Category Archives: Convention

As the semester comes to a close, the committee will be directing our attention to ensuring that graduate students attendees are well prepared for the 2016 MLA convention in Austin. Watch for upcoming posts about places to eat, convention best practices, “elevator pitches” and more.

Additionally, beginning in January, we will begin blogging more regularly about a wide variety of topics. Upcoming topics include online teaching, CV to resume, writing groups, and writing for a broader, non-academic audience.

The CSGSP has generated a list of events of interest to graduate student attendees at the MLA convention in Austin. A graduate student lounge will be located in the Austin Convention Center (10C, level 3).

Although graduate students are often interested in teaching a range of courses at a range of levels during their graduate training, those opportunities are not always available to them. This panel asks how graduate students can make the most of the teaching opportunities they frequently get: being a grader or discussion leader for a larger lecture course, tutoring in labs or writing centers, teaching introductory or general education courses in literature or writing. What might graduate students learn from these opportunities that will help them on the job market or when teaching mid- and upper-level courses? Conversely, how can these opportunities be valuable in and of themselves, other than being practice for later opportunities? How can graduate students integrate their research interests into these teaching positions? In short, how can these common (often devalued) teaching opportunities be privileged pedagogical positions and spaces? We are interested in hearing from current or former graduate students and from faculty or administrators who work with graduate students.

Please submit a 250-word abstract plus CV by 15 March 2015 to Alexandra Valint (alexandra.valint@usm.edu) and Sarah Kremen-Hicks (sarahkh@uw.edu).

Teaching languages and literature beyond the R1 institutions and large well-established programs can be rigorous. It imposes its own set of challenges and what if scenarios, related to the enrollment, retention, and the overall vision of the role of humanities at the institution. The MLA Committee on the Status of Graduate Students in the Profession invites you to explore these challenges at one of our sponsored panels “Humanities beyond Humanities” planned for the upcoming 2016 MLA Convention in Austin, TX. We welcome proposals on teaching languages and general humanities courses at STEM institutions, military academies, and smaller programs, as well as proposals on the state of languages and literature and alt-ac and post-ac tracks. Please submit a 250-word proposal and a short bio by March 10th, 2015 to Svetlana Tyutina (svetatyutina@yahoo.com) and Geffrey Davis (gxdavis@uark.edu).