Note: I’m going to post this across a few of the groups in which I participate, including Book History and Romantic/19th Century

I just attended the above session organized by this group. While the room was packed and the panel was stacked with a variety of venerable scholars doing interesting work, the panel completely ignored an important area…[Read more]

Please come to the East Asian Languages and Literatures Reception on Saturday night at 8:45 pm in Marriott 411-412. There will be food and drink! I hope to see you there.

Christopher Lupke

Submitted by faculty members in MLA-related fields at Israeli universities

This statement, at MLABoycott’s website, is presented anonymously by Israeli academics who support the boycott of Israeli universities.  The faculty are forced to sign anonymously because of a 2011 law passed by the Israeli parliament that prohibits support for BDS a…[Read more]

Both Judith Butler and Ariella Azoulay have recently posted at MLABoycott’s site, articulating their rationale for supporting the boycott of Israeli academic institutions at this time.

Azoulay writes:

“The boycott targets the Israeli regime, not Israeli citizens, unless they act as representatives of the regime. What, then, is the position…[Read more]

This open letter by Jeff Sacks, in response to Anthony Apia’s recent blog on the Commons, appeared in the online journal Jadaliyya: http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/25811/an-open-letter-to-kwame-anthony-appiah-president-o

Sacks writes:

With all of the talk about academic freedom, what is this “freedom” that we are talking about, if it i…[Read more]

2017 GS Prose Fiction panels in Philadelphia

49. We Can’t Stop Talking about Elena Ferrante
Thursday, 5 January, 1:45–3:00 p.m., 401-403, Philadelphia Marriott
Presiding: Hester Blum, Penn State Univ., University Park

1. “The Function of Collaboration at the Present Time,” Sarah Blackwood, Pace Univ., New York; Sarah Mesle, Univ. of Southern Ca…[Read more]

<p style=”text-align: center;”>2017 GS Prose Fiction panels in Philadelphia</p>
49. We Can’t Stop Talking about Elena Ferrante
Thursday, 5 January, 1:45–3:00 p.m., 401-403, Philadelphia Marriott
Presiding: Hester Blum, Penn State Univ., University Park

1. “The Function of Collaboration at the Present Time,” Sarah Blackwood, Pace Univ., New York; [Read more]

<p style=”text-align: center;”>2017 GS Prose Fiction panels in Philadelphia</p>

49. We Can’t Stop Talking about Elena Ferrante
Thursday, 5 January, 1:45–3:00 p.m., 401-403, Philadelphia Marriott
Presiding: Hester Blum, Penn State Univ., University Park

1. “The Function of Collaboration at the Present Time,” Sarah Blackwood, Pace Univ., New Yo…[Read more]

<p style=”text-align: center;”>2017 GS Prose Fiction panels in Philadelphia</p>

49. We Can’t Stop Talking about Elena Ferrante
Thursday, 5 January, 1:45–3:00 p.m., 401-403, Philadelphia Marriott
Presiding: Hester Blum, Penn State Univ., University Park

1. “The Function of Collaboration at the Present Time,” Sarah Blackwood, Pace Univ., New Yo…[Read more]

<p style=”text-align: center;”>2017 GS Prose Fiction panels in Philadelphia</p>

49. We Can’t Stop Talking about Elena Ferrante
Thursday, 5 January, 1:45–3:00 p.m., 401-403, Philadelphia Marriott
Presiding: Hester Blum, Penn State Univ., University Park

1. “The Function of Collaboration at the Present Time,” Sarah Blackwood, Pace Univ., New Yo…[Read more]

<p style=”text-align: center;”>2017 GS Prose Fiction panels in Philadelphia</p>
49. We Can’t Stop Talking about Elena Ferrante
Thursday, 5 January, 1:45–3:00 p.m., 401-403, Philadelphia Marriott
<div id=”conv_program_details”>

Presiding:<i> </i>Hester Blum, Penn State Univ., University Park

1. “The Function of Collaboration at the Present T…[Read more]

“How do I start a short story”? Edit

What method work best for you to start a short story?  I have just had some productive use of the famed US writer Ray Bradbury’s “vomit in the morning, clean up in the afternoon” method. (Author of _Fahrenheit 451_, _The Martian Chronicles_, _The Illustrated Man_, etc.)  Just allow your unconscious t…[Read more]

Hello everyone,

We hope you will join us for the following panels organized for the 2017 MLA by the Global Arab and Arab American Literature Forum. They are as follows (sorry for cross-posting)

Session 200: States of In/Security: Global Palestine in Literature, Culture, Art, and Activism
Friday, 6 January, 8:30–9:45 a.m., 104B, Pe…[Read more]

We have received the sad news that the great essayist and art critic <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jan/02/john-berger-obituary">John Berger</a> died today, January 2, at age 90. He was a principled supporter of BDS.  In 2006 he wrote what is referred to as <a…[Read more]

Jewish Studies scholar Daniel Boyarin has issued the following statement about academic boycott:

"I am on record, even on Israeli television, as a supporter of BDS and of a limited academic boycott as well. By limited boycott I mean that I do not countenance boycotts of individuals (Let he who is sinless cast the first stone) but of…[Read more]

In a recent blog issues in his capacity as MLA President, <a href="https://president.mla.hcommons-staging.org/2016/11/02/taking-issue-taking-stock/">Anthony Appiah</a> addressed the current debate around justice and academic freedom for our Palestinian colleagues.

MLA Colleagues Bill Mullen, Jacques Lezra and Tim Reiss respond…[Read more]

This panel, about the presence of the Caribbean in the Harlem Renaissance, takes place on Sunday, January 8th at noon in the Pennsylvania Convention Center, Room 112A.

Vanessa K. Valdés, Imani Owens James C. Davis, and Raphael Dalleo will be part of the panel, presenting on Arturo Schomburg, Eulalie Spence, Nella Larsen, and Eric Walrond.

More…[Read more]

The Brandeis Center, notorious these days for launching efforts to censor other people's freedom of speech, has just threatened the MLA with a lawsuit if it passes the boycott resolution. For responses to this clumsy effort at intimidation, see David Lloyd…[Read more]

The MLA Committee on Academic Freedom and Professional Rights and Responsibilities will offer two panels and a special session at the MLA Convention in Philadelphia.  Please join us as we consider challenges to shared governance, bullying, and climates of fear.

Combat Management: The End of Shared Governance?

Thursday, 5 January, 7:00–8:15 p.m…[Read more]