The MLA is in Philadelphia next January. This year’s conference in Austin was super, and we had some excellent papers and roundtable discussions for the Old English thread. We’d really like to encourage Anglo-Saxonists to come to the MLA and help build a community of participants there. We’ll organize a dinner and drinks, and we’re making every effort to have Old English show itself as a dynamic and well-attended area of the MLA’s program.

Here are two of the sessions we’re putting on this year. Another CFP for two other sessions will follow shortly. Please do submit a 300-word abstract in .doc format to me (etreharne@mac.com) by 15th March 2016. It would be great to have a lively crowd in Philadelphia.

All best wishes,

Elaine (and on behalf of the rest of the Executive Committee of the OE Forum—Samantha Zacher, Matt Hussey, Renee Trilling)

Session 1) The Present is Another Country (Roundtable)

This roundtable, which seeks four focused case studies in total, will emphasize the ways in which Old English Literature and Language can make a significant contribution to contemporary discussions of diversity, ethnicity, disability, and other pressing issues in society and culture. Speakers are invited to present their case studies in a tightly argued ten-minute proposition. A respondent will synthesize the central themes emerging from the case studies.

Session 2) Beyond Measure

This session provides three speakers (or pairs of co-speakers) with the opportunity to present their research on any aspect of Old English Literature that is ‘beyond measure’; that is, texts or textual objects that are incomparable, ineffable, immeasurable, impenetrable, indecipherable, or that are simply outside of the understanding or intellectual reach of present-day scholarship.

Elaine Treharne, FSA, FRHistS, FEA
Roberta Bowman Denning Professor of Humanities
Co-Director of CMEMS; Director of Stanford TexT
Department of English
Building 460, 450 Serra Mall
Stanford University, CA 94305-2087
Tel: 650 723 4609
https://texttechnologies.stanford.edu/
https://english.stanford.edu/people/elaine-treharne

Elaine Treharne, FSA, FRHistS, FEA
Roberta Bowman Denning Professor of Humanities
Co-Director of CMEMS; Director of Stanford TexT
Department of English
Building 460, 450 Serra Mall
Stanford University, CA 94305-2087
Tel: 650 723 4609
https://texttechnologies.stanford.edu/
https://english.stanford.edu/people/elaine-treharne