1998 RMMLA Convention in Salt Lake City, Utah
Thursday - Saturday, October 8 - 10
All images courtesy of the Salt Lake City
Visitors and Convention Bureau
Complete Program
Report on the 1998 RMMLA Convention
The fifty-second convention of the RMMLA was held October 8-10 at the
DoubleTree Hotel in Salt Lake City, and was hosted by Westminster College.
Professor Steve Haslam served as the local arrangements Chair. Over 400 members attended the
100+ Regular and Special Topics Sessions and special events during the three-day convention.
We were extremely pleased to have Professor Stanley Fish
as our keynote speaker at the luncheon banquet on Friday, October 9.
The title of his talk was "Academic Freedom and the Inclusive University."
Members also enjoyed a poetry reading by former Poet Laureate
Mark Strand, author of the recently published Blizzard of One
(A.A. Knopf). In addition, Greg Gough, Marketing Communications Manager of the
Western Governors University, discussed with RMMLA members some of the
issues involved in the online delivery of curricular materials. A representative
from NEH also presented an overview of grants and fellowships,
and held small workshops on grant writing.
Among the panels we organized was one devoted to the issue of
professional employment. This panel was lead by Professor R. Howard
Bloch of Yale University, a member of the MLA Committee on Professional
Employment, and included Professor Fish, RMMLA President Florence
Moorhead-Rosenberg, Westminster College Academic VP Stephen Baar, Washington State University Assistant Director
of the Writing Program Anne Maxham-Kastrinos, and University of Victoria graduate student Erin McConomy. Professor
Bloch also gave a lecture on his research on Marie de France's
Purgatoire. Another panel included representatives from publishing
houses to discuss scholarly publication. At the Women's Caucus luncheon on
Saturday, Cecilia Konchar Farr spoke on "Activism and Academics".
And in an exciting special session, Professor Naomi Schor of Harvard University gave a
talk entitled "The Crisis of French Universalism."
TheOpen Forum was devoted to a discussion of problems
in the profession. A new Graduate Student Forum was also organized
by RMMLA Graduate Student Delegate Erin McConomy of the University of
Victoria, to address concerns of our graduate student members. Finally,
we showed films each evening of the convention, films which were discussed in sessions the following day (Breaking the Waves,
La Belle Noiseuse, and Planet of Dinosaurs).
Our thanks to local arrangements chair Steve Haslam and to Stephen Baar for their support.
