MLA 2011 and My Story
I've just returned from spending Thursday and Friday at the MLA in Los Angeles. My university budget could not cover the full conference expenses so I had to come back just as things were getting started. Staples Center is great--beautiful views from the J.W. Marriott. Euro-boutique but huge hotel--nice architectural touches/lighting.
I delivered a paper on immigration, international graduate students and international faculty. There was a very interesting discussion, and I left feeling hopeful (not a normal feeling for me at the MLA). Two of my grad students were able to attend (and one grad student I will have in a class next semester).
Because so many blogs about academe (specifically, English/Comp Lit/Languages) are negative (and accurate/poetic/wrenching), I hesitate to admit that I did not feel expendable, unworthy, depressed etc. as I normally do at the MLA. I learned about the activities of Women in German and I heard moving, sad and romantic stories from international students, faculty and significant others. So, since I have your attention--support The Dream Act. Educate yourself about the visa situations of international students/faculty you may know (if you are a US citizen). Encourage your institution to take a greater interest in the challenges faced by international grad students/junior faculty. Find out what your college/university is doing to create "third spaces" that bring together scholars from different countries. Not surprisingly, the panel at which I presented included a Comp Lit scholar--but she helped me to see that we in Comp Lit need to lose the beleaguered/handwringing persona (which I have perfected in relation to the "English" part of my own department) and reconceptualize what we are doing.
I tried to recall some moments in my recent life in academe (not counting being outside the US) that were international, inspiring and inspired--and examples of coalitions that might be formed. At my non-elite institution, in 2010, the amazing and wonderful Edith Frampton (a lecturer in my department) and Anne Donadey (Women's Studies) organized a fabulous international women's lit conference (in this economy!). Les Figues (LA-based) Press was there. Anna Joy Springer performed. Susan Stanford Friedman attended. 170 delegates from six continents. It was the combo of Women's Studies/Lit/Performance that really seemed to work. It got me to see that the TT/everyone else hierarchy can be broken down/reconfigured a little bit--temporarily--through projects that are inclusive. Third spaces (Lefebvre/Anzaldua).
The MLA invited lecturers to attend this year--and to get a one day free pass. Tiny gesture--but good.
I spoke with several who attended the MLA this year about "leaving academe." After teaching for 26 years at a state university and moving towards policy myself, I encouraged the discussion. My view is that even those who stay need to change in every imaginable way the status quo. It's great time to get involved with NGOs, policy, think tanks, etc.--places where thinking and being able to write may be a little more respected than they seem to be in the (academic) places where many of us work.
I thought a lot these last few days about my own "story" (we're supposed to tell our stories at this MLA). My story is that my psrents attended Stanford and my grandfather was an inventor and owned a large company. I grew up away from the Bay Area privilege into which I was born due to the divorce of my parents. I went to art school before becoming an academic (San Francisco Art Institute). I painted on cardboard because I could not afford art supplies/canvas. I was unemployed for 4 years after getting my Ph.D. (I got a post-doc the year before I got a TT position). I worked as a maid in Pacific Palisades (near LA) and sold clothes on Melrose (to rock stars). I have been marginalized to the extreme in my institution (because I support Palestinian rights, I'm an anarchist--and they never liked theory much in the English Department--which is what I teach). However, there are new visionary chairs in both of the departments in which I now teach. All of those who "hate" theory have retired. I am currently doing interdisciplinary research (Deleuzian/anarchist/complexity science) with a geomorphologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, and I'm completing a book on Magna Carta, mixed ancestry and rights. I am of mixed ancestry (Melungeon)on my mother's side.
I delivered a paper on immigration, international graduate students and international faculty. There was a very interesting discussion, and I left feeling hopeful (not a normal feeling for me at the MLA). Two of my grad students were able to attend (and one grad student I will have in a class next semester).
Because so many blogs about academe (specifically, English/Comp Lit/Languages) are negative (and accurate/poetic/wrenching), I hesitate to admit that I did not feel expendable, unworthy, depressed etc. as I normally do at the MLA. I learned about the activities of Women in German and I heard moving, sad and romantic stories from international students, faculty and significant others. So, since I have your attention--support The Dream Act. Educate yourself about the visa situations of international students/faculty you may know (if you are a US citizen). Encourage your institution to take a greater interest in the challenges faced by international grad students/junior faculty. Find out what your college/university is doing to create "third spaces" that bring together scholars from different countries. Not surprisingly, the panel at which I presented included a Comp Lit scholar--but she helped me to see that we in Comp Lit need to lose the beleaguered/handwringing persona (which I have perfected in relation to the "English" part of my own department) and reconceptualize what we are doing.
I tried to recall some moments in my recent life in academe (not counting being outside the US) that were international, inspiring and inspired--and examples of coalitions that might be formed. At my non-elite institution, in 2010, the amazing and wonderful Edith Frampton (a lecturer in my department) and Anne Donadey (Women's Studies) organized a fabulous international women's lit conference (in this economy!). Les Figues (LA-based) Press was there. Anna Joy Springer performed. Susan Stanford Friedman attended. 170 delegates from six continents. It was the combo of Women's Studies/Lit/Performance that really seemed to work. It got me to see that the TT/everyone else hierarchy can be broken down/reconfigured a little bit--temporarily--through projects that are inclusive. Third spaces (Lefebvre/Anzaldua).
The MLA invited lecturers to attend this year--and to get a one day free pass. Tiny gesture--but good.
I spoke with several who attended the MLA this year about "leaving academe." After teaching for 26 years at a state university and moving towards policy myself, I encouraged the discussion. My view is that even those who stay need to change in every imaginable way the status quo. It's great time to get involved with NGOs, policy, think tanks, etc.--places where thinking and being able to write may be a little more respected than they seem to be in the (academic) places where many of us work.
I thought a lot these last few days about my own "story" (we're supposed to tell our stories at this MLA). My story is that my psrents attended Stanford and my grandfather was an inventor and owned a large company. I grew up away from the Bay Area privilege into which I was born due to the divorce of my parents. I went to art school before becoming an academic (San Francisco Art Institute). I painted on cardboard because I could not afford art supplies/canvas. I was unemployed for 4 years after getting my Ph.D. (I got a post-doc the year before I got a TT position). I worked as a maid in Pacific Palisades (near LA) and sold clothes on Melrose (to rock stars). I have been marginalized to the extreme in my institution (because I support Palestinian rights, I'm an anarchist--and they never liked theory much in the English Department--which is what I teach). However, there are new visionary chairs in both of the departments in which I now teach. All of those who "hate" theory have retired. I am currently doing interdisciplinary research (Deleuzian/anarchist/complexity science) with a geomorphologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, and I'm completing a book on Magna Carta, mixed ancestry and rights. I am of mixed ancestry (Melungeon)on my mother's side.
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