Event Highlights
Browse the online program to explore the variety of scholarly and professional development sessions taking place at MLA 2024 as well as events in the exhibit hall. Use the options under Locate Sessions in the sidebar to find sessions by organizer or subject or browse the Meeting Calendar to find sessions by day, time, and format.
MLA Awards Ceremony
The awards ceremony will take place at 7:00 p.m. on 5 January.
Celebrate the MLA Book Prizes and other award winners, including the Lifetime Scholarly Achievement Award being awarded to W. J. T. Mitchell and the Phyllis Franklin Award for Public Advocacy of the Humanities being awarded to Henry Louis Gates, Jr.
Presidential Address
The Presidential Address will take place at 7:00 p.m. on 6 January.
Presidential Plenary and Linked Sessions
The Presidential Plenary: The Poetics of Celebration will take place at 10:15 a.m. on 5 January. The plenary will have two linked sessions: Mourning without End and Celebrating Blackness.
Finding Your Roots as Public Humanities (346)
4:30 p.m. on 5 January
Join Henry Louis Gates, Jr., in conversation with Frieda Ekotto.
On Climate Change: A Conversation with Amitav Ghosh (272)
1:45 p.m. on 5 January
Amitav Ghosh and other distinguished panelists discuss the challenges of the climate crisis to the novel, poetry, the media, and other modes of cultural representation.
The Humanities Grant-Making Landscape (550)
3:30 p.m. on 6 January
Leaders of the nation’s foremost humanities grant-making bodies will discuss the current state of federal and foundation support for language, literature, and culture research and teaching.
Learning How to Celebrate Language in Joy and Sorrow (390)
8:30 a.m. on 6 January
Presiders Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak and Surya Parekh lead a conversation about the transformative Origin and Development of the Bengali Language.
Humanities without Borders (Session 468)
12:00 noon–1:45 p.m. on 6 January
Panelists explore innovative approaches to humanistic thinking, gathering, and working that engage with and build community-centered and -driven initiatives.
Expanding Deaf Narrative: Scholarly, Critical, Creative, and Production Approaches (546)
3:30 p.m. on 6 January
Presiders Brenda Brueggemann and Jennifer Nelson lead a conversation on issues related to narratives about deaf lives, publishing and producing ASL literature, and composing and translating across multiple modalities and languages.
Just-in-Time Sessions
Be sure to explore the late-breaking just-in-time sessions, which appear only in the online program.
Special Events
This year’s events include a screening of I Heard it through the Grapevine, where James Baldwin retraces his time in the South during the Civil Rights Movement (5 January, 7:15 p.m.), a screening of Wieland, an adaptation of the nineteenth-century Gothic novel by Charles Brockden Brown (6 January, 7:00 p.m.), and two chances to meet with journal editors from CELJ for consultation and advice (5 January, 11:15 a.m., and 6 January, 12:00 noon).
Sikiliza My Body Speaks to You
Sikiliza My Body Speaks to You is a photographic reflection on the Black body of LGBTQ+ people, composed of incarnate images, lived and commented on from within. Directed by Marthe Djilo Kamga and Frieda Ekotto, this photographic documentary explores the ways in which Black LGBTQ+ people control, maintain, negate, combine, or negotiate the rules and norms that define their body—and how they reclaim their own body, construct and perform their identities, and (re)define themselves as they navigate decolonization, discrimination, criminalization, affirmation, and a need for recognition of their subjectivities. The photographs will be on display by the MLA registration and welcome center in the Pennsylvania Convention Center (Grand Hall, Level 2).
Professional Development Hub
Visit the Professional Development Hub page to find out more about a wide range of programs, including sessions for graduate students, discussion groups for professionals at different career stages, offerings focused on discerning diverse career pathways, one-on-one mentoring, and information about special networking events and meetups.
Delegate Assembly
Established in 1971 as an elected body representing the membership at large, the Delegate Assembly, composed of over three hundred delegates, debates issues of concern to the membership and advises the Executive Council on the association’s policies, direction, goals, and structure.
Formal deliberations of the assembly, at which any MLA member can speak (subject to strict time limits), are scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on 6 January. This meeting is open only to MLA members. Please remember to wear your badge.