Paul Megna’s paper for the Middle English Forum at MLA 2022 invoked a Public Books piece by Irina Dumitrescu in order to prompt contemporary medievalists to ponder the events of 1/6/2021. How might 1/6/2021 cause us to reconsider the scholarly lenses through which we have typically interpreted the events of Rising of 1381 and their literary ma…[Read more]

Medieval studies is in a moment in which it is re-examining the long-held categories that have traditionally defined its boundaries. As this reconceptualization of the field progresses, Trans Studies offers a number of scholarly methodologies and insights that are changing the way medievalists consider their field and, more specifically, Trans…[Read more]

This session seeks to build upon the growing appreciation for the complex and multifarious discursive engagements between late medieval English literary texts and Islamicate or Persianate culture, society, language, or literature. Recognizing that such engagements include much more than direct literary representations of the individual Islamicate…[Read more]

The Sounds of Humor

The Drama and Performance Forum and the Sound Studies Forum of the Modern Language Association (MLA) announce a co-sponsored session entitled “The Sounds of Humor” to be held at the MLA Convention in San Francisco, CA from January 5-8, 2023. What does humor sound like? Sounds tend to play an important role in performances inte…[Read more]

The Drama and Performance Forum solicits paper proposals for two guaranteed sessions at MLA 2023 in San Francisco:

Humor and Humorlessness before 1900  From the medieval period to the nineteenth century the concept of humor shifted from an aspect of human physiology, to the eccentric qualities of individuals or comic characters, to a mode of…[Read more]

The Chaucer Forum warmly invites submissions for our MLA 2023 (San Francisco, January 5-8) sessions:

Chaucer’s Ornamentalism and Gimmickry

This roundtable session brings Anne Anlin Cheng’s concept of ornamentalism and Sianne Ngai’s work on the gimmick into conversation with Chaucer’s work. For instance, in The Squire’s Tale, Canacee’s…[Read more]

Guaranteed Session: Infinite Variety? Antony and Cleopatra, Then and Now 

This is a call for papers on Antony and Cleopatra. we are open to a diverse array of critical interests, including but not limited to: premodern critical race studies, histories of empire and racial capitalism, early modern trans and sexuality studies, disability studies,…[Read more]

Please consider nominating outstanding authors, scholars, educators, leaders, playwrights, artists, and editors for the  Association for Theatre in Higher Education’s prestigious awards.

Please visit ATHE’s website for submission information and other details (under the “awards” drop-down tab).

The deadline for nominations is February 1.

We a…[Read more]

Dear Members of the LLC 16th-Century English Forum:

The members of the current Executive Committee for the LLC 16th-Century English Forum invite nominations/suggestions of names of people serve on the Executive Committee. This is a great opportunity to shape panels at MLA and the field generally Please send questions or suggestions to committee…[Read more]

The executive committee of the Arthurian Forum would like to solicit nominations (including self-nominations) for a new member of the executive committee who will serve from Feb. 1, 2022-Jan. 31, 2027. The new member must be an MLA member (if they aren’t currently, the appointee can join or renew and then be eligible); they cannot already be s…[Read more]

The Eugene O’Neill Society has organized a virtual MLA 2022 round-table session (#216V, Friday morning, January 7, 10:15 – 11:30) on the challenges of teaching drama both in theatre courses and in broader undergraduate surveys of literature. The discussion will expand to include ideas about the role of the humanities amid the increasingly car…[Read more]

The Eugene O’Neill Society has organized a virtual MLA 2022 round-table session (#216V, Friday morning, January 7, 10:15 – 11:30) on the challenges of teaching drama both in theatre courses and in broader undergraduate surveys of literature. The discussion will expand to include ideas about the role of the humanities amid the increasingly car…[Read more]

LLC Shakespeare members are presenting at three sessions at the MLA Annual Convention in DC in January:

1. “Re-Reading Timon of Athens” (Friday, 8.30-9.45, Marriott Marquis Dogwood)

2. “Who Owns Shakespeare?” (Friday, 10.15-11.30, Marriott Marquis Gallaudet)

3. “Shakespeare and White Supremacy” (Friday, 1.45-3, Marriott Marquis Dogwood).

You…[Read more]