Just back from the MLA Conference in Toronto. Very honored to be invited to participate in the double panel organized by Satoru Hashimoto and Christopher Lupke on The Future of East Asian Comparative Literature. Very rewarding to hear how scholars at different stages of their careers imagine the future of the field from their own vantage points. Our current state of the discipline is nothing but the accumulation of these overlapping temporalities—and their accompanying predicaments.
It was great to reconnect with colleagues and old friends. I was struck by the generalized concern about the larger state of things. Probably for the first time ever, I saw broad agreement across the spectrum: R1 faculty, liberal arts college faculty, community college faculty, plus leadership, plus administrators.