In 1999, two midwestern professors, Cary Nelson (University of Illinois) and Stephen Watt (Indiana University), teamed up on a cheeky pseudo-dictionary that was also a serious critique of academia.
The MLA convention, which is part bone-chilling interviews for precious few jobs, part deeply quirky research reports by panels that can outnumber their audiences, and part a bookworm’s version of hard-partying weekend on the town, is also a guaranteed source of frustration. Like a gigantic, quickly-passed box of chocolates, it offers so many intriguing options in such a short space of time (this year’s meeting ran January 3-6), that no matter which you select, you’re going to feel regret for missing others. How to choose, for example, between “Posthuman Affection,” “Comics Fandom in Transition,” and “Philosophy of, as, and on Extinction”? To say nothing of “New Currents in Medieval Iberian Studies” and “The History of Financial Advice”? (Or, in other time slots, surprising topics of local interest like “Brecht in Chicago” and a whole session on the work of former Reader writer Achy Obejas?)
Nelson rued the loss of what he called the “principles that underwrite the academy,” especially academic freedom. In 1999, he said, he thought corporate-style administrators were to blame for this. Now he sees the biggest threats coming from tenured faculty themselves—like those at Berkeley who called for the cancellation of a lecture by right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos.
