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If your department isn’t a member of MLA Academic Program Services (ADE/ALD),
visit the Join/Renew form to fully benefit from this thriving intellectual community.
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In this issue...
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Department Spotlight: The English Department at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville
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ALD Bulletin Call for Papers
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What Are We Reading?
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The MAPS Events Calendar
…and more!
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Register for the MAPS Leadership Institute
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The virtual MAPS Leadership Institute will give you the training and support you need to lead your academic department, center, or program in languages, literatures, and related fields. This year’s institute features hands-on workshops, interactive plenaries, and curated discussion groups built around the theme Humanities in the World, Humanities at Work. Plus, two new tracks—“Advocacy” and “Career Readiness”—invite participants to reflect on how their professional development training at the institute could be translated into concrete action at their home institutions.
MAPS membership provides discounted access to our annual institutes and Summer Seminars for all leaders in your department.
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| REGISTER FOR THE INSTITUTE |
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What Is MAPS?
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MLA Academic Program Services (or MAPS) supports institutions, departments, and programs through professional development offerings. Through the Association of Departments of English (ADE) and the Association of Language Departments (ALD), MAPS provides current, new, and aspiring leaders with opportunities for personal growth and the development of essential skills needed to thrive in a changing humanities landscape.
Find out more.
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This Issue's
Spotlight:
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Howard Rambsy
and the English Department at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville
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In each newsletter, the Department Spotlight highlights some of the innovative initiatives taking place at MAPS-member departments, as shared by the faculty and staff members making it happen.
This quarter, we’re spotlighting Howard Rambsy and the English Department at Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville.
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Tell us about something that you, your faculty, staff, or students are doing in the department that excites you.
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Since 2004, I’ve taught an African American literature course at my university for first-year collegiate Black men. Working with more than five hundred guys—in a Black literature course?!?—during their first semester of college over the last nineteen years has been exciting and deeply educational for me. We constantly get the chance to test the plasticity of literary studies, you know, by pulling, bending, and stretching the curriculum of the course to fit the intellectual interests and needs of young Black men.
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Read the rest of Rambsy’s insightful Q&A on the new MAPS Department Spotlight web page.
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ALD Bulletin Special Issue Call for Papers
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The newly named ALD Bulletin is soliciting abstracts for a special issue on the role of language textbooks in the administration of language units. Interested contributors should submit a 500-word abstract to ald-bulletin@mla.org by 15 July. Read the full CFP to learn more. MAPS Members: read a recent issue of the Bulletin on Centering Multilingualism.
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MAPS Calendar
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Upcoming events and deadlines for the greater MAPS community
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Ask the Chair
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In our most recent “Ask the Chair” advice column, Professor “Merge Ahead” asks how they can prepare to lead a new, merged department with little time to plan. Read the detailed (and compassionate) response from the Chair on the MAPS website. (If you’re part of a MAPS department, you can use your individual MLA log-in or the departmental bulletin access log-in to read “Ask the Chair.”) Do you have a question for the Chair? Email Janine Utell at jutell@mla.org.
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Pathways: Recruitment, Retention, and Career Readiness Grant Program
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We’re pleased to announce that the MLA has been awarded a grant of $1.5 million by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation for our Pathways: Recruitment, Retention, and Career Readiness Grant Program. Watch the announcement video from Paula M. Krebs about the grant, as well as our forthcoming best practices tool kit and regranting program.
We’d love to hear about the great work your departments, programs, and institutions are doing in these areas. To share your success stories with us, please use this form.
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Public Humanities Incubator
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Applications for the second annual Public Humanities Incubator opened on 20 April. Current graduate students at all levels are welcome to apply! Visit our website to learn more about the incubator, this year’s mentors, and the application requirements.
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