About Us

The Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) is a non-profit organization of teachers, scholars, and students of literature, language, and culture as well as the largest regional affiliate of the Modern Language Association (MLA). NeMLA provides a forum for the dissemination of scholarship and the advancement of teaching in modern languages and literatures. We hold a yearly four-day convention to carry on a tradition of lively research and pedagogical exchange. This event showcases different areas of inquiry and includes regular sessions (panels, roundtables, seminars), interactive workshops, special events, caucus meetings, literary readings, film screenings, a separate undergraduate research forum, and guest speakers.

In 2019, NeMLA inaugurated its first Undergraduate Research Forum for its 50th Anniversary Convention in Washington D.C., adding a new dimension to the convention atmosphere and encouraging the development of the next generations of researchers and educators.

In 2024, NeMLA moved its administrative home to Gannon University, College of the Humanities, Education, and Social Sciences in Erie, Pennsylvania after being housed for ten years at SUNY University at Buffalo, College of Arts and Sciences. Building on a rich tradition of excellence, Gannon University is proud to support NeMLA's mission.

Every year, in the city in which that year's Convention takes place, NeMLA collaborates with a local institution of higher learning which serves as NeMLA's local host institution, providing support for featured speakers and volunteer staff to support the convention.

NeMLA was officially recognized after growing out of a New York-Pennsylvania association of faculty organized by William A. Wehmeyer (St. Bonaventure University) at the 1967 Modern Language Association (MLA). He and other MLA members were interested in continuing scholarly discourse at annual conventions smaller than those hosted by the MLA. With F. M. Burelbach as the editor of the NeMLA Newsletter (later Modern Language Studies ), Wehmeyer organized conferences in April 1968 and in April 1969 at St. Bonaventure, a Franciscan Catholic university in Allegany, Cattaraugus County, within the Diocese of Buffalo, New York. In 1969, the organization moved to wider regional membership, election of officers, formal affiliation with MLA, and adoption of its present name.

On April 3, 1970, the Inaugural NeMLA Annual Convention took place in Buffalo, NY.

Videographers/Editors: Maria Andrea Diaz Miranda and Valentina Marulanda Ospina