing the Student Body: Narratives ofCollege Life. Novels, memoirs, or films dealingwith academia’s student side as it relates to so-ciopolitical, sexual, or moral issues. Abstractsor papers by 27 Mar.; Gene H. Bell-Villada([email protected]).

You Can’t Kick Me Out; I’m Leaving. Ifexile is inherently a social act committed bythe many against the one, isn’t “self-exile” anoxymoron? Field, period, and perspectiveopen. Send vitae and proposals; Joseph M. Sul-livan ([email protected]).

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CorrectionAn article on the 2001 ADE SummerSeminars in the Winter 2000 MLANewsletter included the wrong dates forADE Summer Seminar East. The seminarwill take place from 12 to 15 July 2001.

CONVENTION

ADE and ADFL Department Chairs toReceive Early Notice aboutReserving Hotel RoomsIn August 2001 the MLA convention officewill mail chairs of departments that arepaid members of ADE or ADFL by 1 May2001 early information about makinghotel room reservations for the MLA con-vention. While the early notification doesnot guarantee that department chairs willbe able to reserve a suite for interviewingjob candidates at the convention, it doesgive them the best opportunity to do so.Chairs who would like membershipforms or information about their depart-ments’ 2000–01 membership status shouldcontact Roy Chustek at the MLA office(646 576-5133; [email protected]).

BOOK NEWS

Three New MLA Titles PublishedThe MLA published three new titles in winter 2000. Approaches to Teaching Balzac’s OldGoriot (edited by Michal Peled Ginsburg), like all books in the MLA’s Approaches toTeaching World Literature series, contains two parts. The first, “Materials,” reviewsFrench editions and English translations of Old Goriot, background readings, and audio-visual materials. In the second part, “Approaches,” instructors describe strategies thathave proved successful for teaching Balzac’s work in a variety of course settings. Thevolume is 203 pages; it costs $37.50 (members $30.00) in cloth and $18.00 (members$14.40) in paperback.

In December, the updated and revised fifth edition of A Research Guide for Undergradu-ates: English and American Literature was published. Authors Nancy L. Baker and NancyHuling, reference librarians for over thirty years, draw on their experience to provide aclear and concise tour of the typical college library and easy-to-understand summaries ofthe print and electronic research tools available to students. Nearly fifty reference worksand research aids are described. The book is 105 pages; it costs $10.00 (members $8.00)in paperback.

Teaching Tudor and Stuart Women Writers was also published in December. This seven-teenth volume in the MLA’s Options for Teaching series summarizes the latest scholar-ship on British women writers who lived from roughly 1500 to 1700 and suggestsstrategies for presenting their works in the classroom. Thirty-six essays discuss fre-quently anthologized pieces by such authors as Margaret Cavendish, Elizabeth I, MarySidney, and Mary Wroth as well as the writings of women who have only recently cometo the notice of scholars. The volume is 433 pages; it costs $40.00 (members $32.00) incloth and $22.00 (members $17.60) in paperback.

To purchase these books or other MLA publications, please call customer services (646576-5161), fax your order (646 576-5160), or place your order through the MLA Web siteat www.mla.org. The MLA accepts Visa, MasterCard, and American Express.

MEETINGS

2001 ADE and ADFL Summer SeminarsADE Summer Seminar East will take place 12–15 July at the Radisson Hotel Bethlehem,Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and will be hosted by Barry Kroll (Lehigh Univ.). SeminarWest will take place 28 June to 1 July at the Monterey Beach Hotel, Monterey, Califor-nia, and will be hosted by Mark Hennelly (California State Univ., Sacramento) andLinda Morris (Univ. of California, Davis). For further information, consult the ADE Website (www.ade.org) or contact David Laurence, Director, ADE, at the MLA office (646576-5130; [email protected]).

ADFL Seminar East will be held at Middlebury College on 7–9 June and will behosted by Michael Katz. Summer Seminar West will be held at the University of Texas,Austin, on 21–23 June and will be hosted by Janet Swaffar. Speakers and topics willbe announced in the ADFL Bulletin and on the ADFL Web site (www.adfl.org), and abrochure detailing housing, meals, and excursions will be mailed to ADFL members inearly spring. For additional information, contact Elizabeth Welles, Director, ADFL, at theMLA office (646 576-5132; [email protected]).

BOOK NEWS

Call for Contributions in Approaches SeriesThe Publications Committee has approved development of two new titles in the seriesApproaches to Teaching World Literature. The first volume, Approaches to Teaching Lang-land’s Piers Plowman, will be edited by Thomas A. Goodmann. The second, devoted tothe novels of Samuel Richardson (Pamela, Clarissa, and The History of Sir Charles Grandi-son), will be edited by Jocelyn Harris and Lisa Zunshine. If you wish to contribute to ei-ther volume, please send your name and mailing address to Sonia Kane at the MLAoffice by 15 March ([email protected]; fax: 646 835-4043).

Actor Bill Irwin in a program arranged by theSamuel Beckett Society.


Table 1Percentage of Instructional Staff by Category of Instructor, Based on the Total Number of Instructors Reported by Responding Departments

ForeignCategory of Instructor English Language

All responding departmentsFull-time tenured or tenure-track 36.3 35.5Full-time non-tenure-track 9.5 12.4Part-time 32.0 28.9Graduate student TA 22.2 23.3

Number of departments 673 889

Doctorate-granting departmentsFull-time tenured or tenure-track 30.5 28.4Full-time non-tenure-track 8.1 11.7Part-time 16.9 12.1Graduate student TA 44.6 47.9


Master’s-granting departmentsFull-time tenured or tenure-track 39.9 38.5Full-time non-tenure-track 10.9 11.6Part-time 33.9 27.2Graduate student TA 15.3 22.8


Bachelor’s-granting departmentsFull-time tenured or tenure-track 53.6 46.3Full-time non-tenure-track 10.5 14.8Part-time 35.8 35.4Graduate student TA 0.2 3.5


Associate’s-granting departmentsFull-time tenured or tenure-track 31.8 26.2Full-time non-tenure-track 6.3 4.9Part-time 61.8 68.8Graduate student TA 0.1 0.0


Table 2Average Per-Course Pay for Part-Time Faculty Members Paid bythe Course, by the Highest Degree Granted by the Department

ForeignEnglish Language

All responding departmentsAverage per-course pay $2,428 $2,951


Doctorate departmentsAverage per-course pay $3,492 $4,742


Master’s departmentsAverage per-course pay $2,273 $2,826


Bachelor’s departmentsAverage per-course pay $2,438 $2,768


Associate’s departmentsAverage per-course pay $1,715 $1,953


Findings from the MLA Survey of Staffing in English and Foreign LanguageDepartments, Fall 1999A recently completed MLA survey provides timely informationabout staffing practices in college and university English and for-eign language departments in the United States and Canada. Thesurvey collected information about the numbers of tenured andtenure-track faculty members, full- and part-time non-tenure-trackfaculty members, and graduate student teaching assistants whotaught undergraduate courses in fall 1999. Information was alsocollected about the salaries, benefits, and professional supportavailable to teachers holding full- and part-time non-tenure-trackappointments.

The survey was designed as a census of all modern languagedepartments in the United States and Canada. Accordingly, inNovember 1999 the MLA contacted the 5,245 two- and four-yearcollege and university departments included in its database of de-partmental administrators. Overall, 2,182 of the departments re-turned questionnaires, a 42% response rate. Findings presentedhere are for the 673 responding English departments and the 889responding foreign language departments. Because the survey wasdesigned as a census, collective findings such as those reportedhere are most accurately regarded as indicative of conditions inthe responding departments rather than as a statistically verifiedsample intended as a basis for broader generalization.

The survey’s design as a census of all departments in the UnitedStates and Canada originated in a motion that the MLA DelegateAssembly approved at its meeting in December 1998. The motionalso provided for the MLA to make results available in a reportthat identifies departments and institutions by name, along withthe information the departments provided. The information reportedby individual departments and institutions can be accessed atwww.mla.org, the MLA’s site on the World Wide Web.

Table 1 shows the makeup of the fall 1999 corps of instructorsin the responding English and foreign language departments, byhead-count percentage and the highest degree the departmentsgrant. Almost all (98%) the responding English and foreign lan-guage departments in four-year institutions reported employingtenured or tenure-track faculty members. The percentages arelower for two-year associate’s-granting departments—79% forEnglish and 84% for foreign languages. Part-time non-tenure-trackfaculty members were employed by 91% of the responding En-glish departments and 83% of the responding foreign languagedepartments. Whether full-time non-tenure-track faculty memberswere employed varied considerably depending on the highest de-gree the responding departments grant. Eighty-six percent of theresponding doctorate-granting departments and 81% of the re-sponding master’s-granting departments reported employing full-timenon-tenure-track faculty members in fall 1999, in comparisonwith 59% of the bachelor’s-granting and 34% of the associate’s-granting departments.

Table 2 shows average per-course pay reported for part-timefaculty members who are paid by the course. Table 3 and table 4show average annual salaries reported for full-time non-tenure-track faculty members and part-time faculty members who arepaid on a fractional basis, respectively. Annual salaries are for ac-ademic year 1999–2000; per-course pay rates are for fall 1999.

Table 5 shows the significant differences in benefits offeredfull-time non-tenure-track faculty members and part-time facultymembers. No more than 20% of the responding English and for-eign language departments reported that health benefits were of-fered to part-time faculty members who were paid by the course,


Table 3Average Annual Salary for Full-Time Non-Tenure Track FacultyMembers, by the Highest Degree Granted by the Department


All responding departmentsAverage annual salary $33,832 $34,303


Doctorate departmentsAverage annual salary $32,874 $35,246


Master’s departmentsAverage annual salary $31,865 $32,684


Bachelor’s departmentsAverage annual salary $35,506 $33,739


Associate’s departmentsAverage annual salary $34,562 $35,092


Table 5Percentage of Responding Departments Reporting Benefits for Non-Tenure-Track Faculty Members

Full-time non-tenure-track Part-time paid by the course Part-time paid by a fractionEnglish Foreign Languages English Foreign Languages English Foreign Languages

Health plan paid by both 75.5 77.3 17.1 20.1 58.3 65.2Health plan paid by the school 29.3 28.2 4.7 6.4 20.8 22.2Health plan paid by staff 3.6 4.3 5.9 7.3 3.3 6.7Retirement plan 81.1 82.7 15.9 16.6 62.5 51.9Life insurance 75.7 78.9 9.5 13.2 54.2 46.7No benefits offered 1.8 1.1 70.1 64.8 20.0 18.5Minimum requirement* 37.3 37.9 20.2 24.4 55.0 62.2

Number of departments 440 560 579 657 120 135

*Benefits depend on some minimum such as class load, length of service, percentage of full-time salary, etc.

Table 4Average Annual Salary for Part-Time Faculty Members Paid byFraction, by the Highest Degree Granted by the Department


All responding departmentsAverage annual salary $22,352 $21,267


Doctorate departmentsAverage annual salary $23,274 $23,951


Master’s departmentsAverage annual salary $19,208 $20,491


Bachelor’s departmentsAverage annual salary $24,876 $19,436


Associate’s departmentsAverage annual salary * *


*Too few departments reporting part-time paid-by-fraction faculty mem-bers for averages to be calculated.

and 70% of the English departments and 65% of the foreign lan-guage departments reported that these faculty members were of-fered no health, retirement, or life insurance benefits at all. Bycontrast, three-quarters or more of the responding English andforeign language departments reported offering health, retirement,and life insurance benefits to full-time non-tenure-track facultymembers, and fewer than 2% of the departments reported thatthese faculty members were offered no benefits. Percentages ofthe responding departments reporting that benefits were offeredto part-time faculty members paid by the fraction fall betweenthose reported for full-time non-tenure-track faculty members andpart-time faculty members who are paid on a per-course basis.

Instructors of all categories and across all degree-granting typesof departments generally receive basic professional support suchas office space; access to a computer, a telephone, a mailbox, andphotocopying; and library privileges. The quality of the support,however, differs markedly with the category of instructor. Three-quarters or more of full-time non-tenure-track faculty members in

the responding English and foreign language departments enjoy aprivate office and private computer access, whereas more thanthree-quarters of part-time faculty members who are paid on aper-course basis must share office space and two-thirds mustshare computer access.

Nine of the other disciplinary societies participating in theCoalition on the Academic Workforce (CAW) also did surveys par-allel to the one the MLA conducted, including societies represent-ing the fields of anthropology, art history, cinema studies,independent composition programs (conducted by the Conferenceon College Composition and Communication), history, linguistics,philology (classics), and philosophy. Comparative data for all tendisciplines can be accessed at the American Historical Associa-tion’s Web site (www.theaha.org). For further information aboutthe MLA’s fall 1999 staffing survey, contact David Laurence (646576-5130; [email protected]).

David Laurence


At its meeting on 29 December 2000 in Washington, DC, the Del-egate Assembly took the following actions.

The assembly conducted four elections. In the balloting for theDelegate Assembly Organizing Committee, Miriam Balboa Echever-ría (Spanish, Southwest Texas State Univ.) and Anne Ruggles Gere(English, Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor) were elected to three-yearterms (2001–03). Rosemary G. Feal (Spanish, State Univ. of NewYork, Buffalo), John Guillory (English, New York Univ.), John W.Kronik (Spanish, Cornell Univ.), and Andrea A. Lunsford (English,Stanford Univ.) won two-year terms (2001–02) on the NominatingCommittee. Elected to the Elections Committee for two-year terms(2001–02) were Frances R. Aparicio (Univ. of Illinois, Chicago),Margaret Maurer (Colgate Univ.), and Kristen Poole (Univ. of Dela-ware, Newark). Finally, John Willett was elected an honorarymember of the association and Griselda Gambaro and José EmilioPacheco were elected honorary fellows. The assembly’s election ofhonorary members and fellows is subject to ratification by themembership. This ratification vote will be conducted in the spring.

In addition to annual reports from the association’s standingcommittees, the assembly received a number of reports that didnot require action: the report of the Delegate Assembly Organiz-ing Committee (DAOC); reports on staffing standards from theADE Executive Committee, the ADFL Executive Committee, andthe Graduate Student Caucus; the executive director’s report, andthe Finance Committee’s report.

The assembly also received a report from the Committee onAmendments to the Constitution that required action. The reportcontained the four constitutional amendments published in the Sep-tember 2000 issue of PMLA (495–97). The assembly approved threeof the four proposed amendments. The first approved amendmentensures representation of regular members, student members, andlife members on the Nominating Committee. The second amend-ment consisted of two sentences, which the assembly discussed andvoted on separately. The first sentence, which was approved, limitsservice as second vice president to one term. The second sentence,which was also approved, prohibits the nomination of sitting mem-bers of the Executive Council for second vice president. The lastapproved amendment ensures representation of people of color onthe Executive Council. In accordance with article 7.B.3 of the MLAconstitution, the Executive Council must review the amendmentsbefore forwarding them to the membership for the required ratifi-cation vote, which will be conducted in the spring.

The Executive Council presented two recommendations to theassembly. The first recommendation was based on a member’s re-quest “that the MLA give consideration to the establishment ofadditional dues brackets past the $80,000 level, or at the veryleast an $80–90K bracket.” In the current dues structure, the finalcategory covers incomes above $80,000, for which the duesamount is $125. The council asked the Delegate Assembly to con-sider the following extension of the dues structure: dues of $125for incomes ranging from $80,000–$100,000; dues of $145 for in-comes ranging from $100,000–$120,000; dues of $165 for incomesranging from $120,000–$140,000; dues of $175 for incomes over$140,000. The assembly approved the extension, which will gointo effect for the 2002 membership year.

The council’s second recommendation dealt with holding con-ventions in California. In 1994, the assembly approved a resolu-tion calling for a ban on holding conventions in California ifCalifornia’s Proposition 187 were implemented. In 1999, the stateagreed not to appeal a federal judge’s ruling that Proposition 187is unconstitutional. Since Proposition 187 will never be imple-

mented, the terms of the resolution will never be met. The assem-bly therefore voted to rescind the 1994 resolution and lift the banon holding conventions in California.

In other business, the assembly approved thirteen motions. Thetext of each motion appears below. All the motions will be for-warded to the Executive Council in February, and the council willconsider their implementation.

Motion 1999-11Whereas dramatic cutbacks in government funding for higher educa-tion continue despite a very strong economy, a huge budget surplus,and high corporate profit levels, and have accompanied a decline inthe number and quality of educational resources in all affected institu-tions, among full-time, tenured and tenure-track faculty, and highertuition at virtually all of them; and

Whereas, without regard to funding levels, institutions of higher edu-cation continue to increase the employment of underpaid adjunct,part-time, graduate- and teaching-assistant faculty, a large and growingminority of the members of the MLA, at less than a living wage; and

Whereas salaries, benefits, and working conditions for full-time,tenured and tenure-track faculty are directly threatened both by fund-ing cutbacks and by increasing reliance upon superexploited part-time,adjunct, and graduate- and teaching-assistant faculty; and

Whereas a nationwide political movement exists which claims that thecrisis in higher education stems not from the denial of resources butfrom the admission of “unqualified” students to higher education; and

Whereas this political movement seeks to pit middle-class studentsagainst working-class students, and especially to pit white studentsagainst nonwhite, and especially against African American students,concurrent with an upsurge of racist incidents at institutions of highereducation; and

Whereas, in contrast, the academy has witnessed a dramatic upsurgein unionization in the profession which has the potential to help re-verse the erosion of educational quality, lack of equal opportunity,growth of racism, and decline in educational facilities, faculty andstaff security, pay, and benefits; and

Whereas, therefore, unionization represents one essential step instruggling to arrest the decline of our profession, the erosion of educa-tional opportunity and facilities,

We, therefore, move that the MLA shall(1) Encourage its members, and all those employed in teaching and re-

search in the modern languages and literature, to unionize as anessential step toward defending decent teaching and learning condi-tions where they exist, and fighting to gain them where they do not,and to encourage faculty or professional staff, and all other campusworkers, when already represented by a union, to join that union;

(2) Organize and publish in Profession a forum or roundtable encourag-ing such unionization;

(3) Issue public statements of support for part-time and full-time fac-ulty, teaching and graduate assistants in their efforts to form unionsand caucuses within existing unions and thereby improve the con-ditions of work for teachers of English and the Modern Languages.Such activity could include, wherever practicable, expert testimonybefore legislative bodies on the compatibility of unionization andthe professional needs of MLA members; letters of support; pressreleases; and, submission of amicus curiae briefs on the compatibil-ity of unionization and the professional needs of MLA membersduring adjudication before government labor bodies such as NLRBand PERB.

Motion 2000-1Whereas various economic forces have had a deleterious impact onU.S. higher education in terms of budget cuts, work speedups, the

GOVERNANCE

Summary of Delegate Assembly Actions in Washington, DC


elimination of full-time jobs, and, in some cases, of entire depart-ments; and

Whereas the increasing use of part-time and adjunct faculty, combinedwith reliance on undercompensated graduate student labor, perpetu-ates exploitative practices that undermine our profession; and

Whereas there is an urgent need for an activist movement on cam-puses that unites tenured and untenured professors, adjunct and part-time faculty, graduate and undergraduate students, and other campusworkers to resist this trend;

We move that the MLA establish a minimum 50/50 ratio of sectionstaught by tenured or tenure-track/non-tenured or non-tenure tracklabor, with the expectation that we should work towards a 75/25 ratioor better, and that, beginning in 2001, the MLA publish and publicizea list of institutions that meet or exceed this minimum in their modernlanguage departments, including a notation in the Job Information List,as reported through surveys or by other means.

We further move that the association build on this minimum by fulfill-ing the charge of the 1997 Delegate Assembly to establish appropriatefull-time/part-time staffing ratios in modern language departments byinstitutional circumstances, creating a new Committee on StaffingStandards to be appointed by the Graduate Student Caucus, RadicalCaucus, and Executive Council in equal parts.*

We further move that the MLA encourages the ADE, ADFL, Profession,other professional organizations interested in this issue (e.g., the AAUPand the Coalition of Graduate EmployeeUnions), and our members topromote discussion of and activism aimed at establishing acceptable ra-tios of full-time/part-time labor that meet or exceed this minimum 50/50standard while continuing to advocate that non-graduate student teach-ing positions should whenever possible be full-time,with full benefits, ata living wage, and carrying reasonable expectations of job security andthat teaching assistants should receive a living wage and full benefits; and

We further move that the MLA make every effort to bring these sameissues to the attention of various accrediting agencies, while encourag-ing our membership to work with these agencies to insure that theyaddress the exploitation of part-time, adjunct, and graduate studentlabor as part of the accrediting process.

*The parliamentarian advised the assembly that the provision for ap-pointing the proposed committee could only be considered advisorybecause it violates article 11.D of the MLA constitution, according towhich the Executive Council determines the membership of all com-mittees of the association not provided for in the constitution itself.

Motion 2000-2

Whereas many research materials are located in restricted databasesor other digitized form—for example the MLA biblio database, MAGS,Current Contents etc.—that require a password that is provided onlyto current faculty, staff, and students at institutions of higher learning.

Whereas the proprietary nature of such databases and digitized mate-rials means that independent scholars, as well as academically unaffili-ated or unemployed MLA members, do not have access to criticalresearch tools.

Be it resolved that the MLA will investigate the possibility of providingaccess for independent scholars who are MLA members to its owndatabases; will urge other restricted databases to provide reasonable ac-cess for independent scholars; and urge university and other researchlibraries to consider independent scholars as their natural constituencywho should have access to electronic databases and digitized materials.

Motion 2000-3

Whereas many independent scholars and academically unaffiliated orunemployed MLA members reside in locations that are at a great dis-tance from research libraries at which they might secure privileges;

Whereas these scholars must rely in some cases on small public teach-ing institutions or local public libraries to secure research materials;

Be it resolved that the MLA will cooperate with other learned socie-ties and ACLS to encourage research libraries to rethink their interli-brary loan policies to lend materials more broadly (such as out-of-stateand to public libraries) especially in light of the new possibilities foreconomies from electronic systems.

Motion 2000-4Whereas the Delegate Assembly, at the 1996 national convention,voted, by an overwhelming majority, to establish an ad hoc Committeeagainst Campus Bigotry as a result of alarming bias incidents atUnited States colleges and universities, involving both verbal andphysical attacks on students in various minority groups and the target-ing of students for recruitment by racist groups;

Whereas in response to this vote, the MLA established a Task Forceagainst Campus Bigotry, which was listed in the 1998 MLA Directory,but has not been listed in the last two directories;

Whereas the Task Force has made a good start by issuing a report thatcalls for an ongoing effort by which the MLA can act to help to createon American campuses “an environment in which acts of bigotry canneither thrive nor survive”;

Whereas the MLA Delegate Assembly in December 1999 approvedby a vote of 97 to 3 a motion to maintain the Task Force against Cam-pus Bigotry;

Whereas the establishment of a more permanent body on campus di-versity and tolerance would be a sign of the MLA’s continuing com-mitment to the struggle against prejudice;

Whereas the MLA has established committees on Disability Issues inthe Profession and the Status of Women in the Profession and has sus-tained these committees over time, thereby showing its ongoing com-mitment to these important issues;

Whereas the MLA represents thousands of professors on campuses allacross America and abroad and has the resources to reach thousandsof people in order to spread a message of resistance to campus bigotry;

Whereas the MLA can work cooperatively with other bodies such asthe Southern Poverty Law Center, which has established a “TeachingTolerance” project and whose director has recently underscored theimportance of “recognizing and reversing thoughts and acts of preju-dice among college students”;

Whereas the Modern Language Association as a body of educators hasa clear responsibility to become involved in a moral issue that directlyaffects large numbers of students and faculty;

Whereas the Modern Language Association has a clear responsibilityto respond to bigotry when it involves the misuse of language;

Therefore, we move that the Modern Language Association establish aspecial Committee on Campus Diversity and Tolerance that will takeinto account the important work of the former Task Force againstCampus Bigotry; and

We move that this committee be charged with working to establish aclimate in which all students, faculty, and other college employees, nomatter what their religion, race, ethnic identity, gender, sexual orienta-tion, socioeconomic status, or disability status, can work, learn, anddevelop together in harmony; and

We move that this committee continue to function and to be listed inthe MLA Directory from 2001 until 2005, when it will report to theDelegate Assembly.

Motion 2000-5Whereas the vital nature of higher education in the development, un-derstanding, and dissemination of ideas makes it essential that ourprofession maintain the highest standards of accountability and ac-complishment;

Whereas, meanwhile, the speed and variety of technological develop-ment is changing the fundamental nature of work and the relationships



of intellectuals and the institutions through which they address thebroader public;

Whereas in responding to these changes in the nature of intellectualwork, the American Association of University Professors and TheNewspaper Guild-CWA on June 11, 2000, jointly issued a “Statement onIntellectual Workers & Essential Freedoms” which delineates principles,goals, and commitments to guide their actions in the coming years;

Therefore be it moved that the MLA endorses the principles set forthin the “Statement on Intellectual Workers & Essential Freedoms,” com-mitting itself to:• the principles and objectives of the First Amendment.• the principles of academic freedom, and mechanisms that protect

them.• legal and public advocacy of journalistic freedom under the First

Amendment.• protection of intellectual property rights for creators in the new digi-

tal environment.• development of workplace democracy and diversity.• insulation of intellectual work from commercial concerns.• encouragement of broader access to knowledge in all its forms and

venues.

Motion 2000-6Whereas it is well documented that many institutions of higher educa-tion pay insufficient wages and provide insufficient benefits to manymembers of the teaching staff, especially to graduate employees andother contingent workers,

We move that the Association adopt, publicize, and update on August15th of every year a minimum wage for higher education in literature,language, and literacy in the United States, those minimums for2001–2002 to begin at: $36,000 plus health-care benefits and sharedcontributions to a portable retirement plan for persons in a full-timejob but not holding the terminal degree in their field (typically a PhDor MFA); $42,000 plus health-care benefits and shared contributions toa portable retirement plan for those in a full-time job and holding theterminal degree in their fields; and

We further move that the Association calculate and publish a mini-mum per-course part-time wage applying to graduate students as wellas other contingent labor faculty, based on one-eighth of the full-timewage, to begin at $4,500 for persons without the terminal degree; and$5,250 for persons with the terminal degree, but including in all caseshealth-care benefits, shared contributions to a portable retirementplan, and full tuition waiver.

Motion 2000-7Whereas for many graduate students the logic of replacement in theacademic labor system—which means that new generations of gradu-ate student teachers are repeatedly recruited and discarded—meansthat receipt of the doctoral degree signifies the end and not the begin-ning of a long teaching career,

We move that the MLA form a partnership with AAUP, the GSC, theCGEU, and other academic labor organizations to formulate the termsof a policy aimed at eradicating the logic of replacement in the exploita-tion of graduate student labor and guaranteeing the right of graduate-employee faculty to continuing employment in higher education uponreceipt of the doctoral degree. It will be up to this coalition to deter-mine exactly what “continuing employment” will mean and how to putthe principle into practice. We are not proposing a specific solution butrather charging our professional organizations to address the problem.

Motion 2000-8Whereas the trustees of the StateUniversity of NewYork have set generaleducation requirements for students without faculty consultation; and

Whereas the trustees of the University of Texas are calling for stan-dardized tests to measure student competency in general educationand for assessments of students’ competency in their majors; and

Whereas many other trustees of colleges and universities, and state leg-islatures of public universities are attempting to determine what coursesstudents must take and what must be taught in those courses; and

Whereas by taking these actions trustees and regents not only violatethe tenets of faculty governance and academic freedom established bythe AAUP and the MLA, but compromise sound educational practice;

Moved that the MLA affirms that one of the basic tenets of academicfreedom is faculty control of curricula.

Motion 2000-9Be it moved, That the Modern Language Association formally endorseand adopt both the letter and the spirit of the “Statement on GraduateStudents” issued by the American Association of University Profes-sors, June 2000.

Motion 2000-10Whereas, The Delegate Assembly adopted as MLA policy motion1999-8; and

Whereas, Job candidates have a compelling interest in knowing beforeapplying whether they can expect to be reimbursed for the expensesand can expect the return of materials enumerated in motion 1999-8;now, be it

Moved, That submission forms for positions to be advertised on theJob Information List be amended—at the point immediately followingthe text delineating the MLA’s policy on reimbursement—to includethe following text:

Please check one:❑ Our department guarantees candidates for this position re-

imbursement for expenses and return of sample materialsconsistent with MLA policy, as stated above.

or❑ Our department does not guarantee candidates for this po-

sition reimbursement for expenses or return of sample mate-rials consistent with MLA policy, as stated above.

Your choice of the above options will be noted in the Job Information Listlisting.

and

Moved, That the above choice will be presented as a dialog box—which must be answered, affirmatively or negatively, before proceed-ing further in the application—in electronic submission forms; and

Moved, That each new Job Information List listing that has been giventhe above choice on its submission form prominently display one ofthe following two statements—or symbols legended to represent thesestatements—as appropriate:

The department offering this job guarantees reimbursementfor expenses and return of sample materials consistent withthose enumerated as MLA policy.

orThe department offering this job does not guarantee reim-bursement for expenses or return of sample materials consistentwith those enumerated as MLA policy.

Moved that in the first year only those departments answering posi-tively will be noted.

Motion 2000-11Moved, that the MLA give due consideration to cosigning amicusbriefs written by the AAUP or other higher education organizationswhen those briefs support basic academic rights—including academic



Classified AdvertisementsAddress all advertisements to MLANewsletter, MLA, 26 Broadway, 3rdfloor, New York, NY 10004-1789. Checksshould be made payable to the ModernLanguage Association. The rate for ad-vertisements is $3 a word, with a ten-word minimum. Ads must be prepaid.Content and appearance of adver-tisements are subject to publisher’sapproval. The publisher does not solicitthe items and cannot vouch for their reli-ability. Members should exercise reason-able judgment in responding to them.

STROLL TO BRITISH LIBRARY. Profes-sor’s two four-room modernized Regencyflats. Year, semester, shorter period. Phone215-592-8102. [email protected]

INTERNATIONAL SEMINARS: CIEE’SFACULTY DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS.Intensive 1–2 week overseas seminarsbeing offered in 20 countries, for univer-sity faculty and administrators. Seminarsfocus on cultural, political, and economicissues and feature lectures, study tours,and professional interchange. 2001 semi-nars: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile,China, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cuba, En-gland, Germany, Ghana, Jordan, Mexico,N. Ireland, S. Africa, Spain, Taiwan,Tunisia, Turkey, Vietnam. Tel: 1 800 40-STUDY; www.ciee.org/ifds.

I will be 80 years old on June 9 and wouldlove to hear from former students andcolleagues. Herbert Lederer, 143 SeparatistRoad, Storrs, CT 06268.

APRIL1 Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies1 Helen Ann Mins Robbins Fellowship1 Zhonghua Scholarship Program3 National Endowment for the Humanities

10 National Endowment for the Humanities15 National Endowment for the Humanities15 National Foundation for Jewish Culture Dissertation

Fellowships

MAY1 National Endowment for the Humanities

10 Rockefeller Foundation15 Woodrow Wilson National Fellowship Foundation

JUNE1 IREX (International Research and Exchanges Board)1 Women’s Caucus for the Modern Languages

15 Canadian Studies Grant Programs15 Fordham Medieval Fellows Program

D E A D L I N E S

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

freedom and tenure, fair employment practices, and the right of campus employee groups toengage in collective bargaining.

Moved, that the MLA when appropriate will call on individual college and university adminis-trations to honor the results of petition or card drives that express the majority sentiment ofemployee groups regarding collective bargaining—including requests to hold a formal electionto choose a bargaining agent.

Moved, that the MLA when appropriate will call on individual college and university adminis-trations to honor the results of employee group votes on collective bargaining taken by secretballot and supervised by neutral third parties—such as state, regional, or National Labor Rela-tions Boards or the American Arbitration Association.

The Delegate Assembly remains the most broadly representative and most effective place to intro-duce MLA resolutions censuring colleges or universities for practices that violate the basic rightsof our members. Recognizing, however, that the DA meets only once a year, and that action mayoccasionally be urgent at other times, we urge the Executive Council to give due consideration towarning and then censuring institutions that violate the rights of students and faculty in fields rep-resented by the MLA. These rights include the right to collective bargaining wherever it is legal.

Motion 2000-12Whereas, The MLA has a vested interest in the working conditions of its membership; be it

Moved, That the MLA will initiate a substantial publication on the pros and cons of faculty andgraduate student unionization and on the practical steps involved for faculty and graduate em-ployees seeking collective bargaining; and

Moved, That the aim is not necessarily equal representation in terms of space, since the need todetail practical procedures may require more space than a full expression of views againstunionization. Rather, the aim is to offer a fair and balanced representation of diverse points ofview on the subject of unionization; and

Moved, That the MLA will produce this substantial publication in a timely fashion.

The assembly also approved three resolutions. They are presented in the accompany-ing article on page 7, which also describes how the resolution comment process will becarried out this year on the MLA’s Web site. In accordance with article 7.B.3 of the MLAconstitution, the Executive Council will review the resolutions before forwarding themto the membership in the spring for ratification.

Ballots covering all items subject to membership ratification will be mailed to mem-bers by the beginning of April. These ballots must be returned by 1 June. A complete re-port of the Delegate Assembly meeting will appear in the May 2001 issue of PMLA.


MARCH1 Deadline for receipt of forum proposals for the 2001 convention1 Deadline for entries in the 2001 James Russell Lowell Prize com-

petition9 Deadline for receipt of departmental administrators’ statements

for the April 2001 Job Information List15 Deadline for receipt of submissions for Profession 2001

APRIL1 Deadline for receipt of entries competing for the 2001 MLA

Prize for a First Book and for the Lois Roth Award for aTranslation of a Literary Work

1 Deadline for receipt of requests for waivers of membershiprequirements for participants in the 2001 convention

1 Deadline by which organizers and panelists in the 2001convention must be listed on the MLA membership rolls

1 Deadline for receipt of books and articles for listing in the 2000MLA International Bibliography

7 Postmark deadline for proposals for special sessions for the 2001convention

7 Deadline for receipt of requests for audiovisual equipment forthe 2001 convention

7 Postmark deadline for program copy from divisions, discussiongroups, MLA committees, and allied and affiliate organizations

15 Deadline for receipt of requests for funds for speakers at the2001 convention

20 Deadline for submission of manuscripts for the PMLA specialtopic America: The Idea, the Literature

30 Deadline for applications for dues subsidies for residents of de-veloping or soft-currency nations

MAY1 Deadline for receipt of entries in the 2001 competitions for

the MLA Prize for Independent Scholars, the Kenneth W.Mildenberger Prize, Mina P. Shaughnessy Prize, Katherine SingerKovacs Prize, and Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prizes for Compar-ative Literary Studies and for French and Francophone Studies;and for the biennial competitions for the MLA Prize for a Distin-guished Scholarly Edition, the Morton N. Cohen Award for aDistinguished Edition of Letters, the Aldo and Jeanne ScaglionePrize for Studies in Slavic Languages and Literatures, the Aldoand Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Italian Studies, and the Aldo andJeanne Scaglione Prize for a Translation of a Scholarly Study ofLiterature

25 Deadline for receipt of departmental administrators’ statementsfor the 2001 Summer Supplement of the Job Information List (nosolicitations will be made)

JUNE1 Deadline for receipt of ballots on resolutions and other matters

15 Deadline for submission of manuscripts for the PMLA specialtopic Imagining History

15 Notification of decisions on funding requests mailed todiscussion leaders who have applied for funds for speakers atthe 2001 convention

30 Deadline for receipt of new members’ applications for listing inthe September 2001 (Directory) issue of PMLA

30 Deadline for current members to submit changes in rank oraffiliation for listing in the September 2001 (Directory) issue ofPMLA

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