Conference to examine language and literature training

A conference to be hosted this week by UW–Madison will examine key issues expected to shape graduate studies in English, comparative literature, and foreign languages and literature.

The Modern Language Association of America conference, April 15-18, brings together members of the nation’s premier organization serving scholars of language and literature.

Intended to provide a national forum for faculty, administrators and graduate students, the conference will address issues such as:

• The growing importance of multicultural studies.
• Unionization of graduate students.
• Increasing reliance on part-time adjunct instructors and the decline in full-time tenure-track faculty positions.
• The changing role of graduate students in departmental decision making.

Workshops will discuss the funding of doctoral programs, teaching language and culture, the practical applications of the Ph.D. for professional employment in and out of the academy, and more.

Yvonne Ozzello, UW–Madison professor emerita of French and recently associate dean for the humanities in the UW–Madison College of Letters and Science, worked with the association to coordinate the conference. She says it will be important in coming years for all the humanities to take a look at the concerns on the table at the conference.

The MLA has been planning this conference since 1995, Ozzello says. “They chose UW–Madison for this event because of the strength and size of our language and literature programs, and also because many of our faculty are especially active in the MLA,” she says.

For information, contact Ozzello, (608) 251-4764; ozzello@macc.wisc.edu.