For our October member spotlight, we’re highlighting Ignacio Sánchez Prado, a twenty-one-year member of the MLA. Read about Ignacio’s time on the Executive Council and which MLA resources he has found invaluable to his work:
“[W]hen I became a member of the Executive Council, I was immensely and positively surprised about all the work the MLA conducts in many dimensions. Like many people, I used to perceive the MLA as a prestige-centered organization in which senior English professors from R1 universities brought a lot of weight. But this is not the case at all. The governance of the association is incredibly diverse in terms of geography and institution and it was a privilege to serve alongside colleagues working in state schools, community colleges and HBCUs. I came out of my term wishing that more people see this side of the MLA, oftentimes eclipsed by the convention, but perhaps more essential as our field faces so many challenges.”
Recommended resource: “The resources that have always accompanied me are the bibliography and the conference. In terms of the bibliography, it has encouraged me to write scholarship with extensive bibliographical research, and the ways in which it has evolved over time has allowed me to find sources in a precise and rigorous way. In terms of the conference, I have been going nearly every year since I first attended in 2005. There is no question that my career has benefitted enormously by the networks I have found in the conference, beginning as a graduate student and young faculty member, and eventually through my service in divisions and forums. I also value the ways in which it has exposed me to scholarship across all the fields of literary and cultural studies. The book exhibit is my favorite part, as a bibliophile and I always look forward to learn what new books came out and to talk to editors, some of whom became friends over the years.”