[We’re deep into
the planning for next spring’s Northeast MLA conference,
which will be held in Hartford from March 17-20. I’d love for you all to be
part of that conference, whether in person or through online ideas and
community, and so wanted to share here the President’s Letter that I wrote for
our upcoming newsletter. I’d love to hear your thoughts!]
“Dear NeMLA Members,
I’m so excited to welcome you to our upcoming convention in
Hartford! The NeMLA Board, Executive Director, and Staff, along with our local
host institution the University of Connecticut and many others, have worked
tirelessly over the last few months to prepare what should be one of our most
vibrant and vital conventions yet.
Hartford will be a wonderful host. We’ve secured a special
convention rate at the Hartford Marriott Downtown, which along with the adjacent
Connecticut Convention Center will host the convention; both are located in the
newly renovated Adriaen’s Landing district. Hartford complements such new
developments with some of the best historic, cultural, and artistic sites in
New England: our convention will feature events at the Mark Twain House, the
Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, and the Hartford Public Library; and we will also
offer opportunities to connect with the Wadsworth Atheneum, performances by
Hartford’s award-winning theatrical companies, and more.
The 2016 Convention will feature all of the sessions and
events for which NeMLA has become well known. We have hundreds of approved
panels, roundtables, and seminars, representing both the best of our
established areas and new developments in the digital humanities and new media,
composition and rhetoric, and professional and pedagogical conversations. We
will offer four diverse and innovative workshops, as well as our CV clinic and
other professional sessions. And our slate of area Special Events is stronger
than ever, with dozens of events including performances by novelist Carole Maso
(the first honoree of our new Meet the Author initiative), filmmaker Nancy
Bogen, Native American novelist Melissa Tantaquidgeon Zobel, and historical
novelist Leanne Hinkle.
Kicking off those creative performances and our convention
will be the Thursday night opening reading by the supremely talented writer and
editor Monique Truong. Monique’s two novels, along with her edited anthology of
Vietnamese American writing and her many other publications and projects, have
established her as a vital 21st century American writer and voice,
and one who embodies the artistic, cultural, historical, and political spirit
of our Hartford convention.
That spirit will also be captured by a number of new NeMLA
initiatives we’re launching for the Hartford convention. On Friday afternoon at
the Mark Twain House, we will feature a series of Presidential Sessions,
special roundtable conversations on interconnected themes of public humanities,
the digital humanities, and scholarly activism. These Friday Presidential
Sessions will culminate with a roundtable on the Academy after Ferguson
(organized by Professor Jonathan Gray) and then with Professor Jelani Cobb’s
keynote address. Professor Cobb exemplifies the best of contemporary public
scholarship and I couldn’t be more excited to feature him at our convention.
Two other presidential initiatives will address current
issues and crises in education and the humanities. Recent events at NeMLA institutions,
including Duquesne University firing nearly all of its adjunct faculty and
Rider University cutting dozens of humanities programs and majors, illustrate
all too clearly these ongoing crises, and demand engagement from organizations
and communities like ours. We will offer that engagement through a series of
Saturday Presidential Sessions on academic labor, adjunct faculty, and the
state of higher education, culminating in our CAITY Caucus Special Event on
adjunct unions; thanks to CAITY President Emily Lauer and many others for
helping make these vital conversations happen.
These crises extend well beyond the academy, of course, and
so too must NeMLA extend into our communities. At the 2016 convention, such
community outreach will occur through a partnership with the Hartford Public
Schools: educators will be invited to attend our convention and the
Presidential Sessions, and will receive professional development support for
doing so; and we are in the process of organizing Thursday afternoon visits to
local schools, opportunities for conference attendees to meet and work with
students, educators, and community members. If you’ll be at the convention on
Thursday and are interested in taking part in such visits, please email me (brailton@fitchburgstate.edu) and
let me know!
As you can see, the 2016 convention will be one of our best
ever. That’s due, once again, to the hard work of so many: the University of
Connecticut and our conference committee there, including Professors Cathy
Schlund-Vials and Robert Hasenfratz, Dean Shirley Roe, and our graduate student
local liaisons Emma Burris-Janssen and Sarah Moon; the NeMLA Board, including
Executive Director Carine Mardorossian, Vice President Hilda Chacon, 2nd
Vice President Maria DiFrancesco, Past President Daniela Antonucci, and all our
Area and Caucus Directors; and the peerless NeMLA Staff.
On behalf of all of us, I welcome you once more to Hartford
and the 2016 NeMLA Convention!”
Thanksgiving
series starts Monday,
Ben
PS. Any
responses to these NeMLA plans? Ways you’d like to take part in the conference?
Lemme know!
No comments:
Post a Comment