[This past
weekend, the Northeast MLA held
its annual spring
conference in Toronto. I was there in my official capacity as the
organization’s Vice President, as well as a presenter and audience member, and this
week have followed up on a handful of the many interesting things that took
place. Leading up to this special weekend post on how you can help me plan next
year’s conference in Hartford!]
Four of the many
ways you can help as NeMLA pivots to planning for the 2016
conference in Hartford (scheduled for March 16-20, 2016).
1)
Propose a session: NeMLA
is driven, first and foremost, by its members, and most especially by their
work at the conference. That starts with sessions, from conventional panels to
roundtables, seminars, and other possible forms. And that starts with you! So
please consider proposing a session, on any topic (I’m particularly interested
in interdisciplinary sessions, natch, but it’s all good), and help shape our
conversations at and after Hartford!
2)
Help us reach out: One of my three main goals
for the 2016 conference is to connect NeMLA with the community of Hartford. To
that end, I’ve started to talk at length with folks from the Hartford Public Schools, and welcome
any and all perspectives on how we can both bring such educators to the
conference and bring the conference out into that local community. But that’s
not the only option for such communal connections, of course, and I’m open to
any and all other ideas as well.
3)
Addressing
adjuncts and labor: My second main goal for Hartford is that we build on
our great starting points over the past couple years and extend and deepen our
engagements with issues of adjunct and contingent faculty, academic labor, and
the related questions to which they connect. That means not only finding ways
to support such faculty in coming to and participating in the conference
(although yes), but also thinking about what NeMLA can do as an organization in
relationship to all these issues. Please feel free to share your suggestions on
all those levels with me, and/or with our CAITY
Caucus President Emily Lauer!
4)
An interdisciplinary keynote: As I wrote in
Wednesday’s post, Daniela Antonucci brought a wonderfully interdisciplinary
keynote performance to the 2015 conference, highlighting her and NeMLA’s
commitment to interdisciplinary humanities as a methodology, a theme, and an
emphasis for our and the humanities’ future. I very much want to continue with
that commitment and emphasis, and to feature an interdisciplinary keynote at
Hartford as well. I’m pretty sure I want to host it at the Mark Twain House, and thus perhaps
to connect to Twain, Harriet Beecher Stowe (whose
house is next door), and/or related histories and questions. But as with
every aspect of the conference, these ideas are in development and evolving,
and I would love your perspective and input!
Next series
starts Monday,
Ben
PS. I’d love to
hear your thoughts, questions, ideas, or interests for the 2016 conference,
whether here in comments, by email,
or any other way!
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