There’s time still to register for preconvention workshops at this year’s MLA convention in New York City! Many of these workshops focus on career development for members at all stages of their careers and provide opportunities for collaboration and hands-on learning.
Advocating for Your Department
Thursday, 4 January, 8:30–11:30 a.m., Gibson, Hilton
William Nichols, Georgia State U; Emily Todd, Westfield State U
ADE and ADFL presidents will lead a session helping participants become strong, effective advocates for their departments. Together, we will learn how to develop advocacy plans and develop strategies for publicizing department work, recruiting students, and integrating academic departments into campus and community life.
Marketing 101: How to Promote Your Academic Program or Event
Thursday, 4 January, 8:30–11:30 a.m., Gramercy East, Hilton
Siovahn Walker, MLA
The MLA’s director of outreach will lead a practical workshop on marketing academic events, focusing on do-it-yourself tools to promote conferences, public lecture series, and calls for proposals.
Pre-Texts Workshop Series
Thursday, 4 January, 8:30–11:30 a.m.; Friday, 5 January, 8:30–9:45 a.m.; and Saturday, 6 January, 8:30–9:45 a.m. (all three workshops take place in Liberty 3, Sheraton)
Doris Sommer, Harvard U; Jason Charles Courtmanche, U of Connecticut, Storrs
A workshop in collaboration with the Pre-Texts teacher training program will help you find new ways to approach your material by using complex literary texts as the pretext for making art. Our goal will be to use the difficulty of these texts as an opportunity for thought and expansive play, to help us find a motivating energy to carve out new paths in our teaching and research.
Advancing the Field: Connecting Humanities Graduate Education to Community College Teaching
Saturday, 6 January, 8:30–11:30 a.m., Concourse A, Hilton
Elizabeth Alsop, Graduate Center, City U of New York; Rachel Arteaga, U of Washington, Seattle
Increasingly, doctoral programs and community colleges have been working together to integrate their missions and to support equity and diversity in language and literature study. Faculty members, graduate students, and administrators will lead a discussion about the future of this collaboration, as well as a hands-on workshop designed to connect graduate pedagogical training to community college teaching.
Attendance is limited, so sign up when you register for the convention to reserve your spot! If you’ve already registered for the convention, you can e-mail Michael Reilly to sign up for a workshop.
