Ne AATSEELom edinym: SLAVIC at MLA!

[Francoise Rosset]

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>Poster:       Emily Tall <mllemily at acsu.buffalo.edu>
>Subject:      Re: Ne AATSEELom edinym: SLAVIC at MLA!
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The discussion on MLA vs. AATSEEL is not "starting."  It's been held all along.
Yes it is important to have the MLA-AATSEEL discussion again. Here are a
few more comments/gripes :

The real problem is not whether AATSEEL should "follow" MLA. I personally
think it should, because there are two very serious reasons for doing so --
slavic job interviews in multiple-language departments, and the fact that
some of us are interested in other language fields. The problem is the rigid
MLA fee position and the people someone appropriately referred to as "goons."

As far as not meeting with MLA because it is in December:
Is there ANY time that would be appropriate for all of us? -- of course not.
At least the present time means most of us are not teaching. I suspect most
colleges and universities use a semester system, and yes, that makes it in-
convenient for those on term systems. I am truly sympathetic; I just don't
see that another time would be better; it would just raise a different set
of hackles. If we did it in the summer, which might be better for those of
us with small kids, there'd be people off on research. Any other time would
fall during someone's teaching somewhere etc etc.  Both the MLA and AATSEEL
have been through this.

West Coast vs. East Coast:
We should prevail upon MLA to distribute themselves more. But to do that
we have to be members, and MLA will argue that their present system is the
most workable. I wish they had more cities in their repertoire myself --
especially WARM cities.
The last time MLA was on the West Coast (San Diego, right?) I heard a LOT
of bitching from Slavists. That time the argument I heard was that most
Slavists are living and working East of the Mississippi. I will not comment
on the validity of that argument,-- I've worked in Texas and Hawai'i -- but
I can guarantee you that I heard it over and over again. It was also, I
believe, one of the arguments used the year we did NOT follow MLA to New
Orleans.

For linguists:
If MLA is useless for Slavic linguists, as it evidently is, then certainly
there is no reason for linguists to attend MLA. But that doesn't mean we
have to split from MLA -- the issues of time and location will come up all
over again if we do, and we will have gained nothing.

Why AATSEEL should follow MLA:
First and foremost because many departments interview at MLA, especially
those departments which combine all languages. They're not being snotty,
they just don't have a separate Slavic department, and given the state of
the field our graduate students need all the interviews they can get. Of
course most *Slavic* departments interview at AATSEEL or AAASS. But what
about departments that have one or two positions in Slavic (i.e. Russian)
in a *multiple-language* department? Are we just forgetting about them? Or
are we forgetting what happens to job-seekers when we ignore the obvious?
It's bad enough graduate students have to cough up the fee for MLA. It
would be worse if they had to go to two different conventions for job
interviews.
I had to do it ages ago: I had four interviews with MLA in New Orleans,
and four with AATSEEL (Washington?). And of course I had to do all these
within the space of three days. When I got to Washington, some hapless
soul was looking for her Duke interviewers, who were interviewing in New
Orleans!!  The whole thing cost me a fortune and untold aggravation for
travelling. And all this because AATSEEL did not want to go to New Orleans.
(Such an awful place for a convention, right ...).
The bottom line is, one of the major functions of the convention is to
facilitate the job search for graduate students, and all of us untenured
and precarious folk. We should have the conventions together, unless we want
to guarantee major headaches in that area for the people who can least afford
the time or the money. (And I don't mean employed professors who are reimbur-
sed for their expenses).

My second reason is that some of us teach or have taught in two fields --
one of them non-Slavic. There simply are not enough pure Slavic jobs out
there, and we all know it. And some of us actually LIKE to go to MLA to
see what is happening in other fields. I can't see the benefits of limit-
ing our possibilities.  (That still leaves the fee)

The book exhibit is motivated by "crass financial considerations."  They
want to sell more books to more people, and they can do so better at the
MLA. AATSEEL is just a smaller market, except for those publishers who
do nothing but Slavic. (That too leaves us with the fee)

Toronto is a great city. And unlike Chicago, it knows how to handle winter:
proper and effective plowing, undergound passages everywhere, adequate and
frequent public transport galore. I'll take Toronto over Chicago anytime.
I'd prefer Tahiti, actually. (We still have that fee)

Which leaves the fee and the MLA's position towards AATSEEL members. My
suggestion would be to pressure MLA once again, but evidently that has
been tried. My only other suggestion is to borrow an MLA member's ID for
the few things you want, but that's not always possible.
There is one thing we should be honest about: the people really affected by
the double fee are graduate students looking for their interviews. The rest
of us probably get reimbursed: my employer has paid both fees when I've
paid both fees because I pointed out the problem. And while I find the
situation revolting on principle, I have not actually suffered financially
-- when I've been employed. Is there some way to address the problem for
graduate students? -- do we have any way to get them a special fee for the
interview meat market,
for example?

I realize that there are people adamantly in favor of splitting AATSEEL
from MLA. I am adamantly against it and I hope I'm not not the only one.
Moreover I would be willing to change my mind if someone came up with a
truly convincing argument -- timing and location are not it, since we'll
just bicker over those all over again. It's one thing to be incensed over
the MLA fees and the goons enforcing them. It's another thing entirely to
cut ourselves off from them.
Personally, I'd find such a move short-sighted, spiteful, and unproductive.
Our field needs to be working with other languages/lits., not away from them.
As someone put it so aptly, we are marginalized enough.

-Francoise


Francoise Rosset                          phone:  (508) 286-3696
Department of Russian                     e-mail: frosset at wheatonma.edu
Wheaton College
Norton, Massachusetts 02766