Message from the RMMLA President

It is my pleasure as the incoming President of RMMLA and on behalf of the Board and the Executive Director, Joan Grenier-Winther, to extend my greetings to all of you and to express my appreciation to every one of you for your continued involvement in our organization. RMMLA can be proud of its impressive tradition of fostering ground-breaking scholarship, encouraging academic activity among those at every career stage, nurturing the professional development of graduate students, and providing a rich and provocative venue for vibrant intellectual discourse. One of the greatest strengths of our organization seems to be the broad breadth of intellectual interests and the openness toward new research topics. In a way, the RMMLA truly stands for the fundamental humanistic endeavor. In our day and age, we need more of that, and our organization offers a wonderful academic platform to pursue those goals.

I am deeply impressed by an outstanding support personnel, particularly our able and dedicated Executive Director, as well as her Administrative Assistant at Washington State University, Jennifer Schweie, along with the editorial staff of our excellent journals, The Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature and The Rocky Mountain E-Review: Michael Delahoyde, Senior Editor; Sabine Davis, Editor; and Nathanael Whitworth, Managing Editor. As President, I am also fortunate to work with a committed and engaged Board, including Liahna Armstrong, Past President; Sura Rath, Vice-President; and delegates David Chisholm, Beverly Zimmerman, Joy Landeira, Javier Gonzalez, and Katie Arosteguy.

As we have entered our sixth decade of activity, we can be proud of the tradition that has sustained us and will carry us into the future. Attendance at our most recent conference in Calgary last Fall was among the best in our history, and we anticipate another exciting event this October 9-11 in Reno, Nevada. I want to extend another thank you to all those who helped make Calgary such a gratifying event, particularly the Program Chairs who solicited, reviewed, selected, and organized proposals; the staff and local volunteers who helped run a smooth and well-choreographed meeting; and the Board for its site selection.

Our membership has remained stable over recent years, but we are ready to implement an effort to augment our numbers, both individual and institutional memberships. While we are self-identified as "The Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association,"members of our organization come from all over the country and across the globe, and this diversity of participation is one of the elements that makes our intellectual exchanges so productive. I speak for the entire Board when I encourage you not only to renew your own membership, but to encourage colleagues, students, professional collaborators, and academic friends to join and take part in the RMMLA activities. Our dues are relatively low as an affiliate of MLA, and I believe that membership in the RMMLA is of utmost reward for everyone. The friendly atmosphere, the collegiality, and the high scholarly caliber make all of our conventions to academic events to be remembered for years.

I am proud of our commitment to foster professionalism and scholarship among graduate students. I find the opportunity for young scholars to get their C.V.’s reviewed by volunteers (at our 'CV Help Session' at the annual convention) a marvelous idea, since it nicely sets the tone for our mutual interest in fostering an open exchange among all members irrespective of their academic status, age, gender, ethnicity, and research area. It is also a pleasure to review the conference program to see the exceptional variety of program activities, sessions, topics, formats, and participants. RMMLA has always encouraged innovation in its program, recognizing that stimulating discourse can take place in a wide range of venues. Our current Executive Director, Joan Grenier-Winther, has made it a hallmark of her leadership to enable diverse presentational structures at conferences which has given rise to an inspiring richness of content.

I want to end by encouraging members to nominate others or put in their own names as candidates for the RMMLA Board of Directors. We stay healthy through the versatility of ideas that the Board brings to our program; it is also a wonderful personal and professional experience to serve with such a committed group. Nominations and self-nominations are due to the Secretariat by November 1 (email ok).

I look forward to seeing you in Reno in October.

Sincerely,

Albrecht Classen
President, RMMLA

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