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December 26, 2006
Pre-MLA 2006
Like many language and literature professors, I will be spending the next few days in Philadelphia where I'll be attending this year's MLA convention. I'm looking forward to this year's convention, in part because of the blogging panel, Meet the Bloggers: Blogging and the Future of Academia organized by Scott Eric Kaufman. As Scott McLemee points out in his pre-MLA article, the status of blogging in academia has changed quite a bit in the two years since MLA last met in Philadelphia, when Scott Jaschik's "Bloggers in the Flesh" profiled a gathering of academic bloggers, myself included, who met for drinks at the 2004 conference, so I'm very much looking forward to some sustained discussion of blogging and academia.
Also worth noting: IHE reported a few weeks ago on an MLA special committee that has proposed changes in the way English and foreign language professors are evaluated, especially when it comes to tenure. As the IHE article reports, the panel discussed moving away from the "fetishization" of the monograph and making tenure expectations clearer.
Hoping to have time to blog from the conference, but I'm not making any promises.
Posted by chuck at December 26, 2006 12:07 PM
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Comments
Too many Scotts ;-)
I'm going to try to make it downstairs to the panel, but to me the whole "meet the bloggers"/"bloggers in the flesh" setup sends the wrong message, reinforcing the outsider/other nature of bloggers/blogging. Go online to meet the bloggers, don't go to the MLA.
Posted by: Matt K. at December 27, 2006 12:09 PM
Hopefully the panel will work against that outsider status. I may not be able to attend the panel because of my MLA schedule, but hopefully we've moved past that initial "meet the bloggers" setup.
Posted by: Chuck at December 28, 2006 12:01 AM