Quoted in a recent article in The Atlantic, the MLA’s executive director, Rosemary G. Feal, contends that it is critical for middle administrators and accreditors to play a role in addressing deteriorating faculty working conditions and the exploitation of adjunct faculty members. Despite the high quality of instruction often provided by non-tenure-track faculty members, the… Read more »
Monthly Archives: April 2014
New ADE Report on Assessment
The recently published report of the ADE Ad Hoc Committee on Assessment offers concrete suggestions for implementing a useful and streamlined assessment program in postsecondary departments of English. The report recommends that departments focus on a limited number of clearly defined outcomes and proposes an inquiry-based approach whereby departments seek to answer well-formed questions about… Read more »
Candidates for 2014 MLA Elections
The 2014 Nominating Committee has nominated Leslie A. Adelson, Christie A. McDonald, and Diana Taylor for second vice president of the MLA and Emily S. Apter, Theodore Joseph Cachey, Jr., Margaret Anne Cohen, Eric Hayot, Kathi Inman Berens, Vicky Unruh, and Nicole B. Wallack for the MLA Executive Council. The 2014 Elections Committee has arranged… Read more »
2014 ADE and ADFL Summer Seminars
Department chairs, directors of graduate or undergraduate studies, program directors, and other department leaders are invited to attend this year’s ADE and ADFL Summer Seminars to share information and to hear from colleagues with a range of perspectives on issues facing their departments and fields. The joint ADE-ADFL Seminar West will take place on 19–22 June… Read more »
2014 Ratification Vote Now Under Way
At the Chicago convention the 2014 Delegate Assembly elected one honorary member and three honorary fellows and approved a resolution. The assembly’s actions are not final, however, since the MLA constitution requires a ratification vote in each instance. Members are therefore encouraged to review this year’s ballot and to exercise their right to vote, especially… Read more »
Summer Newsletter Now Online
The Summer Newsletter is now available to members on the MLA Web site. Included in the issue are the nominees for 2015 elections, information on new guidelines on letters of recommendation, Margaret W. Ferguson’s president’s column on the Common Core State Standards, and Rosemary G. Feal’s editor’s column about expanding career opportunities for PhDs.
Submissions Invited for Literary Studies in the Digital Age
The editors of Literary Studies in the Digital Age: An Evolving Anthology (published by the MLA in 2013) invite your participation in expanding this living collection and charting new directions in the field of digital literary studies. Please visit http://mla.hcommons.org/groups/dls-anthology/announcements/ to read instructions on submitting an essay, to comment on the present volume, and to make suggestions for future… Read more »
MLA Response to OpenSSL Vulnerability (Heartbleed Bug)
Recently, information was released concerning a vulnerability in OpenSSL, software that secures traffic between computers on the Web. As soon as we heard about this vulnerability, known as “Heartbleed,” we took action to assess and patch MLA systems. The servers that power mla.org, ade.org, and adfl.org use an older version of OpenSSL that is not… Read more »
Upcoming MLA Prize Competitions
The MLA Committee on Honors and Awards invites authors and editors to compete for the association’s publication awards. There are eleven awards with a 1 May deadline, including the MLA Prize for a Bibliography, Archive, or Digital Project and the MLA Prize for Studies in Native American Literatures, Cultures, and Languages. Information on all of the MLA… Read more »
Two Volumes in Development on MLA Commons
The MLA’s office of scholarly communication is exploring a new mode of book development using the MLA Commons platform and is excited to announce two new volumes in progress: Teaching Modern British and American Satire, edited by Evan Davis and Nicholas D. Nace, is in development in the MLA Options for Teaching series. Visit the group Teaching Modern British and American… Read more »