The Summer issue of the MLA Newsletter features candidates for the 2013 MLA elections, Marianne Hirsch’s column about what it means to be the Modern Language Association of America, and Rosemary G. Feal’s column on the association’s strategic planning.
Data Added to the MLA Language Map
Want to know what state has the highest concentration of Hungarian speakers or where Arabic is taught in your area? The MLA Language Map, which displays the locations and numbers of speakers of thirty languages commonly spoken in the United States, and the Language Map Data Center now include data from the 2006–10 American Community Survey. The addition allows you to compare 2000 and 2010 language communities through tables and graphs generated in the data center and to view up-to-date demographic information on the map. You can also use the map to find out which colleges and universities teach a given language and to retrieve fall 2009 enrollment data for those institutions. Enrollments for African, Native American, Pacific Island, and Scandinavian languages, previously available only in aggregate form, are now identified by name on the map.
New Guidelines from the Committee on Information Technology
The Committee on Information Technology has announced new updates to its guidelines for authors of Web pages and for technology support by institutions. The “Guidelines for Authors of Digital Resources” and “Guidelines for Information Technology Access and Support for the Modern Languages” have been approved by the MLA Executive Council and are now available in the committee’s area of the MLA Web site. They join “Guidelines for Evaluating Work in Digital Humanities and Media,” which was updated in 2012.
Future Conventions
The MLA is pleased to announce that in 2015 the MLA Annual Convention will be held for the first time in Vancouver, British Columbia, from 8 to 11 January. In January 2018, the meeting will return to New York City, where the first MLA convention was held, back in 1883. The locations for the 2016 and 2017 conventions have yet to be determined. We hope to see you at these meetings and in Chicago for the 2014 convention!
Article on the Role of Contingent Faculty Members in Governance
The 2013 MLA convention’s Presidential Forum, which addressed the working conditions of non-tenure-track faculty members in higher education, was featured in a recent Chronicle of Higher Education article (log-in required) about the issue. Examining a recent vote by faculty members of New York University’s College of Arts and Sciences, the piece considers the role of non-tenure-track faculty members in university governance and how that affects their working conditions.
1 April Deadline for 2014 Convention Program Forms
Planning a session for the 2014 MLA Annual Convention in Chicago? Forms for submitting program copy and for proposing sessions are available on the MLA Web site and are due by 1 April. Special-session proposals and nonguaranteed-session proposals will be reviewed by the Program Committee at its meeting in May, and organizers will be informed of the committee’s decision by early June. Please note that all session participants must be MLA members by 7 April or have received a waiver of membership (applications for which are included with the program-copy forms). For more information about organizing or participating in a session, please visit Planning Your Convention Session or contact convention@mla.org.
CSE Seal Awarded to Peirce Edition
On 14 February 2013, the Committee on Scholarly Editions (CSE) awarded the CSE seal to Writings of Charles S. Peirce: A Chronological Edition, volume 9: 1892–1893, edited by André De Tienne, Jonathan Eller, and April Witt, to be published by Indiana University Press.
The CSE serves as a clearinghouse for information about scholarly editing and editorial projects, offers advice and consultation to editors on request, honors excellence in editing by awarding emblems to qualified volumes, and promotes dissemination of reliable texts for classroom use and among general readers. Editors or publishers who wish to submit their editions (preferably before or at the copyediting stage) for consideration for the CSE seal should contact the committee at cse@mla.org.
Literary Studies in the Digital Age
Four new essays join Literary Studies in the Digital Age, the first born-digital open-access anthology to appear on MLA Commons. Edited by Kenneth M. Price and Ray Siemens, the collection aims to familiarize readers with tools and techniques used in digital literary studies. Readers are invited to activate their MLA Commons accounts (a benefit of membership in the association) in order to comment on essays, submit essays and ideas for future iterations of the volume, and upload drafts of their own work to the DLS Anthology group. The volume is free and accessible to all at http://dlsanthology.mla.hcommons.org.
The News Is on the Move
News from the MLA is moving to MLA Commons. Beginning on 6 March, news headlines that appear on the MLA home page and in the biweekly digest e-mail message will be linked to posts on the Commons. If you subscribe to a feed for the news page on the MLA Web site, you can use the Subscribe link on the left of this page to set up your Commons feed.
Propose an Essay for a New MLA Volume
A new volume in the Options for Teaching series, Teaching Translation, edited by Lawrence Venuti, is in development. You are invited to submit essay proposals for this volume through 1 May.