MLA DH Forum
I was elected in 2014 to serve on the executive committee for the Modern Language Association’s Digital Humanities forum from 2015 to 2020, including service as committee chair in 2018-19. During my time on the forum, I worked to expand digital humanities to engage fields such as media studies, cultural studies, writing studies, and science and technology studies. I also helped to organize several conference sessions related to issues of digital labor and justice.
A link to the MLA’s complete list of forums is below, followed by the official definition and purpose of those forums. I also point to the MLA Annual Convention sessions I co-organized on behalf of the forum between 2015 and 2020. Many thanks to everyone (see below) who shared their research during those sessions and to fellow executive committee members, Cheryl Ball, Rachel Sagner Buurma, Jim English, Matt Gold, Lauren Klein, Adeline Koh, Amanda Licastro, Élika Ortega, Mark Sample, and Victoria Szabo, for collaborating with me as part of the forum’s governance.
MLA Digital Humanities Forum
2015-20 | Modern Language Association | Executive Committee Member | Chair, 2018-19
Links: list of MLA forums (HTML); 2016 Care and Repair session in Austin with Lauren Klein, Caroline Foster, Erica Pramer, Daniel Anderson, Lisa Marie Rhody, and Susan Brown (HTML); 2017 Minimal Digital Humanities session in Philadelphia with Elizabeth Losh, Anne McGrail, Alex Gil, and Kim Brillante Knight (HTML); 2018 Critical Algorithm Studies session in New York with Wendy Chun, Ingrid Burrington, Rita Raley, and Allison Burtch (Lawrence Evalyn presiding) (HTML); 2020 Data and Justice session in Seattle with Jacqueline Wernimont, Margaret Galvan, Tracey El Hajj, Treena Chambers, and DB Bauer (Amanda Licastro presiding) (HTML)
Modern Language Association Forums (as of 6 July 2021)
Definition. The MLA forums encompass the scholarly and professional concerns of the association. Taken together, they provide a map—linguistic, temporal, and geographic—of the discipline of language and literature studies and of its connections to other disciplines. They do not, however, focus on individual authors (except Chaucer and Shakespeare) or groups of authors or on themes or motifs. The forums are not autonomous organizations but are an integral part of the MLA; they have no corporate identity beyond that afforded by the MLA, and they may not use the name of the association for any project or program unless specifically authorized to do so by the Executive Council.
Purpose of the forums. Forums promote scholarly and professional activities within their areas of concern. The executive committees of the forums arrange sessions at the MLA Annual Convention, make nominations for executive committee elections (as provided below) and for the election of the forums’ representatives in the MLA Delegate Assembly, and provide information of interest to their members through association periodicals or mailings to forum members. Forums advise appropriate MLA committees on research and pedagogical needs in their fields of interest and may propose to the Executive Council projects that the association might wish to undertake.
More information available at the MLA’s page on “Policies for Forums and Allied Organizations.”
Featured image part of MLA’s official logo. Screen image of the website I made for the 2016 Care and Repair session. I created this page on 2 August 2019 and last updated it on 30 January 2022.
