An Update on Division and Discussion Group Restructuring

Marianne Hirsch·
Columns by Marianne Hirsch

Dear Colleagues,

We are writing with an update on the project of reviewing and revising the MLA divisions and discussion groups. This past spring, we consulted with the executive committees of all the divisions and discussion groups, and we learned a great deal from their animated responses, in which they outlined their thoughts about present and future directions of their fields.

In consultation with the Program Committee, the working group we chair has advised the Executive Council on the preparation of a new draft document in the light of this helpful advice. We are working on this draft now, and, although it is too soon to share details, we can say that we have opted for a mostly expansive and additive approach. We aim to create space for new fields while reiterating our commitment to the deep study of language and literature in their historical and cultural contexts, as well as to the protection of small fields.

As part of the revision and renewal process, we intend to use the new resource of MLA Commons to enable robust discussions about topics for guaranteed sessions at future conventions. The Program Committee will institute the regular review of all divisions and discussion groups, which it is already charged with doing. After the open consultation on the Commons and review by the Program Committee and the Executive Council, we will hold an open discussion at the Delegate Assembly and an open hearing at the convention in January 2014. The Executive Council will then review progress on this project at its February 2014 meeting.

We hope that you will be as excited as we are about the proposed changes, which make a renewed map of our association’s investments in scholarly research, in pedagogy, and in reflecting on and advocating the interests of our profession while maintaining fundamental structures and designations. Maps (and metaphors drawn from them) always have conceptual limits, of course, but we are eager to hear what you think about our effort at a revitalized representation of members’ interests. We hope you will contribute to this process of innovation by looking at and responding to the draft document when it is posted on MLA Commons in August.

Please join MLA Commons now so that you can comment frankly on our new and collaboratively crafted document later this summer.

Yours cordially,

Marianne Hirsch, President

Margaret Ferguson, First Vice President

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6 Responses

  1. Pingback: An Update on the Review of Divisions and Discussion Groups | News from the MLA

  2. Dear Professors Hirsch and Ferguson:

    I write in support of your efforts to create new divisions and discussion groups, but also to register my opposition to the merger or elimination of any of the 16th and 17th century divisions for Spanish literature.
    We have already lost one of the three guaranteed sessions for our divisions, and unfortunately, Spanish literature is rarely represented in interdisciplinary or comparative executive committees. To continue to reduce the sessions allotted to the literature of early modern Spain is surely to unwittingly overlook your laudable commitment to its deep study in its historical and cultural contexts.

    Thank you,
    Anne J. Cruz

  3. As far as I can see, the Radical Caucus in English and the Modern Languages disappears, along with the American Literature Section, from your proposal. My problem–apart from the simple fact that the Radical Caucus (RC) has organized at least one or two sessions at every MLA but one since 1970–is the implicit ideology. The RC has been predicated on bringing together political and cultural issues (especially the ones of particular concern to those who study working-class culture) rather than, as in your proposal, separating them. Does the MLA wish to waddle down that road, precisely when the politics of the one percent are trying to crush the vitality out of humane studies? There are some useful ideas in the proposal but in this respect it is IMHO retrograde and ill thought-out. PL

  4. In response to Paul Lauter, the proposal on the Divisions and Discussion Groups does NOT change the allied organization structure. ALL ALLIED ORGANIZATIONS in good standing will remain so. The American Literature Section is a holdover from the 1930s, when the MLA had sections. The proposed Group structure incorporates American literatures and cultures.

  5. On this topic, I find it odd–having just renewed membership and checked off a couple of groups whose discussions I would be or have been interested in–that there is no section on Palestinian Literature. It’s ten years since Edward Said died, five years since Mahmoud Darwish died, and this year too Fouzi El-Asmar passed away. Yet we still have no discussion group devoted to one of the most vital and exciting fields of cultural production internationally–and one that must surely be of interest to anyone who is interested in postcolonial theory, settler colonial literatures, diaspora studies, etc. I wonder if anyone else would be interested in forming such a group?

    1. Thank you for this suggestion which I would strongly support. I agree that the group would be of interest to scholars with a range of interests. In addition to those you note (postcolonial theory, settler colonial literatures, diaspora studies), I would also want to highlight the very important works of life writing (not only in works of autobiography and biography, but also in documentary film, hip-hop, poetry and other genres) that have come and continue to come out of Palestine. I also agree with the statement about the vitality of cultural production coming out of Palestine; in addition to major and already established literary figures and scholars including Said, Darwish, and El-Asmar, Palestinian youth are engaged in cultural productions that are important not only for their political vision, but also for their generic innovations and their imaginative use of social media. So yes, I would have a strong interest in forming a group focused on Palestinian literature and cultural production.

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