MLA Annual Convention Makes Faculty Diversity Issues a Priority - Higher Education: Nearly 8,000 literary scholars of all stripes braved sub-zero wind chills here to attend the 128th Modern Language Association Annual Convention which got underway Thursday. Among the hundreds of sessions covering a variety of topics related to American and European literature was one held yesterday titled, “Owing: On Students (and Other) debt.” Such a session seemed timely, given the immediate past and future threats to a still-recovering economy posed by “Fiscal Cliff” skirmishes on Capitol Hill.
“I tried to put that question, the economics of the profession, front and center, so it’s not just hallway talk,” said MLA President Michael Bérubé.
In the “Owing” session, Dr. Richard Dienst, associate professor of English at Rutgers University, gave a lively presentation on the outsize impact of debt in the academy, and on American culture. Interestingly, Emory University’s Dr. Marc Bousquet, the other presenter for the “Owing” session, made the argument that relatively low wages are a high obstacle for English departments seeking to recruit to their faculties scholars who are African-American or Hispanic and hail from less-than-privileged backgrounds.
