The MLA joined several other organizations in signing a letter criticizing the South Carolina legislature, which defunded programs at the College of Charleston and the University of South Carolina, Upstate, because it objected to assigned reading. The letter states that “penalizing state educational institutions financially simply because members of the legislature disapprove of specific elements… Read more »
Posts Categorized: MLA in the News
MLA Cited in Article about Challenges Facing the Humanities
Quoted in a recent New York Times article, the MLA executive director, Rosemary G. Feal, expresses concern about the devaluing of the humanities by legislators. Documenting challenges to humanities funding worldwide, the article also cites Michael Bérubé, a former MLA president, who argues that disputed claims about the decline of humanities enrollments are being used… Read more »
MLA Strategies for Promoting Language Study Cited
Inside Higher Ed reports that the MLA’s executive director, Rosemary G. Feal, urged college officials to foster collaboration, prepare proficient teachers, use technology, and encourage heritage language speakers when she spoke at the University of Maryland’s Languages for All? conference, where Feal addressed the role of higher education in advocating the value of languages to… Read more »
A Week in the Life of the MLA’s Executive Director
Want to know what goes on behind the scenes at MLA headquarters? In recent blog posts for PhDs at Work, Rosemary G. Feal, executive director of the MLA, gives readers a glimpse of her days—and nights—working for the association and details the path that led her to the MLA.
Discussion about Letters of Recommendation in the News
A new article in Inside Higher Ed spotlights MLA First Vice President Margaret Ferguson’s draft statement on streamlining letters of recommendation and the discussion it has sparked on MLA Commons. Incorporating suggestions from those who have commented on the Commons, Ferguson will ask the Executive Council to consider a revised statement in October. MLA members… Read more »
Dennis Looney to Join the MLA in 2014
The MLA is pleased to announce that Dennis Looney, professor in the Department of French and Italian Languages and Literatures at the University of Pittsburgh, will join the MLA staff as the director of programs and ADFL when Nelly Furman retires in January 2014. A scholar of Italian language and literature, Looney brings with him… Read more »
MLA Cited in Article about Time-to-Degree Initiative
A new Chronicle of Higher Education article (subscriber log-in required) spotlights a Brandeis University initiative to decrease the time to degree of PhD candidates by requiring commitment agreements from those granted selective one-year dissertation fellowships. The MLA’s executive director, Rosemary G. Feal, sees graduate programs developing “a network of approaches” to “create situations where students… Read more »
MLA Responds to Report on the Humanities and Social Sciences
In articles in the New York Times, Chronicle of Higher Education, and Inside Higher Ed, the MLA’s executive director, Rosemary G. Feal, and its former president, Russell Berman, respond to a new American Academy of Arts and Sciences report on the humanities and social sciences. The report identifies challenges facing the humanities and social sciences,… Read more »
Advocating Undergraduate Study of the Humanities
In a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article (log-in required) about the release of three reports by Harvard University’s Arts and Humanities Division, Rosemary G. Feal, the executive director of the MLA, reaffirmed the value of a humanities education. The writing and analytic skills that humanities majors develop are highly desirable to employers, Feal said,… Read more »
Fitzpatrick Speaks about Open Access
In a statement at the National Academy of Sciences meeting on public access to federally supported research and development publications, Kathleen Fitzpatrick, the MLA’s director of scholarly communication, discussed the changing role of professional societies in the Internet era. Citing the ability to disseminate one’s work through a platform like MLA Commons, Fitzpatrick posited that… Read more »