March 16-17, 2024: NeMLA Reflections: A Special Organization

[This pastweekend I attended the one scholarly conference I never miss: the Northeast MLA. Itwas a great time as it always is, so this week I’ve featured aseries of reflections on some of the great work I heard, saw, and sharedthere! Leading up to these additional reflections on NeMLA as an organization!]

Much ofwhat I’d want to say about NeMLA is summed up in two posts that I’ll ask you tocheck out if you would and then come on back here:

Thisone from 2017 when I left the NeMLA Board for the first time (only becausemy service time was up, as I’d happily and stayed on forever);

And thisone from 2018 when, proving my above point, I rejoined the Board.

Welcomeback! As of a couple years ago I am once again done with my service on theBoard, and while I’ll never say never when it comes to anything and all thingsNeMLA, I think it’s likely that I will only be a conference attendee and participantfrom now on. (Or, putting this out into the Universe, maybe one day a keynotespeaker?!) But on that note alone, my annual attendance at most if not allof the conference (which has been the case since 2013 and I hope will be in thefuture as well) is a very telling thing—I’m not so much of a conference person(I enjoy them whenever I get to go, but I just mean I’m not someone who seeksout and attends a ton of them), and as any reader of this blog likely knows ittakes a lot to take me away from my sons for any length of time. So thishistory of annual and thorough NeMLA attendance, and a pledge to do the samemoving forward, is high praise indeed.

If I hadto sum up why that’s the case, I would use two words that appear in those priorNeMLA posts and other places I’ve written about the organization: community andsolidarity. Community is the more obvious one, and the focus of much of what I’vesaid previously about this particular community and all that it means to me. Soto say a little more about what I mean by solidarity: at worst, academia canfeel quite competitive, like others are our rivals for jobs or publishing slotsor attention or etc.; and even at best, it can feel quite isolated, like we’rein those things on our own. Of course individual colleagues and friends andloved ones can be company for the journey, as with everything in life. But tofind a whole scholarly community that feels very consistently like it’s gotyour back rather than is either turning its back or stabbing you in yours? That’sa very very rare thing in my experience, and that’s what I feel with and atNeMLA. Makes me want to keep coming back for sure!

Next seriesstarts Monday,

Ben

PS. If youwere at NeMLA, what would you share? If not or in any case, other organizationsyou’d highlight?