Slavic Panels at MLA 2020

View the full MLA 2020 Convention Program here.

Below is information about the panel sessions at the upcoming MLA Convention in Seattle, Washington (9-12 January, 2020) sponsored by the MLA Executive Committees of the Russian and Eurasian Forum and the Slavic and East European Forum; plus a couple of additional panels of interest to our membership.  We hope to see you there!

104 - Colonial Pacific Northwest
Thursday, 9 January 2020
3:30 PM - 4:45 PM
WSCC - 213
Presider: Angelina Del Balzo
Bilkent U

Presentations:
‘Satisfied with Her Condition’: Russian Women’s Captivity Narratives in the Pacific Northwest
Jeffrey Glover, Loyola U, Chicago
‘We Showed Them the Burning Fuses’: Shelekhov’s Bomb and Performances of Cultural Contact in the Northern Pacific
Simon Huff, Indiana U of Pennsylvania
‘Split-Lipped Ladies’: Misreading Facial Texts of Haida Women in George Vancouver’s and Ella Rhoads Higginson’s Colonizing Pacific Northwest Narratives
Laura Laffrado, Western Washington U
The Photographic Imagination: Contextualizing Ella Higginson’s Portrayal of the Pacific Northwest
Karoline Schaufler, Western Washington U

157 - Being Human in Dostoevsky
Thursday, 9 January 2020
7:00 PM - 8:15 PM
WSCC - 213
Presentations
Sublime Anxiety: The Petersburg Text and Dostoevsky’s Gothic City
Katherine Bowers, U of British Columbia, Vancouver
Dostoevsky and Early Russian (Anti)Feminist Literary Journalism
Katya Jordan, Brigham Young U, UT
Dostoevsky’s The Idiot as a Critique of the Limits of Personhood
Brian Armstrong, Augusta U
Session Information
Allied Organization: International Dostoevsky Society
Program: Allied Organizations
Subject: Slavic and East European Literatures

241 - Central Asian Literature: Subjects and Worlds

Friday, 10 January 2020

10:15 AM - 11:30 AM

WSCC – 212

Presider: Naomi Caffee, Reed C

Presentations

The Radical of Representation: Persianate Epideictic Verse, Stalinist Mass Politics, Samuel G Hodgkin, U of Chicago

Deconstructing Soviet Literary Construction: The Making of Uzbek Socialist Realism’s First Classic, Hamza Hakimzoda Niyoziy’s The Rich Man and the Servant (1918–39), Christopher Fort, American U of Central Asia

Minor Literatures and Intra-Soviet Translations: The Case of Nisso, Emily Laskin, U of California, Berkeley

An Inheritance of Paper: The Art of Anuar Alimzhanov, Christopher Baker, American U of Central Asia

284 - Bad Art

Friday, 10 January 2020

12:00 PM - 1:15 PM

WSCC - Skagit 4

Description: Panelists deal with the borders of aesthetic judgment—the critical approach to and aesthetic standing of texts that are unsuccessful, obnoxious, unintended, and so on. Case studies include Stalinist prose, the Portsmouth Sinfonia (an orchestra whose members had no prior training with their instruments), terrorist literature, the discourse of judgment and intention around visual art, and nonaesthetic documents incorporated into aesthetic texts.

Presider: Jacob Emery, Indiana U, Bloomington

Speakers:

Christopher Chiasson, U of Pittsburgh

Karen Sullivan, U of Queensland

Benjamin Massey Sutcliffe, Miami U, Oxford

Chris Reeves, U of Illinois, Chicago

Irina Meier, U of New Mexico, Albuquerque

Respondent: Julia Vaingurt, U of Illinois, Chicago

423 - Deoccidentalizing Postcolonial Studies

Saturday, 11 January 2020

8:30 AM - 9:45 AM

WSCC – 618

Presider: Jonathan Stone, Franklin and Marshall C

Presentations:

Japan’s Triangulated Imperialism, Robert Tierney, U of Illinois, Urbana

Russia’s Empires and What They Bring to Postcolonial Studies, Edyta M. Bojanowska, Yale U

Reconsidering the Ottoman Decline: Melancholy and Mystification of Imperial Sovereignty

Arif Camoglu, Northwestern U

510 - “On Theme” / “V Teme”: Sex and Text on the Soviet Periphery

Saturday, 11 January 2020

12:00 PM - 1:15 PM

WSCC – 213

Presider: Leah Feldman, U of Chicago

Respondent: Vitaly Chernetsky, U of Kansas

Presentations:

Uncovering the Queer: An Exploration of Gender and Sexual Relations in the Early-Twentieth-Century Russian Novel, Devin McFadden, U of Kansas

Queer Approaches to Periodical Studies: Mitin zhurnal between the Soviet Underground and Transnational Queer Literature, Philip Gleissner, Ohio State U, Columbus

Everyday Life and the (Post-)Soviet Gay Experience in Klāvs Smilgzieds’s Erotic Stories, Karlis Verdins, Washington U in St. Louis

691 - Teaching Texts in Translation: Theoretical and Pedagogical Approaches
Sunday, 12 January 2020
10:15 AM - 11:30 AM
WSCC - 211
**For related material, write to grecog@pdx.edu**
Presider: Gina L. Greco
Portland State U

Presentations
Rethinking Translation; or, The Problem of Foreign Words
Brian James Baer, Kent State U, Kent
Teaching the Translator: Constance Garnett and Milena Jesenská
Michelle Woods, State U of New York, New Paltz
Teaching Literary Works in the Context of General Education and Honors Courses
Cassio de Oliveira, Portland State U
Translation Theory in the Early French Literature Classroom
Gina L. Greco, Portland State U

733 - Representing the Camps: The Problem of Genre

Sunday, 12 January 2020

12:00 PM - 1:15 PM

WSCC – 616

Presider: Naomi Caffee, Reed C

Presentations:

The Present Demands of the Past: Genre and Exceptional Experience in Camp Literature, Benjamin Paloff, U of Michigan, Ann Arbor

The Home and the Camp: Curating Holocaust Memory in the Balkan Novel, Drago Momcilovic, U of Wisconsin, Milwaukee

Genre, Trauma, and the Ethics of Silence in Japanese American Internment Literature, Heather Hathaway, Marquette U

Calls for Papers: MLA 2020

The 2020 MLA Convention will be held in Seattle, 9–12 January 2020.

Below is a list of CFPs for the panels currently being constituted in Slavic, East European, and Eurasian studies.  Please note the specific submission requirements, deadline, and contact person(s) for each panel.

'On Theme'/'V teme': Sex and Text on the (Post-)Soviet Periphery
This panel explores textual representation of queer sexualities in Russian and East European contexts, from the early twentieth century to the present. Abstract (200-300 words) and CV.
Deadline for submissions: Friday, 15 March 2019
Vitaly Chernetsky, U of Kansas (vchernetsky@ku.edu ); Leah Feldman, U of Chicago (feldman.leah@gmail.com )

De-Occidentalizing Postcolonial Studies
How can cultures of modern non-Western empires (such as Russian, Ottoman, or Japanese) revise or enrich traditional postcolonial models?  200-word abstract and 3-page CV by March 15; Edyta Bojanowska (edyta.bojanowska@yale.edu)
Deadline for submissions: Friday, 15 March 2019
Edyta M. Bojanowska, Yale U (edyta.bojanowska@yale.edu )

Eurasian Indigeneity
This panel explores the literatures, cultures, and experiences of indigenous peoples of Eurasia in local, global, and comparative contexts. 300-word abstracts and 2-page CV invited by 15 March 2019; Ann Komaromi (a.komaromi@utoronto.ca)
Deadline for submissions: Friday, 15 March 2019
Ann L. Komaromi, U of Toronto (a.komaromi@utoronto.ca )

Eurovision!
Subversive camp or commercial kitsch? Nationalist propaganda or multicultural manifesto? Postwar relic or the future of entertainment? Music or theater? Neither? Both? What’s YOUR Eurovision? 200-word abstract and CV by March 15; Benjamin Paloff (paloff@umich.edu)
Deadline for submissions: Friday, 15 March 2019
Benjamin Paloff, U of Michigan, Ann Arbor (paloff@umich.edu )

Central Asian Literature: Subjects and Worlds
A panel on Central Asian literature and its explorations of subjectivity, identity, nation-building, ideology, and postcolonial worlding.
Deadline for submissions: Friday, 8 March 2019
Naomi Caffee, Reed College (caffee@reed.edu )

Bad Art
This panel invites critical and theoretical work on the borders of aesthetic judgment—the critical approach to and aesthetic standing of texts that are unsuccessful, obnoxious, unintended, et cetera.
Deadline for submissions: Friday, 15 March 2019
Jacob Emery, Indiana U (jacemery@indiana.edu )

Representing the Camps: the Problem of Genre
A panel on fictionalization of camp experiences, the ethical implications of genre, the relationship of postwar documentary prose to the novel (realist, soc-realist, modernist). 200-word abstract and CV.
Deadline for submissions: Friday, 15 March 2019
Emily Van Buskirk, Rutgers U, New Brunswick (evanbusk@rci.rutgers.edu )

Rise of the Russian Right
This panel explores the politics and aesthetics of the literary imaginaries of the New Right in Russia and across the former Soviet Union more broadly. 200-word abstract and CV.
Deadline for submissions: Friday, 15 March 2019
Leah Feldman (feldman.leah@gmail.com)

and also of note:

Colonial Pacific Northwest
Scholars interested British/American, Russian, Spanish, and especially indigenous literatures are invited to submit 300-word abstracts that consider the Pacific Northwest with studies of European colonialism during the 18th and early 19th centuries.
Deadline for submissions: Friday, 15 March 2019
Angelina Del Balzo, U of California, Los Angeles (adelbalzo@ucla.edu )

MLA 2019 sessions on Russian, Eurasian, Slavic, East European topics

The list below includes sessions sponsored or co-sponsored by the LLC Russian and Eurasian Forum, the LLC Slavic and East European Forum, AATSEEL, the International Dostoevsky Society, and  the International Nabokov Society, as well as sessions organized by other entities that include presentations on relevant topics.  To view the detailed description of each session on the MLA Convention Program website, you will need to create a login for that site.

33: Tolstoy as a Modern Social Thinker

Date: Thursday, Jan 3, 2019
Time: 12:00 PM–1:15 PM
Location: Sheraton Grand - Mississippi

106: Empires in Parallax: New Perspectives in the Study of Imperial Cultures

Date: Thursday, Jan 3, 2019
Time: 3:30 PM–4:45 PM
Location: Sheraton Grand - Huron

223: Aesthetes in Exile and The Art(ifice) of Suffering

Date: Friday, Jan 4, 2019
Time: 10:15 AM–11:30 AM
Location: Sheraton Grand - Mayfair

314: Yiddish and the Postvernacular in the Post–Cold War

Date: Friday, Jan 4, 2019
Time: 1:45 PM–3:00 PM
Location: Sheraton Grand - Huron

340: Shakespeare’s Transnational Poetics: Forms and Genres among Early Modern Literatures

Date: Friday, Jan 4, 2019
Time: 3:30 PM–4:45 PM
Location: Hyatt Regency - Grand Suite 5

341: Ideologies of Health in Soviet Literature and Politics

Date: Friday, Jan 4, 2019
Time: 3:30 PM–4:45 PM
Location: Sheraton Grand - Mayfair

366: Dostoevsky’s The Idiot at 150: Textual Transactions

Date: Friday, Jan 4, 2019
Time: 5:15 PM–6:30 PM
Location: Sheraton Grand - Superior A

504: Opera and the Sense of History

Date: Saturday, Jan 5, 2019
Time: 12:00 PM–1:15 PM
Location: Hyatt Regency - Columbian

517: Nabokov, Dreams, and the Unconscious

Date: Saturday, Jan 5, 2019
Time: 1:45 PM–3:00 PM
Location: Hyatt Regency - Water Tower

522: The Global (Far) North: Arctic Literatures

Date: Saturday, Jan 5, 2019
Time: 1:45 PM–3:00 PM
Location: Sheraton Grand - Ohio

586: The Aura of Foreign Paper in the Long Nineteenth Century

Date: Saturday, Jan 5, 2019
Time: 5:15 PM–6:30 PM
Location: Sheraton Grand - Huron

731: The Canon (De)Centered: English Studies around the World

Date: Sunday, Jan 6, 2019
Time: 1:45 PM–3:00 PM
Location: Hyatt Regency - Michigan 1C

Calls for Papers for MLA 2019

The 2019 MLA Annual Convention will be held in Chicago from 3 to 6 January.

Here is a list of Calls For Papers for sessions being proposed by the Russian & Eurasian Forum,  Slavic & East European Forum, and AATSEEL.  Note that some sessions may not be guaranteed inclusion in the final program. This post will be updated as additional CFPs are posted.  Please consider submitting an abstract!


Alignment after "Alignment": Speculative Futurities and Utopia(s) Post-1989
Papers on post-Cold War transnational collective/political imaginaries tracing intersections across the "Non-Aligned" and (post)Soviet "Aligned" nations, with specific attention to constructions of race/ethnicity as well as questions of (dis)location in the era of global "totality."
Proposals of 250 words and a brief bio to Magalí Armillas-Tiseyra (mua27@psu.edu) and Leah Feldman (feldmanl@uchicago.edu) by March 9.

Ideologies of Health in Soviet and Post-Soviet Literatures and Media
Examining representations of illness and healthcare, from Soviet propaganda campaigns to critical inventions in any former Soviet Republic.
200-word abstract and CV to Jeff Gatrall (gatrallj@montclair.edu) by March 15.

The Global Far North: Arctic Literatures
The Global South has challenged Eurocentric narratives; what of the Global (Extreme) North? Colonial encounters; environmental extremes; imperial and indigenous literatures in the Arctic.
200-word abstract and CV or brief bio to Rebecca Stanton (rjs19@columbia.edu) by March 15.

Imported Paper and 19th-Century Literature 
In countries that were not paper-independent -- such as the US, Britain, and Russia -- imported paper was a luxury good and a necessity for writers. How did they write about it; how did it matter?
250-word abstracts to Gabriella Safran (gsafran@stanford.edu) and Jonathan Senchyne (senchyne@wisc.edu) by March 15.

Empires on the Margins 
Representations of empire in imperial cultures outside the typical province of colonial studies, such as Russian, Ottoman, or Japanese.
200-word abstract and 3-page CV to Edyta Bojanowska (edyta.bojanowska@yale.edu) and Vitaly Chernetsky (vchernetsky@ku.edu) by March 15.

Tolstoy as a Modern Social Thinker 
Tolstoy’s ideas about the workings of society and state; his national and global interventions. Are they relevant today?
200-word abstract and 3-page CV to Edyta Bojanowska (edyta.bojanowska@yale.edu) by March 15.

Ministries of Disinformation 
Fresh readings of texts, discourses, and practices that trouble the boundary between fiction and nonfiction, reportage and reporting, news and whatever is not news.
200-word abstract and CV to Benjamin Paloff (paloff@umich.edu) by March 15.

Slavic, East European, and Eurasian panels at #MLA17

97. Globalization and the Second World
Thursday, 5 January, 3:30–4:45 p.m., 404, Philadelphia Marriott

367. Soviet Era Dissidence Revived?
Friday, 6 January, 3:30–4:45 p.m., 409, Philadelphia Marriott

386. Teaching Dostoevsky outside Slavic Departments
Friday, 6 January, 5:15–6:30 p.m., 309, Philadelphia Marriott

458. Propaganda Reconsidered
Saturday, 7 January, 8:30–9:45 a.m., 307, Philadelphia Marriott

528. Testimonies of War in Svetlana Alexievich’s Prose
Saturday, 7 January, 12:00 noon–1:15 p.m., 405, Philadelphia Marriott

622. Literary Encounters: The Soviet Union and West Asia
Saturday, 7 January, 3:30–4:45 p.m., Independence Ballroom Salon III, Philadelphia Marriott

652. One Hundred Years of October: Reconsidering the Russian Revolution of 1917
Saturday, 7 January, 5:15–6:30 p.m., 303, Philadelphia Marriott

CFPs for MLA 2017

Here is a list of Calls For Papers for relevant sessions being proposed for the 2017 MLA Convention in Philadelphia, PA.  Note that some sessions may not be guaranteed inclusion in the final program. This post will be updated as additional CFPs are posted.  Please consider submitting an abstract!

Sessions sponsored by the Slavic / East European / Eurasian groups at MLA:

Globalization and the Second World
From the age of empires to rise of the Internet, globalization overwrites existing borders; how have Eastern Europeans perceived this process, from their “second world” perspective? 300-word abstract, 3-page CV by 15 March 2016 to Edyta Bojanowska (bojanows@rutgers.edu).

100 Years of October: Reconsidering the Russian Revolution
This panel welcomes papers that examine the cultural impact and/or image of the 1917 Revolution from new perspectives, including (but not limited to) the vantage points of non-Russian literatures and cultures, such as those of Central Asia, the Caucasus, or the Far East. 200-word abstract and CV by March 15, 2016 to Rebecca Stanton (rjs19@columbia.edu).

Propaganda Reconsidered
How do emerging theoretical models contribute to the study of propaganda? This panel examines literature’s role in shaping ideologies and reconsiders the entanglement of art and politics. 200-word abstract, CV by 15 March 2016 to Jon Stone (jstone2@fandm.edu).

Soviet-era Dissidence Revived?
In light of authoritarianism in Russia today, how does the current generation of artists adopt or adapt elements of Soviet-era dissident tradition? 200-word abstract and CV by 15 March 2016 to Julia Vaingurt (vaingurt@uic.edu).

Travel Narratives and Communication Technology
From reliable postal systems to the telegraph to cellphones, how does changing communication technology affect experience and description of travel across long distances? CV and 200-word abstract by 15 March 2016 to Gabriella Safran (gsafran@stanford.edu).

Svetlana Alexievich and Sverkhliteratura
This panel analyzes the “super-literature” of Alexievich, Belorussian writer and 2015 Nobel Prize recipient, in light of her critique of fiction and against the broader cultural politics of post-socialist memory. CV, 200-word abstract by March 15 to Jeff Gatrall (gatrallj@mail.montclair.edu).

Flight, Migration, Diaspora
Beyond its humanitarian, logistical, and political challenges, Europe’s current refugee crisis underscores (and, paradoxically, masks) the fact that European civilizations have continuously been shaped and reshaped by the movement of populations. This panel will address how emigration, resettlement, and contact among diasporas are represented in modern and contemporary European literature. While we will draw on a broad variety of texts, our discussion will be anchored by a core question: How does textual representation challenge or reify national, ethnic, or state boundaries? CV, 200-word abstract by March 15 to Benjamin Paloff (paloff@umich.edu).

Special session CFPs
The following sessions are being proposed by individual members of the MLA, and may be of interest to members of the various Slavic / East European / Eurasian Forums:

Russian Formalism Reimagined
Long treated as a prelude, could anything about the school be interesting in its own right, to literary studies after post-structuralism? Papers on methods, themes, figures, or relations. Abstracts by 4 March 2016 to David J. Gorman (dgorman@niu.edu).

Russian Shakespeares
Papers investigating significant Russian adaptations or translations of Shakespeare's works that received little attention in the West. Abstract of 300-words – CV by 5 March 2016 to Sabina Amanbayeva (amanbayeva.sabina@gmail.com).

A Guide to the Slavic (&c.) Entities at MLA

What Slavic entities exist under the auspices of the MLA?

Three Slavic / East European / Eurasian - focused entities are administered or recognized by the MLA:

1. The Russian and Eurasian Forum (LLC Russian and Eurasian -- the "LLC" stands for "Languages, Literatures, and Cultures").
2. The Slavic and East European Forum (LLC Slavic and East European).
3. The American Association of Teachers of Slavic and East European Languages (AATSEEL), which is not part of MLA, but is recognized as an "Allied Organization."

Detailed information about the policies governing the three entities is available here: Policies for Forums and Allied Organizations.  A summary is given below:

Each of the two Forums (which are part of MLA's official structure) is governed by an Executive Committee of 5 people.  The current membership of each committee can be found here:

https://www.mla.org/About-Us/Governance/Committees/Committee-Listings/Forum-Executive-Committees

Note that service is counted by "Convention Year" (and a "Convention Year" ends with the Annual MLA Convention; thus, "Convention Year 2017" runs from Jan 15, 2016 through Jan 14, 2017). Forum Executive Committee members typically serve as Secretary of their respective committees in their 3rd year of service, and as Chair in their 4th year of service.

The chief responsibilities of the Forum Executive Committees (hereafter, FECs) are to organize panels/sessions of interest to the field at the annual MLA Convention; and to perpetuate themselves by nominating candidates to run for election to the FEC during the annual MLA election in the fall.

Representation on the MLA Delegate Assembly:

The Russian and Eurasian Forum also designates a delegate to the MLA Delegate Assembly; this delegate serves a three-year term.  For historical reasons, the Slavic and E. Euro. Forum does not currently send a representative to the Delegate Assembly.

AATSEEL, as an Allied Organization, is represented at the MLA by a Liaison who is a member of both organizations; his/her chief responsibilities are to arrange one or more AATSEEL-sponsored sessions at the annual MLA Convention, and to submit the necessary forms for the seven-yearly Allied Organization Review.

* * *

ELECTIONS

Each year, after the MLA Convention in January, the longest-serving member of each Forum Exec. Committee rotates off the committee, and is replaced by a new member, elected the preceding fall.  Forum executive committee elections are held in the fall along with the elections for second vice president, the Executive Council, and the Delegate Assembly. The executive committee of each forum is responsible for placing at least two names in nomination for each open seat on the executive committee. At least one of these names must be selected from a list of suggestions put forward by the membership.  If you would like to serve on one of the FECs or would like to suggest someone else, you can nominate yourself or another MLA member here: https://apps.mla.org/ballot_nominations

The MLA's Coordinator of Governance emails the necessary paperwork and instructions for election nominations to the Chair and Secretary of each FEC every year, ahead of the MLA Convention. 

* * * 

MEETINGS

Forum Executive Committees meet each year during the MLA Convention. Typically, a joint meeting is arranged by the Chairs of the Russian & Eurasian and of the Slavic & East European Forums, and this meeting is also attended by the AATSEEL Liaison and by the Russian & Eurasian Forum's Delegate to the Assembly.  At this meeting, nominees are generated for the forthcoming fall elections to both FECs, and a set of topics is generated from which to form the Russian/Eurasian, Slavic/East European, and AATSEEL-sponsored panels at the following year's MLA Convention.  

* * * 

ORGANIZING CONVENTION SESSIONS

An overview of the guidelines for organizing a session at the MLA Convention is available here:

https://www.mla.org/Convention/Planning-a-Convention-Session
See especially the Procedures for Organizing Meetings and the Policies for Forums and Allied Organizations (also linked from the overview page above).

Timeline:

• January (approx. Jan 6-10): At the MLA Convention, the meeting of the Slavic groups is held.
• February: Calls for Papers to form panels for the following year's Convention must be submitted via the MLA website, typically by February 28.   Note that the word limit for a CFP is 35 words, including the session title!
  Information about submitting CFPs is available here: https://apps.mla.org/conv_papers
• March: Typically, CFPs should list a deadline no later than March 15, so that the panel organizer has time to select participants, write up a proposal (using the submitted abstracts as a base) if the panel is a competitive one (i.e. nonguaranteed -- see info below re: guaranteed vs nonguaranteed panels), and submit all the program information to the appropriate person (FEC Chair or AATSEEL Liaison) well before the April 1 deadline. Sometimes, an organizer may extend the CFP deadline by a week to get more proposals, but then s/he needs to get the final panel information to the FEC Chair/Liaison quickly!
• April: April 1 is the deadline for the FEC Chairs and AATSEEL Liaison to submit all program copy for sessions being proposed for the upcoming Convention.  (Session proposals may be submitted from early March. They are submitted online.  Only the designated individuals can access the proposal submission forms.  Details about how to access the forms are available in this FAQ.)  April 1 is also the deadline for submitting Membership Waiver requests -- see below.
  
  April 7 is the deadline for all proposed participants in the upcoming Convention to acquire or renew their MLA membership.  Waivers of the membership requirement may be granted for nonscholars (e.g., medical doctors, visual artists, etc.) and scholars who work in disciplines other than language and literature. An individual may be granted a waiver once every five years. The request for a waiver of membership must be made by the session organizer and must be submitted on the Request for a Waiver of Membership form by 1 April for the following January’s convention. 

Guaranteed, nonguaranteed, and collaborative sessions:

A "guaranteed" session is one that is guaranteed inclusion in the Convention program, regardless of topic.  A guaranteed session proposal only needs to contain the session title, participant names and affiliations, and (where applicable) paper titles.  

A "nonguaranteed" or "competitive" session must compete with other proposals for acceptance into the Convention program.  Unlike guaranteed session proposals, each proposal for a nonguaranteed session -- i.e., the material that is submitted on the Program Copy forms due April 1 -- must contain (1) a detailed description of and scholarly rationale for the session and (2) information about the participants' scholarship and its relevance.

A "collaborative" session is one that is co-sponsored by another MLA entity (so, another Forum or Allied Organization); collaborative sessions are also nonguaranteed.  AATSEEL can serve as a "collaborator" for either Forum if desired.  Each entity can submit only one collaborative session proposal, but that collaborative proposal is in addition to any other nonguaranteed session proposal the entity may be submitting.

Detailed information about how to put together a proposal for a nonguaranteed (and/or collaborative) session, including sample proposals and scoring guidelines, is available here:

https://www.mla.org/Convention/Planning-a-Convention-Session/Proposing-a-Special-Session

How many sessions does each entity get to propose?The Russian and Eurasian Forum is allotted two guaranteed sessions each year. The Slavic and East European Forum and AATSEEL each have one guaranteed session.  In addition, each entity may propose one nonguaranteed session and one (nonguaranteed) collaborative session.

So the total number of session proposals available under the auspices of the three Slavic entities is:

Entity                            Guaranteed                  Nonguaranteed                   Collaborative
LLC Russ/Eurasian             2                                    1                                          1

LLC Slavic/E. Euro.             1                                    1                                          1

AATSEEL                               1                                    1                                          1

=========================================================

TOTAL:                              4                                   3                                       3