Now here’s a man-bites-dog story: Labor strife at Berkeley. Janitorial, custodial and cafeteria workers at Berkeley are fighting to maintain their raise from $9 to $17 an hour with benefits at a university that prides…
Topic: MLA 2017
Hidden in Plain Sight: Genuine Scholarship at the MLA
In the days before Wayne Gretzky brought elegance to hockey, a running joke about the sport was, “I went to a fight and a hockey game broke out.” Something like this might be said of…
Black Lives Matter Street Theater at the MLA
At the Modern Language Association (MLA) annual convention in Philadelphia this year, we got to see some of the “Creative Responses to Black Lives Matter” They included: A filmed street theater presentation on “The Shooting…
MLA-BDS Aftermath: A Star Is Born
Just as political careers are often launched from electoral defeats, so too do academic careers blossom when Left wing movements fail. Examples of the former abound, from Ronald Reagan’s rise in the wake of the…
‘Heteropatriarchy’ is a Phrase Used in Academia
One of the many ironies in academe is the degree to which academics invert reality. This tendency is usually on full display at the Modern Language Association (MLA) annual convention at which thousands of English…
Why Martin Luther King, Jr. Still Matters
It is startling to realize how much the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. accomplished in a life span that did not even reach 40 years. At last year’s Modern Language Association (MLA) convention, Adrienne Brown…
MLA Comedy Stylebook Not Funny
Here’s the problem with the English professors at the Modern Language Association (MLA) attempting to define humor: They’re not funny, at least intentionally. “Theories of life-writing do not work in stand –up comedy,” Dale Tracy…
Civil Rights History, Queered
Occasionally, professors at the Modern Language Association (MLA) have good points to make. Unfortunately, they soon get buried in the MLA’s favorite themes and concepts. “Chicago remains one of the most deeply segregated cities in…
Mugging Melville
One of the speakers at this year’s Modern Language Association (MLA) meeting brought up a fascinating quote by William Wordsworth that may well be an indictment of the annual conclave of English professors: “To dissect…
Humanities PhDs: Write if you find work
You might be surprised to learn that there are employment opportunities for college graduates with PhDs in the Humanities. You might not be surprised to find out that they are usually with left-wing cause groups….