The Diversity Committee has been created to facilitate discussion among NeMLA members about issues of diversity, especially as related to academic life. The continued growth of NeMLA brings challenges and opportunities to address the needs of its membership. This group offers a space to identify those needs, bring about conversations between members with shared interest, and develop NeMLA sessions and initiatives. Of key interest is bringing about conversations between members with shared interests, and developing NeMLA sessions and initiatives.
An off-site meet and greet has been scheduled for Friday evening, April 8. We meet in the Hyatt Lobby at 8:30 pm, following the keynote, and proceed to Tumulty's (http://www.tumultys.com/).
Below are a few of the special events, seminars, and roundtables that may be of interest to members. This list is in no way intended to be exhaustive or exclusive, and members are encouraged to further consult the program.
All day: Latino Literary Imagination Conference
Rutgers University Campus
2pm: Relire les ‘Classiques’ Africains Francophones
(Seminar)
Chairs: Moussa Sow, The College of New Jersey; Boubakary Diakité, Franklin and Marshall College
All day: Latino Literary Imagination Conference
Rutgers University Campus
8:30am: Figuring Diversity in the Cultural Imaginary I
Chair: Elizabeth Cherniak, Brock University
11:45am: Figuring Diversity in the Cultural Imaginary II
Chair: Megan Milks, University of Illinois-Chicago
11:45am: LGBTQ Studies and Pedagogy (Roundtable)
Chair: Rick J. Santos, SUNY Nassau Community College
3:00pm: Diversity, Identity, and Graduate School (Roundtable)
Chair: Maureen O. Gallagher, University of Massachusetts-Amherst
7:00pm: KEYNOTE ADDRESS
“Language Minorities in the USA in an English-Only Era”: Ana Celia Zentella, UC San Diego
10:00am: Narrating Queer Histories (Roundtable)
Chair: MartyFink, Concordia University
11:45am: Suddenly Everyone Has a Cherokee Great-Grandmother:
Teaching Native Literatures (Roundtable)
Chair: Justine Dymond, Springfield College
11:45am: Arabic Studies: Challenges and Successes (Roundtable)
Chair: Lora Lunt, SUNY Potsdam
1:45pm: Cultural Studies and Film Special Event
Chair: Johanna Rossi Wagner
“Beauty Matters”: Deborah Willis, Tisch School of the Arts at NYC
Co-Sponsored by the Spanish/Portuguese Area
4:45pm: Reading the Postcolonial Other in Contemporary Film
(Roundtable)
Chairs: Sophie Lavin, SUNY Stony Brook; Tracey Walters, SUNY Stony Brook
6:30pm: American Literatures Speaker and Reception
“Caribbean Transvestism” Accompanied by readings from Sirena Selena vestida de pena
Mayra Santos-Febres, University of Puerto Rico-Río Piedras
Co-Sponsored by the LGBTQ Caucus
6:30pm: Comparative Languages/French Language Area Speaker and Reception
“Muhammad Iqbal: an Islamic Philosophy of Elan Vital”: Souleymane Bachir Diagne, Columbia University
Journeys of the Bicultural Self: Narrative Geographies from the
Middle East (Roundtable)
Chair: Nilgun Anadolu-Okur, Temple University
We will update the group as more details on these and other speakers and events for the 2011 convention become available.
NeMLA Online Diversity Forum (http://groups.google.com/group/nemla--diversity/). A Google group initiated to facilitate ongoing discussions beyond the annual conference setting.
Two new developments from the Executive Board are the creation of Member-at-Large positions, one in Diversity and the other in Professional Development. Natalie Edwards sent out an email detailing these positions. We encourage members of this group with interests in these areas to consider running for the positions, and their creation provides us a foundation for discussing areas of interest, one being members’ interests in Africana Studies/Diasporic Studies.
Events in 2010 included a cosponsored film screening (California Newsreel’s Zora Neale Hurston: Jump at the Sun) and speaker, Mariko Tamaki. In 2010 a survey was also undertaken of members in regards to Diversity. Results of the survey were presented at the conference at a roundtable intended to foster conversation about priorities and possible directions. Suggestions from the roundtable were directed to the Executive, and have been incorporated in this year’s conference planning.
We encourage suggestions, ideas, and feedback.