Report of the Task Force on Doctoral Study in Modern Language and Literature (2014)
Charged by the MLA Executive Council in February 2012 “to consider the prospects for doctoral study in modern language and literature in the light of transformations in higher education and scholarly communication” (PMLA 127.4 [2012]: 1024), and funded in part by a grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the task force met at the MLA office in fall 2012 and spring and fall 2013 and at the 2013 and 2014 MLA conventions in Boston and Chicago. The Executive Council received and approved the task force’s report in February 2014. Statements the task force received from departments engaged in projects related to its charge are included in an appendix.
Members of the MLA Task Force on Doctoral Study in Modern Language and Literature
Carlos J. Alonso (Columbia Univ.)
Russell A. Berman (Stanford Univ.), chair
Sylvie Debevec Henning (East Carolina Univ.)
Lanisa Kitchiner (Smithsonian Natl. Museum of African Art)
Bethany Nowviskie (Univ. of Virginia)
Elizabeth Schwartz Crane (San Joaquin Delta Coll., CA)
Sidonie Ann Smith (Univ. of Michigan, Ann Arbor)
Kathleen Woodward (Univ. of Washington, Seattle)
Staff Liaisons
Kathleen Fitzpatrick, director, MLA Office of Scholarly Communication
David Laurence, director, MLA Office of Research and ADE
A Message from the Executive Council
Read the 2020 Report of the MLA Task Force on Ethical Conduct in Graduate Education.