Suggestions Invited for PMLA Editor

Posted by Colleen Baer

MLA members are invited to suggest candidates to serve as editor of PMLA. The term of the current editor, Brent Hayes Edwards, ends in June 2026, and the new editor’s term, a three-year appointment, would begin 1 July 2026. Responsibilities include reviewing submissions, leading meetings of the editorial board, writing an editor’s column and selecting the content for each issue, and commissioning material for the journal’s special features. The MLA offers the editor significant support from the staff, as well as resources for networking on behalf of the journal, including participation at the association’s annual convention.

Qualifications:

The ideal candidate has a capacious intellectual vision and is conversant with developments in a wide range of fields. PMLA is a membership journal, and it is vital that the diversity of MLA members and their work be represented in the journal.

The editor should be able to work innovatively within the structures of the MLA and PMLA and to communicate and collaborate well with staff members and authors.

The editor must be a member of the MLA and preferably have had some experience with PMLA (as an author, a reviewer, or a member of the advisory committee or editorial board) or substantial editorial experience with another peer-reviewed scholarly journal in the field.

To suggest a candidate, please send an email to pmlaeditorsearch@mla.org by 6 October 2025.

Member Spotlight: Anne Lambright

Posted by Colleen Baer

Anne Lambright

This month, our MLA member spotlight features Anne Lambright, a thirty-year member of the MLA. Read more about Anne’s work and how MLA resources have shaped her work:

“The MLA has had a tremendous impact on my career, from my work as a scholar to my efforts in academic leadership and language advocacy. As a young researcher, fresh out of grad school, I met impactful mentors and long term collaborators through attending MLA conventions. I had the privilege of serving on the PMLA Editorial Board–one of the highlights of my career and something I highly recommend. And, I’m thrilled that my translation and edited volumes on Grupo Cultural Yuyachkani, a group I’ve researched and written on for about twenty-five years, will be published in the Texts and Translations series this coming fall. I cannot imagine a more perfect venue for introducing Yuyachkani and their human rights theater to an English-speaking audience.”

Recommended resource: “I think it wasn’t until I moved into academic leadership that I fully understood the importance of our professional academic organizations and how tirelessly the MLA works to advocate for our interests and protect the future of language and literature teaching and scholarship. That work is even more important now, and I am extremely proud of and grateful for the courageous stand that the MLA has taken to fight for the NEH and to oppose attacks on higher education.

At the moment, the resources I am constantly turning to are the Advocacy and Resources on Legislative Threats to Higher Education pages [on the MLA website], and I’ve been grateful for the various resources on defending humanities work that I’ve made good use of over the years.”

Member Spotlight: Katherine Elkins

Posted by Colleen Baer

Katherine Elkins

For our May member spotlight, we’re highlighting Katherine Elkins, a twenty-year member of the MLA. Read about Kate’s work as a member of the MLA team for the US AI Safety Institute, a Commerce Department initiative to support the development of AI standards and guidelines, and why she thinks the MLA convention is an invaluable resource for members:

“Currently I serve as principal investigator representing the MLA for the US AI Safety Institute. Our MLA team consists of five members, and together we serve on nearly all of the key task forces. I believe it’s incredibly important to have specialists in writing and languages making sure our AI systems are safe, unbiased, and representative of the entire breadth of humanity’s cultural heritage. Last November, our team had the opportunity to present some of our safety research to the [Artificial Intelligence Safety Institute] Consortium, with many of the leading tech companies represented. Afterwards several AI researchers approached me and thanked the MLA for all of our incredibly important work in this field. I’m grateful to our organization for supporting the initiative.”

Recommended resource: “The yearly MLA conference is really a wonderful opportunity to put a face to people whose work you’re reading. This past January I finally had the chance to sit down and connect with people whom I had only known through writing. Don’t hesitate to reach out to people and invite them to coffee. Ask for a quick chat after a panel with someone whose work you like. We are all there to connect.”

MLA Announces 2024–25 Cohort of Pathways Step Grant Recipients

Posted by Colleen Baer

The MLA today announced it is awarding the association’s Pathways Step Grants to twenty-one faculty teams in MLA-related disciplines. Each step grant provides up to $10,000 to support faculty members with the development of new structures, programs, and resources that bolster the recruitment, retention, and career readiness of undergraduate students, especially students of color, first-generation college students, and Pell Grant recipients.

“Students who are drawn to the humanities often don’t come into them with a clear sense of the skills, values, and perspectives they will develop in their courses and majors,” said Paula M. Krebs, the executive director of the MLA. “We are so glad that, with the support of the Mellon Foundation, Pathways can continue to bolster faculty members who are working to name, measure, and document the value of study in our fields and are increasing opportunities for their students every day, across the country.”

The selected projects, which come from all over the United States, introduce humanities students to an array of professions.

  • At the University of Maryland, Eastern Shore, faculty members are developing three digital humanities courses to enhance students’ career readiness though digital tools and multimodal communication, all while bringing attention to Black narratives and cultural histories.
  • To boost student’s awareness of humanities careers in the region, faculty members from Appalachian State University, in North Carolina, are deploying a new academic success course paired with a speaker series dedicated to demystifying humanities career pathways.
  • At Western Illinois University, faculty members are using a three-pronged approach focused around career literacy to support internships, recruit new students, and build campus and regional partnerships.

The twenty-one projects, selected through a rigorous peer-review process, demonstrate an array of innovative approaches intended to engage and enrich humanities students in the classroom and beyond. The recipients of Pathways Step Grants will present their projects at the 2026 MLA Annual Convention, taking place in Toronto from 8 to 11 January. The twenty-one project directors are

  • Todd Barnes (Ramapo Coll of New Jersey) – “English Career Ramapo Alumni Mentoring Program”
  • Johana Barrero (Univ. of North Florida) – “Empowering First-Generation Success: Bridging Language Studies with Professional Opportunities at UNF”
  • Joanne Britland (Univ. of Florida) – “Comics and Community: A Transfer Student Pathway”
  • Mary Clinkenbeard (Southern Univ. and A&M Coll.) – “Creating a Career Readiness Program for English Majors and Minors at Southern University and A&M College”
  • Megan Cole (Victor Valley Coll.) – “Humanities Career Exploration Academy”
  • Cynthia Cravens (Univ. of Maryland, Eastern Shore) – “Inclusive Digital Humanities at an HBCU”
  • Darci Gardner (Appalachian State Univ.) – “Job-Hunting from Appalachia: A New Academic Success Course and Speaker Series on Career Paths in the Humanities”
  • Marcela Lemos (Utah State Univ.) – “Bridging Language Education and Career Opportunities in Utah: Consolidating the Translation and Interpretation Program through Multilingual Course Development”
  • Brian Lockey (St. John’s Univ., Queens) – “The Interdisciplinary Humanities and PreProfessional Studies”
  • Christine Marks (LaGuardia Community Coll., City Univ. of New York) – “Building Career-Informed Learning Opportunities for LaGuardia’s Health Humanities Students”
  • Martha Nadell (Brooklyn Coll., City Univ. of New York) – “Promoting Career Readiness across the English Department”
  • Amy Patrick-Mossman (Western Illinois Univ.) – “Serving Our Students, Serving the Region: Cultivating Career Pathways While Building Transfer and Internship Partnerships for English Majors and Minors”
  • Jenna Reynolds (Univ. of Alabama, Birmingham) – “Building Global Connections: Leveraging the Language Lab for the Professions”
  • Michele Ricci Bell (Union Coll., NY) – “Language in the Present Tense: Modeling, Mentoring and Mapping Language Proficiency for Career Readiness”
  • LeeAnne Richardson (Georgia State Univ.) – “English Major Internships for Recruitment and Retention”
  • Jonathan Shelley (St. John Fisher Univ.) – “Developing Learning Communities with the Fisher Urban Scholars”
  • LeAnne Spino (Univ. of Rhode Island) – “Forging Pathways for Academic and Professional Success for International Studies and Diplomacy Students”
  • Amanda Van Lanen (Lewis-Clark State Coll.) – “Be a Creative Writing Student for a Day”
  • Miaowei Weng (Southern Connecticut State Univ.) – “Enhancing Career Readiness in World Languages: A Comprehensive Intervention at Southern Connecticut State University”
  • Anne Wheeler (Springfield Coll.) – “Pathways to Writing”
  • Claudia Yaghoobi (Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill) – “Middle East and Islamic Studies Career Pathways Initiative

The Pathways Step Grants are funded by a generous grant from the Mellon Foundation. The MLA step grants are housed under a new initiative, MLA Pathways: Recruitment, Retention, and Career Readiness, which supports departments and programs in literature, language, writing, culture, area studies, and related disciplines to build tools, networks, and resources for the recruitment, retention, and career readiness of undergraduate students. Central to the Pathways program is the creation of new structures of support at the program, campus, and regional levels for students from groups underrepresented in the humanities, especially students of color, first-generation college students, and Pell Grant recipients.

MLA Members Named National Humanities Center Fellows

Posted by Colleen Baer

The MLA would like to congratulate the four members who were named 2025–26 National Humanities Center fellows. Fellows will pursue independent research projects as residential scholars at the center, where they will have the opportunity to further develop their ideas through seminars, lectures, and conferences.

Patrick McKelvey, University of Pittsburgh
Field of Study: Theater, Dance, and Performance Studies
Project Title: Supporting Actors: A Disability History of Theatrical Welfare

Young Kyun Oh, Arizona State University, Tempe
Field of Study: History of the Book
Project Title: The King’s Press: Typography and Printing in Chosǒn Korea (1392–1910)

Charles Samuelson, University of Colorado, Boulder
Field of Study: Medieval Studies
Project Title: Sexual Consent in High Medieval French Literature

Claire Seiler, Dickinson College
Field of Study: Languages and Literature
Project Title: The Narrative Lives of Polio

MLA Members Receive 2025 Guggenheim Fellowships

Posted by Colleen Baer

Congratulations to the six MLA members who were awarded 2025 Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowships! This year marks the 100th class of Guggenheim fellows. In a statement about this year’s fellowship recipients, Edward Hirsch, the president of the Guggenheim Foundation, said, “We believe that these creative thinkers can take on the challenges we all face today and guide our society towards a better and more hopeful future.”

Carolyn Dever, Dartmouth College
Field of Study: General Nonfiction

Angela Esterhammer, University of Toronto
Field of Study: English Literature

Gregg Hecimovich, Furman University
Field of Study: Biography

Rhodri Lewis, Princeton University
Field of Study: Literary Criticism

Paul Reitter, Ohio State University, Columbus
Field of Study: Translation

Daïchi Saïto, Ithaca College
Field of Study: Film-Video

Member Spotlight: Cristina Stanciu

Posted by Colleen Baer

Cristina Stanciu

Our April MLA Member Spotlight features Cristina Stanciu, a member of the MLA since 2001. Cristina is Professor of English at Virginia Commonwealth University, where she also directs the university’s Humanities Research Center.

Read about why Cristina encourages others to get involved with the MLA through our journal, PMLA:

“Serving on the PMLA editorial board between 2022 and 2024 was by far the best education a mid-career faculty member could hope for. I’m grateful for the opportunity to review excellent scholarship in my fields (particularly Indigenous and multiethnic literatures), to organize various panels at the MLA, and to advocate for a special issue on Indigenous literatures (co-edited with Mishuana Goeman), which I’m happy to report is now in the planning stages. Brent Hayes Edwards runs editorial board meetings with wit, wisdom, and humility, and I’ve learned so much from him and the other members of the editorial board.”


Recommended resource: “None other than Paula Krebs, MLA Executive Director. As the director of a humanities research center at an R1, I appreciated Paula Krebs’s meetings with the board, the discussions with her about trends, data, opportunities, professional connections, cool projects in the humanities, and grants. I was also grateful for the chance to strategize on programming and advocacy, and brainstorms with an illustrious group of colleagues. Paula has modeled advocacy for many of us who are leading humanities centers or are invested in the future of the humanities As someone is often called an “evangelizer for the humanities” on my own campus, it was great to find a kindred spirit who supports this work on the national and international arenas.”

Member Spotlight: Gaurav Desai

Posted by Colleen Baer

Gaurav Desai

For our March member spotlight, we’re highlighting Gaurav Desai, an MLA member since 1989 and the current president of the Association of Departments of English (ADE). Learn more about how Gaurav’s involvement with the MLA has shaped his work:

“[The MLA] is an organization that has consistently, over the years, advocated for the humanities, especially our particular niche in the humanities — the study of language and literature (broadly conceived) and has striven to draw attention to the precarious among us. Such attention to both the humanities (if not higher education in general) and to those who are most vulnerable among us, is today, arguably more important than ever before.”

Recommended resource: “The ADE is a particularly important body since its core mission is to provide support to departments and their chairs in terms of helping them grow professionally and helping them better advocate for their constituencies by providing fact-based, outcome-oriented data. The ADE (along with the ALD) has over the years conducted surveys to study the state of the discipline, hiring trends, workforce equity, professional rights and responsibilities, graduate education and countless other topics. It has issued guiding principles and suggested best practices for many of the core functions of English departments. It also plays an important role in helping faculty serve in new roles. . . As a department chair I have found [the MAPS Summer Seminars] to be the most productive spaces for engaging with fellow chairs, deans and other administrators. Everything from increasing enrollments, to understanding budgets, to strategic planning, to working with and through the challenges (and promises) of AI (and much more) is covered in-person over a period of three days and online at the Leadership Institute. It is an experience I urge fellow administrators to sign up for!”

MLA Members Awarded January 2025 NEH Grants

Posted by Colleen Baer

Congratulations to the seventeen MLA members who were awarded National Endowment for the Humanities grants in January 2025! Their projects include new humanities courses that engage critically with AI, educational resources about Quechua and Zapotec languages and cultures, a collection of oral histories from residents of Jersey City, a book analyzing how Jack Kerouac’s bilingualism shaped his work, and more.

Jean-Christophe Cloutier, Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania
Project Title: Continental Kerouac: Bilingualism, Translation, and the Franco-American Experience
Project Description: Research and writing resulting in a book examining the impact of Jack Kerouac’s bilingualism and biculturalism on his style and conception of American literature.

Margaret Cohen, Leland Stanford Junior University
Project Title: Developing an Oceanic Humanities Curriculum
Project Description: A two-year project to develop and implement an interdisciplinary oceanic humanities program.

Joy Connolly, American Council of Learned Societies
Project Title: National Convening for Graduate Education in the Humanities
Project Description: A three-year cooperative agreement between the American Council of Learned Societies and the NEH to plan and host a national convening to evaluate the current state of humanities graduate education, make recommendations for graduate programs to prepare students for a variety of humanities-related careers, and articulate a strategic vision for graduate education in the humanities.

Sean Egan, Hudson County Community College, NJ
Project Title: Hudson Oral History Project
Project Description: A three-year project to collect oral histories from Jersey City residents and incorporate them into history and composition courses.

Margaret Galvan, University of Florida
Project Title: LGBTQ+ Artists Innovating Comics and Building Community in the 1980s–1990s
Project Description: Research and writing resulting in a book on the comic formats innovated by LGBTQ+ cartoonists in the 1980s and 1990s.

Déborah Gómez, Florida Memorial University
Project Title: Miami’s Unique Advantages to Global Pathways: Enhancing HBCU Students’ Opportunities to Succeed through Spanish Proficiency
Project Description: A three-year project to develop three new courses in Spanish language and Latino culture in the United States, with an emphasis on the South Florida region.

Tarez Graban, Florida State University                                                       
Project Title: Rhetorika Afrika: Finding (and Losing) Feminist Discourses in the Transnational Archive
Project Description: Research and writing resulting in a book examining how archival practices may obscure our understanding of African feminist legacies.

Juliet Guzzetta, Michigan State University
Project Title: Acting Class: Lessons from Franca Rame
Project Description: Research and writing leading to a book about Franca Rame (1929–2013), an Italian actor, feminist, and political activist, and her contributions to post–World War II Italian leftist political thought.

Wilma Loayza and Leila Gomez, University of Colorado, Boulder
Project Title: Expanding and Strengthening the Latin American Indigenous Languages and Cultures Program
Project Description: A two-year grant to develop course modules and educational resources about Quechua and Zapotec languages and cultures. 

Carmen Nocentelli, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Project Title: Black Legends and the Invention of Europe
Project Description: Research and writing leading to a book that examines how race and blackness defined intra-European national identities in the early modern period.

Anna Nogar, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Project Title: Aurora Lucero-White Lea (1893–1963), Twentieth-Century Pan-Americanism, and Indo-Hispano Folklore
Project Description: Writing resulting in a book on the early-twentieth-century New Mexican folklorist Aurora Lucero-White Lea.

Kenton Rambsy, Howard University
Project Title: Creating a Team-Taught Interdisciplinary Course and Digital Library on Black Liberation in the USA and Caribbean
Project Description: A three-year curriculum development project focused on the histories of Afro-diasporan liberation movements in the United States and the Caribbean.

Amanda Smith, University of California, Santa Cruz
Project Title: The Nature of Conflict: Rivers, Violence, and Healing in Colombia after the Peace Accords
Project Description: Research and writing leading to a book about the significance of rivers and water ecology to artists and writers in Colombia during its civil war, 1964–2016.

Diana Taylor, New York University
Project Title: Shape-Shifting Performance
Project Description: Research and writing leading to a digital multimedia monograph on indigenous performance theory and the work of the Mexican performer Jesusa Rodríguez (b. 1955).

Maite Urcaregui, San José State University Research Foundation
Project Title: Seeing Citizenship: Picturing Political Belonging in Multiethnic Graphic Literature
Project Description: Research and writing of a book examining the relationship between and among race, citizenship, and political belonging.

Zachary Zimmer, University of California, Santa Cruz
Project Title: THINK at UCSC: Technology and Humanities Integrated Knowledge
Project Description: A three-year project to develop humanities courses and modules that engage critically with artificial intelligence.