The draft proposal for a new MLA group structure has already received over four hundred comments, which have provided important feedback for the working group that created the draft, for the Program Committee, and for the Executive Council. Many groups, however, have received few comments. If you haven’t already weighed in on the draft, we encourage you to log in to the Commons and join the conversation. The draft proposal for a revised group structure will be available for comment until 20 November. A revised version of the proposal will be presented for further debate at the Open Hearing on the Future of the MLA Divisions and Discussion Groups and the meeting of the MLA Delegate Assembly at the MLA convention.
Reminder to Comment on MLA Groups Discussion
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The revised group structure reveals MLA as an organization that leads and not mirrors outmoded ways of organizing content and ways of thinking about it. Furthermore, this new structure expands the presentation of thinking about modern languages and literatures and provides a reconfigured group organization in accordance with new ways of reimagining literature, language and their global, cross-cultural connections in interdisciplinary ways.
I am thrilled that the MLA is updating its categories and taxonomies for academic disciplines. Although I have been a member of the MLA for a couple of decades and have been very active in some of its endeavors, I have never really felt that the MLA reflected the kind of interdisciplinary work that interests me– performance studies, hemispheric studies and so on. The proposed re-organization is a very promising step towards re-thinking outdated disciplinary formations. Thank you to Marianne Hirsch, Margie Ferguson and all those who are moving this along.
The draft proposal, deducing the number of sessions available at the annual convention for medieval studies, overlooks the many energetic, insightful contributions that enrich understanding and advance possibilities in perspective and approach. Very likely, one learns that scholars and critics from the full scope of linguistic and literary studies argue effectively for full representation in MLA meetings. Yet to crowd the long span of medieval studies into fewer sessions is an unwarranted economy.
Thank you all for reflecting on the proposed new group structure. Please do take a moment to add your comments to the draft proposal itself so that your feedback becomes part of the conversation and the official record. Instructions on how to add a comment to the proposal are available here. If you would like additional help, please contact us at commons@mla.org. Thanks again for participating!