association of departments and programs of comparative literature (Adpcl)

meeting for comp lit administrators and program representatives

MLa 2003 minutes

Date: 3/18/04

To: CAREY ECKHART, PRESIDENT, ADPCL

From: CORINNE SCHEINER, SECRETARY-TREASURER, adPCL

RE: minutes of adpcl meeting at the 2003 mla, san diego, CA.

Attendees: Sandra Bermann (Princeton), Neil Hamilton Donahue (Hofstra), Carey Eckhardt (Penn State), Kathleen Komar (UCLA), and Corinne Scheiner (Colorado College)

1. Review of and discussion of minutes from meeting at 2003 ACLA.

2. Upcoming conference: Working Conference on the Undergraduate Literature Curriculum

a. Review of flyer announcing conference.

i. Dates: June 3-6, 2004

ii. Location: the Colorado College's Baca Campus, a beautiful retreat center located at the northern end of the San Luis Valley, at the foot of the Sangre de Cristo mountains

iii. Description: Not only are the perennial debates about how, and what, we should teach in World Literature and Comparative Literature curricula as important and engaging as ever, but we also face institutional questions about the place of comparative literature in relation to the curricula of English departments and foreign language departments. The ADPCL invites all department/program chairs, directors of undergraduate programs, and others responsible for or interested in creating undergraduate programs to join us next summer for the ADPCL’s Working Conference on the Undergraduate Curriculum.  The conference is being planned as a series of practical sessions that will deal with subjects such as the new World Literature anthologies, the options for funding and staffing undergraduate courses, the impact of globalization on literature curricula, the use of translations in undergraduate courses, and other topics as suggested by those who would like to participate in the planning.

b. List of people willing to help with organization of conference: Sandra Bermann (sandralb@princeton.edu); David Damrosch (dnd2@columbia.edu); Neil Donahue (neil.donahue@hostra.edu); Carey Eckhart (e82@psu.edu); Kathleen Komar (komar@ucla.edu); Bill Moebius (bmoebius@complit.umass.edu); and Ross Shideler (shideler@ucla.edu)

c. Discussion of conference format and of topics to be addressed.

d. Do we want to invite someone from the MLA? If so, who?

e. Seek to have regional distribution among attendees as well as distribution among types of institutions represented.

3. Discussion of ACLA 10-year “status of the discipline” report.

a. Contact Haun Saussy or Carey Eckhardt with comments.

4. Discussion of “Comparative Studies” programs and the relation of Comp Lit to them.

a. Do not want to see Comp Lit absorbed by them.

b. Want to see a strong emphasis on language study in such programs.

5. Membership in ADPCL.

a. Can we send departmental prompts? Carey will contact Elizabeth Richmond-Garza.

b. If so, send in conjunction with announcement of summer conference.

6. MLA report on language enrollments.

a. Do not want to be adjunct to Spanish.

b. Admission of graduate students.

c. Placement of graduate students.

7. Desire to become an affiliated group and to have a yearly meeting time at MLA.

8. Desire to publish a directory of Comp Lit programs in conjunction with the MLA.