Report of the Executive Director - Home | Modern Language ......In 2016 the association membership...

Report of the Executive Director

I AM PLEASED TO REPORT ON THE ASSOCIATION’S ACTIVITIES IN 2016.

Under the leadership of the Executive Council, the MLA expanded

its reach in signiicant ways. In June 2016, the MLA held its irst

international symposium, Other Europes: Migrations, Translations,

Transformation, in Düsseldorf, Germany. Over three hundred schol-

ars from more than thirty countries attended the symposium. Plans

are under way for a second international symposium in 2019. he

MLA continued the activities associated with Connected Academics,

a multiyear project funded by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to

help prepare PhDs for a wide range of careers. Hundreds of members

have now taken advantage of the Connected Academics proseminar

and workshops and sessions at the annual convention. With assis-

tance from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the MLA

launched Commons Open Repository Exchange (CORE) in May 2016.

he Phyllis Franklin Award for Public Advocacy of the Humanities

was presented to the actress and activist Anna Deavere Smith, who

gave two performances at the 2017 convention in Philadelphia.

Special Projects

Connected Academics: Broadening the Career Horizons of PhDs

Connected Academics is supported by a generous grant from the

An drew W. Mellon Foundation and seeks to expand the career ho-

rizons customarily presented in language and literature doctoral

programs. Broadening employment opportunities for PhDs is one

aspect of a larger mission: to evaluate current approaches to graduate

education and the doctoral dissertation and to recommend desirable

shits in academic preparation so that PhDs today receive adequate

professional development opportunities for the variety of careers

[ P M L A

© 2017 the modern language association of america708

that humanists pursue. David Laurence and

I serve as staf liaisons for this project. Ste-

phen Olsen and Stacy Hartman manage pro-

gram activities and work on developing the

project’s Humanities Commons site by adding

new blog posts, videos, and resources.

he MLA is working with three institu-

tional partners—Arizona State University,

Georgetown University, and the University of

California Humanities Research Institute—to

implement recommendations of the MLA Task

Force on Doctoral Study in Modern Language

and Literature that support career diversity for

language and literature doctoral students and

graduates. In September 2016, the University

of California Humanities Research Institute

hosted the irst of three Connected Academ-

ics institutes in Irvine, California. he insti-

tute brought representatives from the partner

institutions together with outside experts in

a collaborative two- day process focused on

creating a career- planning guide for doctoral

students. The guide offers faculty members,

especially those in administrative roles, strat-

egies and resources their programs can use to

prepare doctoral students for a variety of ca-

reers and to initiate tangible, systemic change

in doctoral education. he guide will be pub-

lished on the Connected Academics Web site

in May 2017 and presented at the 2017 ADE

and ADFL Summer Seminars.

Working locally to inluence doctoral ed-

ucation, the MLA staf organized the second

of three yearlong proseminars for doctoral

students, recent graduates, and PhD- holding

adjuncts from universities in the New York

City region. he proseminar focuses on ca-

reer horizons for PhDs in modern languages

and literatures, in and outside the academy;

long- and short- term prospects for adjunct

positions; and the versatility and reach of hu-

manities research. Participants, who receive

$2,000 stipends to support their involvement,

attend workshops to develop skills and strate-

gies for pursuing connected careers and con-

duct site visits and informational interviews

at units in local academic institutions and in

nonprofit organizations, foundations, and

other organizations that have a need for the

skills acquired in PhD programs. Selected

from almost one hundred fifty applicants,

twenty doctoral students and recent PhDs

from En glish, foreign language, and compar-

ative literature programs at twelve universi-

ties participated in the 2016–17 proseminar.

Connected Academics programming at

the MLA convention included new workshops

on networking, reading job ads and commu-

nicating transferable skills, and writing for a

broader audience. A Showcase of Career Di-

versity highlighted careers of PhD recipients

who have put their advanced degrees in the

humanities to work in a variety of rewarding

occupations. Presenters included university

employees as well as language and literature

PhDs employed in government agencies, non-

proit organizations, secondary schools, schol-

arly associations, think tanks, and technology

and digital media companies. he Connected

Academics partner institutions organized a

roundtable of graduate deans discussing in-

novation in humanities graduate training, a

roundtable discussion of mentorship and ca-

reer diversity, and a session on approaches to

reinventing PhD programs in the humanities.

he 2017 MLA convention also featured

the preconvention workshop Careers for Hu-

man ists. Led by Anne Krook of Practical

Workplace Advice, the workshop focused on

strategies for conducting a job search in ields

outside postsecondary teaching. Job seekers

at the convention could also meet with expe-

rienced department chairs, career counsel-

ors, or PhDs employed outside the academy

for twenty- ive- minute one- on- one sessions

to discuss their job search and career options

and to review their application materials.

Strategic Plan

In October 2015, the Executive Council ap-

proved a ive- year strategic plan to guide the

1 3 2 . 3 ] Modern Language Association 709

association’s development in four major areas

of interest—outreach, careers and conventions,

advocacy, and publications—and includes

sixty- eight broadly deined initiatives describ-

ing the association’s goals. A publication pre-

senting the strategic plan to the membership

is available at www .mla .org/ About -Us/ About

-the -MLA/ Strategic - Planning. his year, there

has been signiicant progress on several initia-

tives, including designing new opportunities

for members’ professional development, the

launch of a convention workshop on the new

MLA style and the inclusion of teaching re-

sources on he MLA Style Center, the creation

of new convention session formats, and the es-

tablishment of the Paving the Way fund- raising

campaign. he Executive Council assisted the

MLA staff with strategic planning related to

the establishment of administrator and re-

gional networks, advocacy on behalf of adjunct

faculty members, and development priorities.

Going forward, the council will revise the stra-

tegic plan as necessary, and regular updates

will be posted on the association’s Web site.

International Symposium

The MLA held its first international sym-

posium, Other Europes: Migrations, Trans-

lations, Transformation, in Düsseldorf,

Germany, from 23 to 25 June 2016. he sym-

posium featured a wide variety of sessions

that examined how European identities have

been conceived in the past and present, how

European literature has been produced and

circulated over time, and how large- scale im-

migration to and mobility within Europe (as

well as the post- 1989 redrawing of the Euro-

pean map) have changed these practices.

he MLA convention programs unit re-

ports that the event attracted 314 registered

attendees—signiicantly more than the 250

registrants the organizers had aimed for—

from 36 countries; 47% of attendees came

from the United States and Canada, and 44%

came from Europe. Thirteen percent of at-

tendees were graduate students or members

in the MLA’s four lowest income- based dues

categories who requested and were awarded

travel grants of €300 to defray the cost of at-

tendance. Twenty attendees (6%) were mem-

bers of the local organizing committee; their

registration fee was waived.

The symposium program featured 68

sessions with approximately 227 participants

from over 185 universities and colleges, in-

cluding 5 plenary events and 2 receptions.

The first reception was held aboard a boat

cruising along the Rhine River, and the sec-

ond was hosted by Düsseldorf ’s mayor at the

Düs sel dorf Rathaus. Symposium sessions

were well attended: 75% of sessions had at

least 10 audience members, and the average

number in attendance for all sessions (exclud-

ing plenaries) was 15 persons.

Although the Executive Council origi-

nally authorized a budget of up to $60,000

for symposium expenses in excess of regis-

tration fees, robust attendance numbers and

fund- raising on the part of the MLA’s local

partners significantly reduced association

costs. Specifically, the symposium brought

in $48,780 in registration fees and incurred

expenses of $61,600, for a total cost to the as-

sociation (ater registration fees) of $12,820,

not including staf time. Moreover, the money

spent in excess of registration income was al-

most entirely expended on travel grants. he

association provided $5,525 in registration

waivers and $12,103 in direct travel grants to

graduate students and members in the MLA’s

four lowest dues categories.

The MLA Archive

Under the direction of Barbara Chen, the

MLA’s archivist, Liza Young, continues her

work on the expansion of the MLA archive.

he creation of an access policy and repro-

duction application allowed us to open the

archive to information requests. Cataloging

policies were developed to enable us to begin

710 Report of the Executive Director [ P M L A

creation of searchable records using Archi-

vists’ Toolkit. A Web site about the archive is

now available (www .mla .org/ About -Us/About

-the -MLA/ MLA - Archives). he interviews of

people who have been members of the MLA

for over ity years, conducted during the 2016

convention as part of the MLA Oral History

Project, have been transcribed and are being

incorporated into several MLA initiatives.

he archivist will continue cataloging and

digitizing the collection in 2016–17. he ability

to search the catalog through the MLA archive

Web site and Omeka is now under development.

Also planned is a timeline for the Committee

on the Status of Women in the Profession.

Membership Trends

In 2016 the association membership decreased

by 2.7%. he total number of MLA members

at the close of the 2016 membership year was

24,095, of whom 15,184 (63.0%) were regular

members, 4,483 (18.6%) were student mem-

bers, and 4,428 (18.4%) were life and other non-

dues- paying members. he 2016 membership

enrollment period closed on 30 November.

Finances and Contributions

The audited finances for the 2015–16 fiscal

year showed a deicit of $484,304 in the un-

restricted fund. he MLA’s total net assets as

of 31 August 2016 amounted to $22,009,610.

The MLA has various restricted funds

that support particular activities. Contribu-

tions to these funds totaled $88,161 in the

2016 membership year. his represents a de-

crease of 18.3% from 2015 giving. he num-

ber of individuals who contributed to the

funds was 1,741 in 2016 and 2,317 in 2015.

(Note: he Paving the Way fund- raising cam-

paign is not accounted for here, since it was

established for the 2017 membership year.)

The Endowment Fund saw a decrease in

contributions of 12.7%, from $27,763 in 2015

to $24,239 in 2016. he number of individuals

contributing to the Endowment Fund increased

by 24.2%, from 314 in 2015 to 390 in 2016.

For the 2016 membership year, contribu-

tions to the two Professional Education Assis-

tance Funds—one for graduate students and

one for non- tenure- track faculty members

and unemployed members—were combined

on the contribution forms. Contributions to

the funds totaled $44,728 in 2016; 896 indi-

viduals contributed to them.

he Fund for the Promotion of the Pro-

fession received $5,971 in contributions in

2016, a decrease of 18.1%. The number of

contributors to this fund decreased by 29.9%.

he fund that supports the Phyllis Franklin

Award for Public Advocacy of the Humanities

received $6,565 in contributions in 2016, a de-

crease of 13.4%. he number of contributors

to this fund decreased by 9.2%. Contributions

to the Good Neighbor Fund totaled $5,833 in

2016, a decrease of 19.5%; the number of con-

tributors to this fund decreased by 26.5%.

Individuals who generously donate $200

or more to the MLA funds are listed at the

MLA Web site on a page about leading con-

tributors. Special recognition is given there

for contributions of $500 or more. Contribu-

tions of $500 or more totaled $21,700 in 2016,

a 24.6% decrease from 2015. Contributions of

$200 to $499 totaled $18,821, 19.9% less than

in 2015. Leading- contributor contributions to-

taled $40,521 in 2016, 22.5% less than in 2015.

MLA Awards

Each year at the convention, the associa-

tion recognizes exceptional achievements in

scholarship. In January 2017 the association

awarded seventeen prizes, including the Wil-

liam Riley Parker Prize for an outstanding es-

say in PMLA. he award selection committees

for the 2016 award year considered 637 works.

Of these titles, 236 (37.1%) competed for ei-

ther the James Russell Lowell Prize or the

MLA Prize for a First Book, and 64 (10.1%)

competed for the Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione


Prize for a Translation of a Literary Work.

he works that competed for the remainder

of the awards numbered 337 (52.9%).

In May 2015, the Executive Council ap-

proved a new policy on simultaneous submis-

sions for book prize competitions. he policy

allows a book to compete simultaneously for

one of the association’s major prizes—the

James Russell Lowell Prize or the MLA Prize

for a First Book—and one of the more special-

ized prizes. he policy was implemented for

the 2016 award year, the irst year of a two- year

trial period. Of the 117 books submitted for

the Lowell Prize, 39 also competed for a spe-

cialized prize. hirty- seven of the 119 books

submitted for the MLA Prize for a First Book

were also submitted for a specialized prize.

Grants to defray the cost of traveling

to the convention are available each year to

graduate student members. In 2016 there

were 239 applications for these grants. All

the applicants were eligible, but only 198 at-

tended the convention. All the applicants who

attended the convention received a grant. he

number of eligible applicants in 2016 was

13.7% lower than in 2015.

he association also ofers grants to defray

the cost of traveling to the convention to MLA

members who are contingent non- tenure-

track faculty members or are unemployed.

In 2016 there were 36 applications for these

grants. All the applicants were eligible, but 10

canceled their plans to attend the convention.

he total number of these grants awarded in

2016 was therefore 26 (down from 37 in 2015),

of which 14 went to contingent non- tenure-

track faculty members at 14 institutions. he

grant program is designed to encourage insti-

tutions to support the professional develop-

ment of their faculty members by providing

matching funds; 8 of the 14 institutions (57.1%)

provided such funds. In 2015 matching funds

were provided by 46.7% of institutions.

In 2016 the association again offered

grants to defray the cost of traveling to the

convention to MLA members who reside

outside the United States and Canada. here

were 24 applications for these grants; all the

applicants were eligible and were notiied that

they would receive a grant. Three canceled

their plans to attend the convention. he total

number of these grants awarded in 2016 was

therefore 21 (7 more than in 2015).

MLA International Bibliography

Barbara Chen, director of Bibliographic In-

formation Services and editor of the MLA

International Bibliography, reports that the

bibliography database contained 2,781,510

records as of the December 2016 retrospec-

tive update. In 2016, we indexed 76,078 pub-

lications. he Directory of Periodicals, which

members can access through the MLA Web

site, included 5,075 active titles, 603 of which

were e-journals, and historical information

on over 2,000 additional periodicals. Both

iles are distributed as a package by three ven-

dors—EBSCO, ProQuest, and Cengage (Gale).

Discovery services continue to provide sub-

scribers to the bibliography with another route

of access. Four discovery platforms—OCLC

WorldCat Local, EBSCO Discovery Service,

Serial Solutions Summon, and ExLibris Primo

Central—now include the bibliography.

Over 77,000 publisher- provided abstracts

are available to subscribers. The number of

bibliography records containing full- text links

continues to grow; they represent 14.6% of ci-

tations. here are now links to almost 70,000

Project MUSE articles and books, over 78,000

dissertations deposited in ProQuest’s Disser-

tations and heses database, and over 140,000

JSTOR articles and books. Libraries that have

the necessary subscriptions are able to give their

users seamless access to full text. In addition,

the bibliography now includes over 380,000

DOIs (digital object identifiers) and links to

more than 2,400 indexed scholarly Web sites.

Since 2015, MLA Biblink has helped

scholars who have ORCID identiiers search

the MLA International Bibliography for their


works, including those published under vari-

ant names, and add them to their ORCID

proiles. We created a tutorial, Building Your

Scholarly Identity with the MLA International

Bibliography and ORCID, to guide scholars

on the process. To date, over 12,800 identi-

iers have been added to the database.

Also available to users through the MLA

Web site, the bibliography’s Facebook page,

and MLA Commons are more than twenty on-

line tutorials on searching the bibliography.

Topics range from the scope of the bibliogra-

phy to researching rhetoric and composition in

it. What Is the MLA International Bibliogra-

phy? has been translated into six languages. All

tutorials were revised in 2016 to incorporate

changes related to speciic vendor platform en-

hancements. We plan to create more tutorials

as well as online teaching tools in 2017.

he MLA staf members who index pub-

lications received assistance in 2016 from

sixty- nine scholar- bibliographers in the ield

(nineteen distinguished bibliographers, seven

senior bibliographers, forty bibliographers,

and three assistant bibliographers). he MLA

Bibliography fellowship program, which was

introduced in 2004 with the approval of the

Executive Council, allowed the appointment

of nine more fellows in 2016. Four fellows

from the group appointed in 2013 success-

fully completed their terms and were awarded

certiicates during the 2017 MLA convention.

Bibliography staff members serve the

wider profession through the National Fed-

eration of Advanced Information Services

(NFAIS) and the Professional/ Scholarly Pub-

lishing Division (PSP) of the Association of

American Publishers. In 2016–17 staf mem-

bers served on four committees—an NFAIS

humanities task force, an NFAIS standards

committee, the NFAIS annual conference

planning committee, and the PSP’s Com-

mittee for Digital Innovation—and partici-

pated in the selection process for the PSP’s

PROSE Awards. Staf members also attended

the annual and midwinter meetings of the

American Library Association to take part in

sessions on the bibliography and to meet with

librarians and vendors.

Office of Scholarly Communication

he Oice of Scholarly Communication is re-

sponsible for the development of the associa-

tion’s major print and electronic publications,

including PMLA, book publications, mate-

rial for MLA Commons, and other scholarly

communication initiatives. In addition, the

editing of all association publications and

communications is housed within the oice.

he oice is directed by Kathleen Fitzpatrick,

who serves as managing editor of MLA pub-

lications and as associate executive director.

PMLA

he 131st volume of PMLA includes twenty-

seven regular essays. The special features

Criticism in Translation and Little- Known

Documents are both represented in the vol-

ume and continue to draw many submissions

from members. Shorter, commissioned es-

says appear in every issue under one or more

of the rubrics Theories and Methodologies,

he Changing Profession, Correspondents at

Large, and Talks from the Convention. he Fo-

rum section in the volume comprises three let-

ters to the editor and two replies from authors.

Ater an Editor’s Column about the black

aesthetic, the January 2016 issue offers five

regular essays, two of them on Jane Eyre. he

six contributions to heories and Methodolo-

gies are relections on Assia Djebar, who died

in 2015. The Changing Profession features

eleven essays on the topic “Adjust Your Maps:

Manifestos from, for, and about United States

Southern Studies,” and the issue closes with

an entry in the series Little- Known Docu-

ments: Antonio de Nebrija’s prologue to his

Grammar of the Castilian Language.

In lieu of an Editor’s Column, the March

2016 issue begins with a Guest Column by


Claudia Brodsky, an introduction to “Why

Philosophy?,” a group of essays that appear

later in the issue. Five regular essays follow,

and then eight commissioned essays examine

the topic “Assembling the Ecological Digital

Humanities,” under the rubric The Chang-

ing Profession. Contributions to Theories

and Methodologies include eight essays on

“Why Philosophy?” and six commentaries

on Ato Quayson’s Oxford Street, Accra, as

well as a response from Quayson. he essay

“ Contre- jour,” by Jacques Derrida and Safaa

Fathy, appears under Criticism in Translation.

The May issue begins with Simon Gi-

kandi’s inal Editor’s Column, “Reading at the

Limits,” and is followed by Roland Greene’s

2016 Presidential Address and six wide-

ranging regular essays. heories and Method-

ologies comprises three commentaries on Jean

Franco’s Cruel Modernity, to which Franco re-

sponds in an interview, and four commentar-

ies on Raúl Coronado’s A World Not to Come:

A History of Latino Writing and Print Culture,

to which Coronado responds. Larry Eigner’s

letters to the editor, another entry in Little-

Known Documents, concludes the issue.

The October issue features the special

topic Literature in the World, coordinated by

Simon Gikandi, who provides an introduc-

tion. Ten regular essays explore literary tra-

ditions from around the world; two essays in

Talks from the Convention take up theories

of world literature, as do eight essays under

Theories and Methodologies and six under

The Changing Profession. Ten contribu-

tors to Correspondents at Large give more-

immediate perspectives on the topic.

PMLA received 293 submissions in 2016.

Since October 2004, the journal’s historical

archive has been maintained online at JSTOR,

where the volumes covering 1884–2011 are

available. here is a ive- year “moving wall”

between the latest volume in JSTOR and the

currently published volume: the 2011 volume

was added at the end of 2016. Electronic ver-

sions of current issues are available to sub-

scribing libraries in PDF through the MLA’s

Web site for its journal content (mlajournals

.org). Content management and day- to- day

administration of the site are handled in the

Oice of Information Systems.

Book Publications

he association’s book publications program

continues to publish a diverse set of peer-

reviewed books. To support teaching and schol-

arship in the modern languages and literatures,

the MLA publishes reference works, collections

of scholarly articles, guides to teaching, materi-

als suitable for instruction in foreign languages

and En glish composition, and classroom edi-

tions of familiar and lesser- known texts from

around the world in their original language

and in En glish translation. The association

maintains a backlist of nearly three hundred

titles, and book sales remain an important

source of revenue. he MLA published six new

titles in its established book series in 2016. New

books in the Approaches to Teaching series ad-

dress the work of George Sand, Anton Chek-

hov, August Wilson, and Nella Larsen. A new

volume in the Options for Teaching series fo-

cuses on the literatures of the American Civil

War. he book program has actively sought to

expand its list in rhetoric and composition and

now has ive promising titles in development.

It continues to pursue books on works in non-

European languages, including those in Ko-

rean for the Texts and Translations series, with

the help of the editorial board appointed by the

Publications Committee for a three- year term

(2014–17) that has now been extended through

2019. It also continues to experiment with us-

ing MLA Commons as a venue for developing

new titles through open peer review and for

publishing companion materials to print pub-

lications, such as instructional resources.

he eighth edition of the MLA Handbook

was published in 2016, in both print and e-book

formats. he irst style guide of its kind, it re-

thinks the approach to creating works- cited- list


entries in MLA style: instead of basing entries

on publication format, it provides a template

of core elements that can be used to document

any type of source. Its publication was accom-

panied by the inauguration of he MLA Style

Center, a free, regularly updated companion

site on MLA Commons that features teaching

resources, writing tips, frequently asked ques-

tions, sample papers, and more.

he year’s new titles, in order of publica-

tion, are as follows:

Powell, David A., and Pratima Prasad, edi-tors. Approaches to Teaching Sand’s Indiana

Finke, Michael C., and Michael Holquist, editors. Approaches to Teaching the Works of Anton Chekhov

MLA Handbook, 8th ed.Shannon, Sandra G., and Sandra L. Rich-

ards, editors. Approaches to Teaching the Plays of August Wilson

Boggs, Colleen Glenney, editor. Teaching the Literatures of the American Civil War

McLendon, Jacquelyn Y., editor. Approaches to Teaching the Novels of Nella Larsen

Staf members in the Oice of Scholarly

Communication continued their work de-

veloping and editing MLA style publications

and resources, including workshops, webi-

nars, and material for he MLA Style Center.

Digital Initiatives: MLA Commons, CORE,

and Humanities Commons

MLA Commons continues to grow. In the past

year, Commons membership has increased by

18%, to over a quarter of the total MLA mem-

bership. Since September 2015, the site has

seen a 556% increase in the total number of

visitors, a 558% increase in the total number

of visits, a 552% increase in the total number

of page views, and a 4% increase in the aver-

age length of time a user spends on the Com-

mons. Commons members are participating

in discussions, developing and sharing their

work, and creating companion sites for MLA

convention sessions.

As an active publishing platform of the

MLA, the Commons features

blogs from the president, the executive di-

rector, the Oice of Research, the Oice of

Scholarly Communication, the ADE and

the ADFL (a joint initiative), and the MLA

International Bibliography

sites aimed at highlighting the work of MLA

committees and at providing resources for

and outreach to committees’ constituencies

the Wire, a community magazine showcas-

ing how members are using the platform

the periodical Profession

the open- access MLA book publications

Literary Studies in the Digital Age, edited

by Kenneth M. Price and Ray Siemens,

and Digital Pedagogy in the Humanities:

A Reader and Toolkit, edited by Matthew

Gold, Rebecca Davis, and Katherine Harris

he Oice of Scholarly Communication

recently received an additional three- year

NEH grant to continue work on Commons

Open Repository Exchange (CORE), a social

repository for members that was launched

in May 2016. It combines library- quality

digital archiving with the social network-

ing capabilities of MLA Commons. he most

downloaded item on CORE has seen over

one thousand downloads, and open edu-

cational resources such as syllabi typically

see over one hundred downloads. Contrib-

uting members come from a diverse range

of career backgrounds and from countries

around the world, including the United

States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Bu-

rundi, Poland, Romania, New Zealand, In-

dia, Oman, and Dubai.

Humanities Commons, a federated net-

work of scholarly societies’ Commons sites

connected by an entirely open and interdisci-

plinary hub, launched in December 2016. At

that time, MLA Commons became one node

in an expansive interdisciplinary network,

and CORE became a far- reaching humani-

ties repository. We plan to seek grant funding


to establish the business and sustainability

models for Humanities Commons.

Editorial Activities

he Oice of Scholarly Communication edits

the full range of association publications and

communications, including membership and

marketing materials, print books and e‑books,

PMLA and other periodicals (e.g., the ADE

Bulletin, the ADFL Bulletin, Profession, the

Job Information List and related reports, the

MLA Newsletter), material for the MLA Web

site and MLA Commons, and reports from the

Oice of Research and the Oice of Programs.

Members of the MLA editorial staf also regu‑

larly contribute to he MLA Style Center.

Other Activities

Staf members in the Oice of Scholarly Com‑

munication gave presentations at or otherwise

participated in a number of meetings during

the year, including the American Histori‑

cal Association annual convention, held in

New York; the National Humanities Alli‑

ance annual meeting, held in Washington;

the Conference on College Composition and

Communication, held in Tampa; the Asso‑

ciation for Asian Studies conference, held in

Chicago; the conference of the Digital Library

Federation, held in Milwaukee; the annual

meeting of the Humanities, Arts, Science, and

Technology Alliance and Collaboratory, held

in Phoenix; the American Comparative Lit‑

erature Association conference, held in Provi‑

dence; the annual meeting of the College Art

Association, held in New York; the Digital Hu‑

manities Summer Institute, held in Victoria,

British Columbia; OpenCon, held in Washing‑

ton; the Association of American University

Presses annual meeting, held in Philadelphia;

an NEH summer institute on digital archae‑

ology, held at Michigan State University; the

annual meeting of the Association of Learned

and Professional Society Publishers, held in

London; the annual meeting of the Open Ac‑

cess Scholarly Publishers Association, held in

Arlington; and the Triangle Scholarly Com‑

munication Institute, held in Durham.

Office of Research

David Laurence oversees the Office of Re‑

search, which supports the association’s data‑

collection projects and administers the Job

Information List (JIL), including the annual

tabulation and analysis of the number of ads

departments posted to the list and the num‑

ber of jobs that the ads announced.

he oice maintains a blog on MLA Com-

mons called The Trend, which provides a

platform for brief reports on the indings of

research undertaken for MLA committees and

projects and for commentary from members.

It also allows the oice to bring information

on relevant topics—the academic workforce,

undergraduate and graduate study, PhD

placement—to the attention of MLA members

and others in the ield. Two posts appeared in

2016: a March entry on changes in the ways

that departments interview job candidates

and a November analysis of employment

trends in the higher education workforce.

In 2015–16 the oice was represented at

the 2015 convention of the National Council

of Teachers of En glish (NCTE) and sponsored

a session organized by the Working Group

on K–16 Alliances, What Is College Read‑

ing?, which drew an audience of several hun‑

dred secondary school teachers. he working

group arranged a complementary session

for the 2016 NCTE meeting, What Is Good

College‑ Level Writing?

Data- Collection Projects

The Office of Research annually develops

information from the United States govern‑

ment’s Survey of Earned Doctorates (SED)

about trends in the number of doctoral de‑

gree recipients in En glish and other modern

languages and trends in time to degree and


graduates’ postgraduation plans across the

humanities, social sciences, and sciences.

he oice also tracks information from the

degree completions and human resources

components of the Integrated Postsecond-

ary Education Data System to analyze trends

in bachelor’s degrees and the distribution

and changing balance of full- and part- time,

tenured, tenure- track, and non- tenure- track

faculty appointments in United States post-

secondary institutions.

The MLA also conducts its own survey

research, notably the periodic surveys of doc-

toral student placement (the most recent in the

series covers graduates who received degrees

in 2009–10), of foreign language enrollments,

and of departmental staing. Data collection

for the twenty- fourth survey in the language

enrollments series began in October. he re-

port on the twenty- third survey, covering lan-

guage enrollments in fall 2013, was published

in February 2015 and is available on the MLA

Web site. With the support of grants from the

United States Department of Education (un-

til 2009) and most recently from the National

Endowment for the Humanities (for the 2013

survey and the current one), the survey has

consistently achieved better than a 98% re-

sponse rate and can be regarded as a census

of enrollments in language courses in United

States postsecondary education. Accessible

through an interface on the MLA Web site

(apps .mla .org/ lsurvey_ search), a historical da-

tabase containing data from the twenty- three

surveys conducted since 1958 provides data on

enrollment trends across languages and survey

years by geographic region, institution, or in-

stitutional type. In 2016, 13,132 visitors to the

database looked at 23,383 separate pages. Of

these visitors, 2,951 conducted research in the

database, performing 6,884 searches.

In spring 2015 the oice ielded a staing

survey to 4,714 departments in 2,912 separate

institutions; 737 departments in 583 institu-

tions responded. In addition to asking for

department- level head counts of faculty mem-

bers in diferent tenure and employment sta-

tuses, the staing survey tracks where in the

curriculum these diferent categories of faculty

members teach and seeks information about

the average annual salary of full- time non-

tenure- track faculty members and the average

per- course salary for part- time faculty mem-

bers paid by the course. Analysis of findings

was completed in spring 2016, and a series of

reports on the survey indings is in preparation.

Job Information List and Interfolio Services

The report on jobs in the 2015–16 JIL was

posted on the MLA Web site in January 2017.

In 2015–16 for the fourth year in a row the

number of jobs announced in the JIL declined.

he JIL’s En glish edition carried ads for 953

jobs, 62 (5.4%) fewer than in 2014–15; the for-

eign language edition announced 918 jobs,

31 (2.8%) fewer than in 2014–15. he 2015–16

totals are 873 (47.8%) below and 762 (45.4%)

below the 2007–08 prerecession peaks of 1,826

jobs for the En glish edition and 1,680 jobs for

the foreign language edition, respectively.

Access to search the JIL database is free of

charge to all users. A uniied search interface

allows job seekers to retrieve listings from both

editions of the JIL. MLA members use their

member log- in credentials to reach the search

interface; nonmembers create free accounts.

This past year was the fourth in which

MLA members and nonmembers could sign

up for or renew free Interfolio Dossier ac-

counts when applying for positions from ads

placed in the JIL. Our agreement with Inter-

folio also provides departments that place ads

the option to adopt Interfolio’s ByCommittee

platform to manage their job searches. Com-

plicating this arrangement is the widespread

adoption by institutions of applicant tracking

systems (ATS), which require candidates to

transmit application materials to a Web por-

tal administered by an institutional oice of

human resources. his past year 64.0% of the

ads placed in the JIL required candidates to


apply through an institutional ATS. ByCom‑

mittee was called for in 18.4% of ads. The

remaining ads asked candidates to transmit

applications to a departmental e‑mail address

(16.1%) or to send them by surface mail (1.6%).

Office of Programs

he Oice of Programs, directed by Dennis

Looney, oversees activities in the ields of En‑

glish and foreign languages and the projects

of the ADE and the ADFL.

he oice curates the MLA Language Map

and the MLA Language Map Data Center,

which continue to serve many visitors online.

Tracking sotware recorded 19,734 unique ac‑

tive visitors to the map in 2016, an increase of

30.8% over the number of visitors to the map

in 2015. hese users made 73,622 requests for

maps, an increase of 13.8% over the previous

year. he most frequently sought maps in 2016

displayed the distribution of speakers of Span‑

ish (10,023), En glish (8,124), French (5,178),

Chinese (5,042), German (5,038), all languages

other than En glish combined (4,827), Italian

(3,447), and Arabic (3,469). he Language Map

also displays the locations of and enrollments

in college and university programs in the lan‑

guages the user is researching by using data

from the fall 2013 enrollment survey.

he oice makes available at no cost two

brochures that can be downloaded from the

MLA Web site: Why Learn Another Language?

Knowing Other Languages Brings Opportuni-

ties, designed primarily for secondary schools,

and Foreign Language Study in the Age of Glo-

balization: he College- Level Experience.

Staff members represented the MLA at

meetings of the SCMLA, NEMLA, the Amer‑

ican Council on the Teaching of Foreign

Languages, the Foreign Language Standards

Collaborative Board, the American Associa‑

tion of Italian Studies, the College Language

Association, and the American Studies As‑

sociation. Staf members also conducted site

visits to a variety of campuses in connection

with the ADFL‑ MLA Language Consultancy

Service (see below).

ADFL- MLA Language Consultancy Service

Begun in 2010 as a project overseen by working

groups appointed by the Executive Council,

the Language Consultancy provides assistance

to language departments that seek to imple‑

ment recommendations from the 2007 report

of the Ad Hoc Committee on Foreign Lan‑

guages. Since 1 July 2014, it has been adminis‑

tered by the ADFL Executive Committee.

During the 2015–16 academic year, fac‑

ulty experts, identiied and trained by mem‑

bers of the MLA‑ ADFL Steering Committee

on New Structures for Languages in Higher

Education and the ADFL staf, served as con‑

sultants for language departments or pro‑

grams at ive large public regional universities,

four large research universities, two small

public regional universities, two small faith‑

based universities, two small private universi‑

ties, two private liberal arts colleges, and one

public college in a major metropolitan area.

Consultants worked with programs in French,

German, Italian, and modern languages. A

recurring topic in departments of modern

languages was the connection between en‑

rollments and curricular renovation; another

was the possibility of developing a single de‑

partmental major in modern languages or

language studies. Over the coming year, the

consultancy will use an evaluative instrument

to measure its efectiveness. he consultancy

continues to develop materials that showcase

efective curricular models and the pedagogi‑

cal work that departments are doing. It also

provides informational materials that de‑

partments may ind useful for revising their

programs and practices. We project approxi‑

mately one consultancy per month in 2016–17.

ADE and ADFL

In the year ending August 2016, the ADE, di‑

rected by David Laurence, had 609 member


departments (compared with 663 in 2014–15);

the ADFL, directed by Dennis Looney, had

745 member departments (compared with

813 in 2014–15). he ADE and the ADFL now

have a common dues structure and sched-

ule, which allows multiple departments at

an institution to renew their ADE and ADFL

memberships together.

he ADE and the ADFL sponsor sessions

at the MLA Annual Convention to aid job can-

didates and hiring committees. he convention

is also the setting for the presentation of the or-

ganizations’ major awards. At the convention

in January 2017, Sandra Sellers Hanson re-

ceived the ADE Francis Andrew March Award,

and Ofelia Zepeda received the ADFL Award

for Distinguished Service to the Profession.

The ADE and ADFL summer seminars

provide opportunities for department chairs,

directors of graduate studies, and others with

departmental administrative responsibilities

to exchange information, form networks for

professional support, gain wider perspective

on issues confronting their departments’ grad-

uate and undergraduate programs, and partic-

ipate in professional development workshops

for departmental administrators. In 2016, the

ADE and the ADFL held a joint summer semi-

nar in New York City. It was hosted by New

York University and attracted 155 participants.

ADE Seminar West, hosted in Scottsdale, Ari-

zona, by the En glish department at Arizona

State University, attracted 83 participants.

ADFL Seminar West, hosted in Monterey, Cal-

ifornia, by the Middlebury Institute of Inter-

national Studies at Monterey (MIIS), attracted

86 participants. Each of the three meetings fea-

tured a preseminar workshop for new chairs.

he seminar in New York also featured a work-

shop for department reviewers that focused on

strategic planning. Preseminar workshops for

directors of graduate and undergraduate stud-

ies in En glish were held at the ADE seminar.

Preseminar workshops on teaching language

through literature and small- program man-

agement were ofered at the ADFL seminar.

Several sessions at the 2016 joint ADE-

ADFL seminar in New York provided op-

portunities for attendees to discuss pressing

curricular issues that affect undergraduate

enrollments and how to define and measure

success in undergraduate studies. Breakout

discussion sessions focused on recruiting ma-

jors in En glish and languages other than En-

glish, preparing students for careers, managing

the department budget, and the changing job

search, among other topics. MLA staf mem-

bers presented at sessions on the budget, schol-

arly research needs, and career preparation for

doctoral students. Plenary sessions addressed

trends in undergraduate education, human

resources and legal issues for department ad-

ministrators, contingent labor, globalization

and disciplinary boundaries, and preparing

doctoral students for a variety of careers.

Keynote speakers at the ADFL seminar

in Monterey explored the ield of Spanish cul-

tural studies in the context of global studies

and revisited the 2007 MLA report Foreign

Languages and Higher Education: New Struc-

tures for a Changed World on the eve of its

tenth anniversary. Plenary sessions addressed

the views of upper administration on global-

ization, small- program management, legal

and human resources issues, languages and

careers, and intercultural competency and

the global curriculum. A breakout session

organized and run by MLA staff members

examined trends in enrollments in languages

other than En glish and explored efective uses

of national, institutional, and departmental

data in advocating for the language depart-

ment. Other breakout sessions discussed

recruiting students to the major, successful

curricular revision, courses on translation

and interpretation, digital humanities in the

language curriculum, managing the depart-

ment budget, and how to measure and evalu-

ate success in a language program. A plenary

roundtable featuring staff members from

the Center for Advising and Career Services

at MIIS discussed effective ways to design


curricula that prepare students for jobs ater

graduation.

Sessions at the ADE seminar in Scotts-

dale addressed the structure of En glish bach-

elor’s degree programs; recruiting students

to the En glish major; learning from external

reviews; preparing graduates at the bach-

elor’s, master’s, and doctoral degree levels for

professional careers; relations between com-

munity colleges and four- year institutions;

K–16 partnerships; negotiating issues of gen-

der, race, class, and sexual orientation in the

work of chairing; understanding disability

and reasonable accommodation as legal and

regulatory concepts in working with faculty

members who have disabilities; learning the

budget and how to work with it; and processes

and protocols for job searches. A plenary

panel featuring upper- level administrators

discussed the status of the En glish major at

their respective universities today. In a video

address, the president of Arizona State Uni-

versity, Michael Crow, shared his thoughts

with the participants on the state of the hu-

manities in the new American university.

hroughout the year, the ADE and ADFL

chairs’ electronic discussion lists provide

communal support and allow members to

address a wide variety of curricular, adminis-

trative, and human resources issues.

ADE Bulletin and ADFL Bulletin

The ADE and ADFL bulletins have been

e-journals since 2010. Faculty members and

students in member departments have access

to the full text of articles in current and back

issues. Tables of contents and bibliographic

information for all issues are openly avail-

able. Library subscriptions to the bulletins

are available; libraries receive the Job Infor-

mation List and the ADE and ADFL bulletins

at specified IP address ranges. In 2016 the

ADFL Bulletin 44.1 included a cluster of ar-

ticles on new curricular models for language

departments and programs, undergraduate

and graduate, as well as articles on enroll-

ments, retention, service, and literacy and

language teaching. he ADE Bulletin, which

did not publish an issue in 2016, has an issue

forthcoming in 2017 and a joint issue with the

ADFL Bulletin forthcoming in 2018.

Office of Outreach

The Office of Outreach focuses on increas-

ing the MLA’s reach and impact. he direc-

tor, Siovahn Walker, works in cooperation

with other MLA offices and independently

to promote and coordinate a uniied commu-

nications and outreach strategy designed to

increase membership, convention attendance,

sales, and donations. he oice is composed

of three units: convention programs, promo-

tion and sales, and communications.

MLA Convention

Karin L. Bagnall, head of convention pro-

grams, plans for and organizes the MLA’s

annual convention and other association con-

ferences. She reports that the 2017 convention

in Philadelphia drew 5,572 attendees, of whom

1,176 (21.1%) were graduate students. There

were 812 convention sessions, with approxi-

mately 3,428 speakers from over 850 univer-

sities and colleges and other institutions. he

convention program broke down as follows:

262 special sessions, linked sessions, and ple-

naries organized by members (including the

presidential plenary and its linked sessions);

310 forum sessions, 72 MLA committee ses-

sions, and 143 allied organization sessions (100

of these 525 sessions were nonguaranteed ses-

sions that the Program Committee approved);

and 25 special events (including creative con-

versations) and social events. he exhibit hall

had 93 booths, representing 89 companies and

institutions, including the MLA.

The 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021 annual

conventions will be held in New York City,

Chicago, Seattle, and Toronto, respectively.


Profession

Profession, the association’s online journal

about the ields of modern languages and lit-

eratures as a profession publishes articles on

a rolling basis on MLA Commons. he execu-

tive director serves as editor; Anna Chang is

managing editor.

In the past year, Profession has examined

pressing issues facing both graduate students

and faculty members. A cluster of essays or-

ganized and introduced by Sidonie Smith

took on the professional tricolon of teaching,

research, and service. Originating from a ses-

sion at the MLA Annual Convention, these

essays consider the history of these aspects

of faculty work, how they have evolved, and

how tenure- track and non- tenure- track fac-

ulty members are asked to balance the three.

A series of essays examined new models for

doctoral study and considered what changes

departments could make to better support

students pursuing a range of careers. The

series launched with an essay by David Lau-

rence, the MLA’s director of research, who

looks back at the history of PhDs pursuing

careers outside of postsecondary teaching

and considers how that history might inform

how we prepare doctoral candidates for the

world of work. Subsequent essays discuss in-

ternship and fellowship programs for PhD

candidates, ofering students a wider range of

precareer preparation, curriculum changes

that can support PhDs’ future career paths,

the status of the monograph dissertation, and

the importance of tracking the career paths

of PhDs and ABD students. Finally, in a short

experimental contribution, Charles Bernstein

ofers maxims for rethinking scholarly writ-

ing about literature and invites readers to

complete the piece by supplying their own.

In 2016 Profession received eighteen sub-

missions. It usually attracts about two dozen

submissions each year on a wide variety of

subjects. he Profession Editorial Collective

reviews submissions and a staf editorial col-

lective assists the editor in evaluating reviews

and selecting articles for publication.

Promotion

Our continuing eforts to promote the MLA

International Bibliography have included

a more visible presence at librarians’ con-

ferences. There was an MLA exhibit at the

Charleston Conference for reference librar-

ians in November 2016; another exhibit is

planned for the Association of College and

Research Libraries convention in March

2017. he bibliography is advertised in pub-

lications and on Web sites targeted to librar-

ians (including Choice, Against the Grain, and

Library Journal). Regular promotion of the

tutorial videos takes place through advertis-

ing and on the bibliography’s YouTube, Face-

book, and Twitter pages. In 2016, in an efort

to attract more Latin American subscribers,

the MLA staf began working to create part-

ner marketing content with EBSCO.

To promote our book publications, six

thousand printed catalogs were mailed to

bookstores and libraries in May 2016. Cata-

log metadata are now also sent to Edelweiss,

an online, interactive, cross- publisher cata-

log service that supplements or replaces tra-

ditional hard- copy catalogs. The Edelweiss

service reaches 83,000 potential customers.

MLA books are advertised in over one hun-

dred publications and Web sites annually.

Additional eforts to stimulate book sales in

2016 included a special sale on Approaches to

Teaching World Literature titles and e-mail

campaigns to specific MLA forums. Mem-

bers of the MLA staf work with authors on

promotions of their titles and contracts with

Scholar’s Choice to exhibit MLA titles at tar-

geted scholarly meetings throughout the year.

Review copies of each title are sent to schol-

arly journals and other publications.

Promotion of the eighth edition of the

MLA Handbook has included printing and

mailing promotional postcards to all MLA


members as well as to bookstores and librar-

ies. In April 2016, a contest- entry postcard was

mailed to a rented list of high school and in-

dependent school teachers. All MLA members

who requested the MLA Handbook received

complimentary copies. Over two hundred

preview galleys and review copies were sent.

Several Google AdWords campaigns and land-

ing pages were created to increase awareness

about the new edition, drive purchases, and

gather leads. We exhibited at the Association

of Writers and Writing Programs conference

in March 2016, the Conference on College

Composition and Communication conference

in April 2016, the American Library Associa-

tion convention in June 2016, and the NCTE

Annual Convention in November 2016.

D e v e lopment

Development eforts focused on planning and

holding the MLA’s irst fund- raising beneit,

the MLA Benefit for the Humanities, held

in January 2017, during the convention. he

event raised funds for humanities advocacy

and programs that support graduate students

and members of the precariat. The benefit

successfully reached its goal of $100,000 by

soliciting sponsorships from MLA vendors,

universities and other institutions, and indi-

vidual attendees and donors.

Outreach also launched a donor- prospect

research initiative, to identify and cultivate

relationships with new constituents who have

higher giving potential and to map possible

network connections to them, as well as a

planned giving program for 2017–18, to so-

licit legacy gits from MLA donors.

Office of Information Systems

he Oice of Information Systems (IS) is re-

sponsible for establishing the MLA’s tech-

nology strategy and vision, for ensuring the

successful and eicient technical operation of

all association networks and systems, for data

management and analytics, for sotware de-

velopment and the maintenance of new and

existing online sites and products, and for the

production of our online and print publica-

tions. Terry Callaghan, director of adminis-

tration and finance, currently oversees five

unit heads in IS. his year the oice has fo-

cused on the production of the new mla .org

Web site; on the implementation of a new

technology platform for the MLA Interna-

tional Bibliography and of customer relation-

ship management and other software; and

on new or continuing development of CORE,

MLA Commons, and the bibliography.

Ater last year’s launch of our redesigned

Web site, members of the online production

staff created standard procedures for the

production of content on the new platform.

In addition to providing user training on the

content management system, staf members

worked with colleagues in all departments to

explore opportunities for using the new plat-

form’s design and functionality to accomplish

association goals.

Having identiied Innodata as the inte-

gration partner for the new platform for the

MLA International Bibliography and having

completed the requirements and discovery

phases of the project, members of the systems

and networks stafs worked with colleagues in

Bibliographic Information Services to reine

the scope of the project, which now includes

procedures for automated data ingestion and

product output as well as enhancements sur-

rounding indexing and taxonomy.

CiviCRM is an open- source constitu-

ent relationship management (CRM) system

used by many nonprofit organizations. A

prototype for a simple CiviCRM system has

been built and is being loaded to an Amazon

Web Services (AWS) server for testing and

evaluation. IS staf members are developing

a methodology for data replication between

Oracle and the MySQL database utilized by

CiviCRM, so that the two systems can oper-

ate in unison with a common data set.


The MLA’s application developers con-

tinued to make enhancements to the MLA

Commons platform and worked closely with

the Oice of Scholarly Communication to de-

velop and implement Humanities Commons,

a collaborative project that will initially in-

clude MLA Commons and the Commons

sites of three other scholarly associations.

he platform enables society members to log

in to the site using a single interface and to

access content from any site to which they

have rights or content that has been shared

with them. he project is being designed for

scalability and lexibility, so that additional

member- organizations can easily be incor-

porated in later phases of the project.

Several enhancements were made to the

Web- based system that we use to collect and

analyze data for the language enrollment

survey, including improvements in the user

display and the addition of a data- tracking

capability to retrace the history of changed

data in the system. Working with colleagues

in the scholarly communication and outreach

oices, online production staf members and

information systems developers designed, de-

veloped, launched, and continue to improve

The MLA Style Center. The members of the

online production staff managed the pro-

duction of a mobile app for iOS and Android

devices that allowed users to search the con-

vention program and access general conven-

tion information and services.

To prepare for the transition from

calendar- year membership to a rolling mem-

bership model, the data design team analyzed

and then modiied the membership database.

Existing stored procedures for the online join

and renew applications were rewritten to ac-

commodate the new membership model and

tested. To replace Oracle Forms, IS staf mem-

bers have implemented PHP to build forms

applications that enable users to access and

update Oracle data through a Web browser. In

addition, IS staf members are being trained to

use Microsot Power Query, a tool that allows

data to be brought from the Oracle data store

directly into Excel, where users can create cus-

tomized reports using a familiar program.

he Oracle production and test servers are

currently on physical machines that require

regular maintenance by the IS staff. Cloud

computing—where data or applications live on

a virtual server as part of a large computer sys-

tem—enables IS staf members to focus on ap-

plication development and data design, since

routine hardware and system maintenance are

handled by the cloud service provider. AWS

has hosted several of the MLA’s cloud- based

servers for the BibLink application and for

Humanities Commons. A test Oracle instance

is now hosted on AWS, and plans to relocate

all Oracle databases are in the works.

The members of the online production

staff worked on nine e-books this year, in-

cluding the irst e-book version of the MLA

Handbook and three publications hosted on

MLA Commons: Profession, Literary Stud-

ies in the Digital Age, and Digital Pedagogy

in the Humanities. he members of the print

production staff worked on the six books

published in print and e-book formats in

2016, including the new edition of the MLA

Handbook, and on iteen other book projects

that are in various stages of production. he

unit is also responsible for the production of

PMLA, the MLA Newsletter, the ADE Bulle-

tin, the ADFL Bulletin, the annual report on

the Job Information List, and various other

PDF and print documents.

Association Governance

I oversee MLA governance. Carol Zuses, co-

ordinator of governance, has responsibility

for creating and maintaining all related ad-

ministrative functions.

C ommittees

Hundreds of MLA members help carry on

the work of the association through their


service on association committees. he gover-

nance of the association is in the hands of the

18- member Executive Council, the 296 mem-

bers of the Delegate Assembly, and the 30

members of 4 other governance committees.

he convention is the focus of the 12- member

Program Committee and the members who

ill the 765 seats on 153 forum executive com-

mittees. Publications- related work is carried

out by 8 committees with a total of 98 mem-

bers. Nine committees, one of them ad hoc,

covering a range of professional issues have a

total of 68 members. Finally, the 7 members

of the Committee on Honors and Awards

and the 83 members of the 25 prize- selection

committees help the association recognize

the outstanding scholarly work done by as-

sociation members and other scholars in our

ields of study.

Ballots

he association’s annual elections for the sec-

ond vice president, the Executive Council,

the Delegate Assembly, and the convention

executive committees are held in the fall. Bal-

loting normally begins during the third week

of October and ends on 10 December. Of the

25,523 members eligible to vote in the 2016

elections, 2,294 (9.0%) returned ballots.

Actions of the Delegate Assembly that

require ratification by the membership are

placed on a ratiication ballot that members

receive in the spring or the fall following the

January assembly meeting. The ratification

ballot covering 2016 Delegate Assembly ac-

tions on six constitutional amendments and

one resolution was distributed in the spring.

Of the 21,494 eligible voters, 1,756 (8.2%) re-

turned ballots.

Review of Advocacy Policies and Procedures

As called for in the association’s strategic plan,

the Executive Council, in October 2016, estab-

lished an ad hoc committee on advocacy poli-

cies and procedures, whose task is to clarify

and reine the procedures through which the

association speaks out publicly on issues, re-

viewing current practices, including the reso-

lution process, and making recommendations

for change in the interest of eiciency and ef-

fectiveness. he ad hoc committee will study

the procedures that other scholarly organiza-

tions use and also consult with the associa-

tion’s communications adviser in developing

best practices for public advocacy. he com-

mittee is expected to submit a preliminary re-

port to the council in October 2017.

Advocacy Efforts and National Coalitions

The following statements were issued by

the MLA Executive Council in 2016. Coun-

cil statements are posted at www .mla .org/

About -Us/ Governance/ Executive - Council/

Executive - Council - Actions.

MLA Statement of Support for Turkish Academics

In recent weeks, numerous Turkish aca-demics who signed the “Petition for Peace,” which condemns Turkish state violence in Kurdish- dominated Southeast Anatolia and asks the government to observe na-tional and international law and to initiate a peace process, have been targeted by the Turkish government, accused of terror-ist propaganda, and investigated by their universities. Some have been arrested and indicted. he MLA joins the Middle East Studies Association in calling on the Turk-ish government to stop all threats against the signatories of petitions, who are exer-cising their basic rights of free speech, and to respect freedom of expression, academic freedom, and the freedom to demand peace in times of conlict.

MLA Statement on Discrimination against Transgender Individuals

The MLA condemns state- sponsored dis-crimination against transgender individu-als such as that in North Carolina House


Bill 2. Such forms of legislation risk placing in danger a highly vulnerable population that is already subject to increasing vio-lence. he MLA supports the condemnation of this bill by the Attorney General Loretta Lynch. It supports policies and pedagogy in educational institutions that respect the hu-man dignity of the transgender community.

As airmed in many statements of the Executive Council, in association policy documents, and in resolutions ratiied by the membership . . . , the MLA stands in opposition to discrimination in employ-ment and education with regard to race, age, class, gender, disability, religion, or sexual orientation.

MLA Statement on the 2016 Presidential Election

Throughout the campaign and in the af-termath of the presidential election in the United States, sharp political lines have been drawn that pit groups and individuals against one another on the basis of national origin, race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sex-ual orientation, migration status, ability, class, and other forms of identity. he Mod-ern Language Association reairms in the strongest terms possible its commitment to free inquiry and academic freedom for all, unimpeded by acts of prejudice and hate. We note especially the need to ofer support to those who are the most vulnerable and condemn the unjust rhetoric that targets them. We recognize that the humanities and humanistic knowledge are now more essential than ever to help guide us in these diicult times, and we pledge to maintain the MLA as an organization open to all in-dividuals who share our commitments.

he council also added the MLA’s endorse-

ment to a July statement on threats to aca-

demic freedom and higher education in

Turkey, which was drated by the Middle East

Studies Association and endorsed by twenty-

two other scholarly associations.

On issues afecting the humanities, the

MLA works with colleagues in the National

Humanities Alliance (NHA). I served on the

NHA’s board of directors and executive com-

mittee and was the MLA’s voting represen-

tative at the alliance’s annual meeting. The

NHA is the leading advocate for the National

Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and

provides congressional testimony as needed,

helps organize events on Capitol Hill that

promote an understanding of the impor-

tance and vitality of the humanities, confers

the Sidney R. Yates Award for Distinguished

Public Service to the Humanities, and keeps

its members informed about the status of the

appropriations process. he NHA also has a

501(c)(3) supporting foundation. The NHA

Foundation advances the humanities by con-

ducting and supporting research on the hu-

manities and communicating the value of the

humanities to a variety of audiences, includ-

ing elected oicials and the general public.

On issues afecting languages and inter-

national studies, the MLA works with col-

leagues in the Coalition for International

Education (CIE). he CIE, made up of more

than thirty national higher education orga-

nizations, informs policy makers, education

and private sector officials, and the media

about national needs in international and

foreign language education and focuses on

promoting and supporting Fulbright- Hays

grants and programs authorized under Ti-

tle VI of the Higher Education Act (HEA). In

March 2016, the MLA signed on to the CIE’s

letter to the Senate and House Appropriations

Committees and their Subcommittees on La-

bor, Health and Human Services, Education,

and Related Agencies (LHHS) expressing

thanks for their support of language educa-

tion programs. he CIE requested increased

funding for international education and lan-

guage studies programs and recommended

that committee and subcommittee mem-

bers support the CIE’s Education Initiative

for Global Security and Competitiveness, a

“targeted initiative focusing on strengthen-

ing activities that broaden opportunities for


student participation in international, world

regional and foreign language studies, and

contribute to strengthening U.S. human re-

source capabilities on strategic areas of the

world that impact our national security and

global economic competitiveness.” he MLA

also signed on to the CIE’s June 2016 let-

ter to the Senate and House Appropriations

Committees and their LHHS subcommit-

tees requesting that the HEA’s international

education and foreign language studies pro-

grams be funded at a minimum at the 2016

iscal year levels. In addition, I participated

in CIE teleconferences concerning the presi-

dent’s 2017 budget proposal for international

education programs and funding for other

Department of Education programs.

The United States Department of Edu-

cation’s Office of Postsecondary Educa-

tion sent a memorandum in March 2016 to

campus directors and coordinators of the

Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS)

Fellowship Program informing them that,

beginning with the 2016–17 competitions,

academic- year and summer FLAS fellow-

ships to graduate students for beginning-

level language training in the less commonly

taught languages could no longer be routinely

awarded, because such awards were inconsis-

tent with Title VI legislation. In response to

the memorandum, in April 2016 the CIE sent

a letter, cosigned by the MLA, to the acting

assistant secretary for postsecondary educa-

tion and the deputy assistant secretary for

international and foreign language educa-

tion expressing concern about the change in

the status of these awards, from routine to

exceptional. The CIE stated that the policy

change “conflicts with statutory intent and

decades of long- standing precedent” and is

“counterproductive to the purpose of the law

to strengthen the nation’s capacity in foreign

languages, and area or international studies.”

The NEH receives funding through the

Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies

appropriations bill. he Department of Educa-

tion is funded through the LHHS appropria-

tions bill. Department of Education programs

of interest to the language community include

Title VI programs for international education

and foreign language studies in higher educa-

tion, the Fund for the Improvement of Post-

secondary Education (FIPSE), and En glish

Language Acquisition State Grants (formerly

Bilingual and Immigrant Education).

his year’s budget process began in Feb-

ruary, when President Obama released his

budget request for 2017, which proposed fund-

ing the NEH at $149.8 million, an increase of

$1.9 million over the NEH’s 2016 iscal year

appropriation. On 16 June, the Senate appro-

priations subcommittee on Interior, Environ-

ment and Related Agencies released its drat

bill, which provided the NEH with an increase

of $500,000 over 2016 iscal year funding, to

$148.4 million. On 21 June, the House appro-

priations subcommittee on Interior, Environ-

ment and Related Agencies released a draft

bill that proposed funding the agency at the

level of the president’s request, $149.8 million.

President Obama’s detailed budget for the

2017 iscal year included $67.3 million for Ti-

tle VI programs, the same amount requested

by the Senate. he House proposed $72.2 mil-

lion, the amount appropriated in 2016. Pro-

grams authorized under Title VI of the HEA

include Centers for International Business

Education, FLAS fellowships, the Institute for

International Public Policy, language resource

centers, and Fulbright- Hays training grants

and seminars abroad. A number of Title VI

programs remained canceled for the 2017 is-

cal year (e.g., Undergraduate International

Studies and Foreign Language Program,

American Overseas Research Centers, Inter-

national Research and Studies Program). he

president’s proposal for FIPSE funding was

$100 million, all to support projects initiated

under the First in the World Fund, “a compet-

itive grant program, modeled ater Investing

in Innovation, designed to support the devel-

opment, validation, scaling up, and dissemi-


nation of innovative solutions and evidence

for what works to efectively address college

affordability and completion challenges for

high- need students; including, but not lim-

ited to, adult learners, working students, part-

time students, students from low- income

backgrounds, students of color, students with

disabilities, and irst- generation college stu-

dents.” he Senate and the House included no

funds for any FIPSE programs in their bud-

get proposals. he president proposed $800.4

million for the En glish Language Acquisition

State Grants program, a $63 million increase

over the 2016 appropriation of $737.4 million.

he Senate and the House proposed to main-

tain 2016 funding.

The entire appropriations process ulti-

mately stalled in Congress in July, in large

part because of an abbreviated election- year

schedule. When lawmakers returned in

September, they had little time before the

end of the fiscal year on 30 September to

complete the appropriations process and so

turned their attention to a stopgap funding

bill. On 28 September, the House and Sen-

ate passed a continuing resolution (CR) to

fund the government at 2016 iscal year lev-

els through 9 December. he CR included an

across- the- board 0.496% cut to all programs

not exempted, including the NEH, in order

to conform to the budget cap imposed by

an agreement reached in 2015. he small cut

was for the two- month duration of the CR

only. President Obama signed the CR into

law on 29 September. When Congress recon-

vened ater the election of Donald J. Trump

to the presidency, instead of inishing work

on all government appropriations bills for

the 2017 iscal year, Republicans decided to

pursue a second CR to allow the new presi-

dent to weigh in on budget issues. he new

CR, which passed the House on 8 December

and the Senate on 9 December, funded the

government through 28 April 2017. A third

CR was needed before Congress approved,

on 4 May, an omnibus appropriations pack-

age to fund the government for the remaining

ive months of the 2017 iscal year. he presi-

dent signed the Consolidated Appropriations

Act, 2017, on 5 May. NEH funding was set at

$149.8 million, the amount President Obama

had requested. Title VI programs received

the same amount as in 2016, $72.2 million.

FIPSE funding was eliminated. En glish Lan-

guage Acquisition State Grants were funded

at $737.4 million, the same amount as in 2016.

The MLA once again cosponsored Hu-

manities Advocacy Day, an annual event

intended to promote federal support for

scholarly research, education, public pro-

grams, and preservation in the humanities. It

provides the MLA and other national organi-

zations with a crucial opportunity to deliver

to Congress and the administration a uniied

message on funding needs and priorities for

the NEH and other federal agencies, including

the Department of Education, the National

Historical Publications and Records Commis-

sion, and the Institute of Museum and Library

Services. he event was held on 14–15 March

in Washington, DC. Over the two- day period,

one hundred nine advocates participated in a

range of activities, including advocacy train-

ing, an NEH grants workshop, a humanities

grants overview session, panel presentations,

a keynote luncheon, policy brieings, a Capi-

tol Hill reception, and visits to congressional

oices. I attended the event on 14 March and

participated in a panel entitled “Making the

Case for Humanities Research.”

The MLA is a founding member of

the Coalition on the Academic Workforce

(CAW), an informal coalition with no head-

quarters oice or staf. CAW’s purpose is to

discourage the excessive use of part- and full-

time non- tenure- track faculty members in

higher education and to help ensure that they

receive fair treatment. Representatives of the

twenty- eight member associations partici-

pate in meetings and activities. CAW’s Web

site (www .academicworkforce .org) links to

the home pages of its member associations; to


data, reports, and surveys from them; and to

statements they issue on the use of contingent

academic labor. he MLA continues to main-

tain this Web site.

he MLA is a member of the American

Council of Learned Societies (ACLS). The

principal administrator from each of the

constituent learned societies serves as a mem-

ber of the Conference of Executive Oicers

(CEO). The CEO functions as the primary

vehicle for maintaining and enhancing rela-

tions among the constituent learned societies

and between the societies and the ACLS. he

CEO meets twice a year to discuss substantive

issues in the humanities as well as practical

and organizational aspects of society man-

agement. he ACLS ofers a leadership semi-

nar each fall for the incoming chief elected

officers and chief administrative officers of

member societies. I attended the 2016 semi-

nar with First Vice President Diana Taylor.

My final complete year as executive

director brought many satisfactions, the

greatest of which was assisting my succes-

sor, Paula Krebs, in taking over in summer

2017. An organization as large and complex

as the Modern Language Association beneits

from a well- planned and orderly transition in

leadership. he Executive Council, through

its careful strategic planning and thorough

search process, made sure that the association

remained strong and focused on its future

during this period. he challenges are many.

he demographics of the academic profession

continue to shit away from tenure- track pro-

fessors of the humanities, and an increasing

number of PhDs in languages and literatures

are taking up work beyond the classroom. he

MLA’s traditional publications face a market-

place in which students and libraries acquire

fewer books. he MLA’s membership has con-

tracted, as has convention attendance. Yet I

don’t view these signs as intrinsically negative.

he MLA has already repositioned its mission

to align with new realities, and we are a better

association because of it. MLA members con-

tinue to demonstrate their imagination and

resourcefulness as they reinvent their schol-

arly and professional lives. he association,

too, will regenerate and become what it needs

to be. I leave the MLA with gratitude for hav-

ing had the opportunity to serve as execu-

tive director for iteen years. Members who

have interacted with the MLA staf know that

the people who work for the association are

among the most talented and dedicated any-

where. I will miss working with them. When

I think back on what we have accomplished

together, I’ll remember the individuals in

addition to MLA staf members who did the

work: the thousands of MLA committee and

Executive Council members with whom I’ve

interacted and the hundreds of institutional

and individual partners. When Anna Deavere

Smith spoke at the Paving the Way beneit at

the 2017 convention, she looked around the

room and asked where the representatives of

the tech and inancial industries were, noting

that they, too, should be out in full force sup-

porting the humanities, especially since so

many of their employees studied language,

literature, history, and philosophy. What an

important question that is: how can we hu-

manists engage all sectors so that our ields

can lourish, lited up by the many? I encour-

age MLA members to look for allies not in the

usual places but in the realms where those

we’ve trained have landed. Our enterprise

demands a common sense of purpose, which,

fortiied, can take us to our bicentennial in

2083 and beyond. As executive director emer-

ita and a forty- year MLA member, I am eager

to participate as one of the many.

Rosemary G. Feal


Modern Language Association of America

Statements of Financial Position, 31 August 2016 and 2015

2016 2015

assets:

Cash and cash equivalents (including restricted cash of

$748,023 in 2016 and $748,028 in 2015, respectively) $ 6,012,680 $ 6,816,807

Investments 12,626,966 12,174,553

Accounts receivable, net 2,111,944 1,834,424

Inventories, net 173,219 163,045

Prepaid expenses and other assets 3,100,542 3,137,087

Property and equipment, net 1,333,954 1,203,182

Total assets $25,359,305 $25,329,098

liabilities and net assets:

Liabilities:

Accounts payable and other liabilities $ 867,625 $ 795,885

Deferred revenue 1,220,175 1,286,734

Deferred rent obligation 1,184,527 311,707

Obligations under capital leases 77,368 101,263

Total liabilities 3,349,695 2,495,589

Commitments (Note H)

Net assets:

Unrestricted 17,552,042 18,036,346

Temporarily restricted 4,408,057 4,747,785

Permanently restricted 49,511 49,378

Total net assets 22,009,610 22,833,509

total liabilities and net assets: $25,359,305 $25,329,098

See notes to inancial statements.



Statements of Activities for the Years Ended 31 August 2016 and 2015

2016 2015

unrestricted net assets:

Revenues:

Publications sales and royalties $10,331,850) $9,691,491)

Membership dues 2,239,277) 2,312,626)

Annual meeting registrations and sundry sales 1,201,661) 1,149,295)

Membership and library subscriptions 352,693) 364,821)

Advertising and exhibits 386,095) 395,990)

Job information service 727,900) 818,380)

Computer center service sales 26,646) 25,542)

Dividends and interest, net 145,257) 243,985)

Contributions 211,383) 28,056)

Other 126,492) 75,535)

Total $15,749,254) $15,105,721)

Net assets released from restrictions 580,206) 369,595)

Total unrestricted revenues 16,329,460) 15,475,316)

Expenses:

Bibliography and publications 7,471,194) 6,728,672)

Convention and special meetings 1,524,060) 1,392,754)

Scholarly and professional activities 2,733,744) 2,814,600)

Membership maintenance and development 1,573,697) 1,220,587)

Total program expenses 13,302,695) 12,156,613)

Administrative and general 3,556,176) 3,488,335)

Total expenses 16,858,871) 15,644,948)

results from operations (529,411) (169,632)

Net realized and unrealized gains (losses) on

investments

45,107) (319,276)

decrease in unrestricted net assets (484,304) (488,908)

temporarily restricted net assets:

Contributions and grants 83,944) 2,370,723)

Dividends and interest, net 102,274) 187,328)

Net realized and unrealized gains (losses) on

investments

54,260) (190,984)

Total temporarily restricted revenues 240,478) 2,367,067)

Net assets released from restrictions (580,206) (369,595)

(decrease)/increase in temporarily restricted

net assets

(339,728) 1,997,472)

increase in permanently restricted net assets:

Dividends and interest, net 133) 179)

change in net assets (823,899) 1,508,743)

net assets at beginning of year 22,833,509) 21,324,766)

net assets at end of year $22,009,610) $22,833,509)


730 Modern Language Association [ P M L A


Statements of Cash Flows for the Years Ended 31 August 2016 and 2015

2016 2015

cash flows from operating activities:

Change in net assets $ (823,899) $1,508,743)

Adjustments to reconcile change in net assets to net cash (used in)

provided by operating activities:

Depreciation and amortization 202,251) 320,099)

Net realized and unrealized (gains) losses on investments (99,367) 510,260)

Deferred rent obligation 872,820) 186,405)

Changes in:

Accounts receivable (277,520) (18,059)

Inventories (10,174) (31,702)

Prepaid expenses and other assets 36,545) (321,335)

Accounts payable and other liabilities 71,740) 161,212)

Deferred revenue (66,559) 10,057)

Net cash (used in) provided by operating activities (94,163) 2,325,680)

cash flows from investing activities:

Purchases of property and equipment (333,023) (1,014,786)

Purchases of investments (8,911,731) (2,988,151)

Proceeds from sales of investments 8,558,685) 2,563,797)

Net cash used in investing activities (686,069) (1,439,140)

cash flows from financing activities:

Principal payments on capital lease obligations (23,895) (32,976)

change in cash and cash equivalents (804,127) 853,564)

cash and cash equivalents, beginning of year 6,816,807) 5,963,243)

cash and cash equivalents, end of year $6,012,680) $6,816,807)

supplemental disclosure of cash flow information:

Interest expense incurred under obligation of capital leases $ 18,117) $ 15,379)

Excise and unrelated-business-income taxes paid $ 2,725) $ 2,425)




Notes to Financial Statements as of and for the Years Ended 31 August 2016 and 2015

A. Organization and Summary of Significant

Accounting Policies

1. Organization—The Modern Language As so ci ation of America (MLA) is a notforproit or ga ni zation, incorporated in the state of Maryland, that was founded in 1883 to promote the study and teaching of languages and literatures through its pro grams, publications, annual convention, and ad vo cacy work. An international association of nearly 24,000 scholars and teachers, the MLA exists to sup port the intellectual and professional lives of its members; it provides opportunities for members to share their scholarly work and teaching experiences with colleagues, discuss trends in the academy, and advocate humanities education and workplace equity.

he MLA is exempt from federal income taxes under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, except as to its net unrelated business income, and from state and local taxes under comparable laws.

2. Basis of Accounting—he accompanying inancial statements of the MLA have been prepared using the accrual basis of accounting and conform to accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America as applicable to notforproit organizations.

3. Use of Estimates—he prepa ration of inancial state ments in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles requires man age ment to make estimates and assumptions that af ect the reported amounts of assets, liabilities, revenues, and expenses, as well as the disclosure of contingent assets and liabilities. Actual results could differ from those estimates and assumptions.

4. Cash Equivalents—Cash equivalents consist of highly liquid investments that mature in three months or less from date of purchase. Cash equivalents considered to be part of the MLA’s investment portfolio are relected as investments in the accompanying inancial statements.

5. Investments—he MLA holds shares in mutual funds that invest in equity and ixedincome securities. he shares are reported at their fair value, as determined by the related investment manager or adviser.

Investment transactions are recorded on a tradedate basis. Realized gains or losses on investments are determined by a comparison of the average cost of acquisition with the proceeds at the

time of disposition. he earnings from dividends and interest are recognized when earned. Donated securities are recorded at their fair values as determined on the dates of donation and are sold on receipt or when administratively feasible.

Investment expenses include fees for the services of bank trustees, investment managers, and custodians. he balances of investment management fees disclosed in Note B include the speciic fees charged by the MLA’s investment managers in each fiscal year; they do not include the fees that are embedded in investment accounts and transactions.

6. Inventories—Inventories, which consist prin cipally of books and other publications, are carried at the lower of cost or market. he irst in, irst out (FIFO) cost assumption is used. he cost of goods sold, $192,446 and $131,495 for the fiscal years ended 31 August 2016 and 2015, respectively, is included in the bibliography and publications expense. Management estimates that, for the fiscal years ended 31 August 2016 and 2015, respectively, ap prox i mately $443,000 and $478,000 of inventory were reserved for oversupply.

7. Prepaid Expenses—Prepaid expenses include prepaid MLA International Bibliography costs incurred for future issues.

8. Property and Equipment—Furniture, equipment, and leasehold improvements are reported at their costs on the dates of acquisition or their fair values on the dates of donation. he MLA capitalizes property and equipment that have a cost of $2,000 or more and useful lives greater than one year. Depreciation is provided using the straightline method over three to ten years, the range of the estimated useful lives of the related assets. Leasehold improvements are amortized over the remaining lease term or the useful lives of the improvements, whichever is shorter.

Management evaluates the recoverability of the investment in longlived assets on an ongoing basis and recognizes any impairment in the year of determination. Longlived assets were tested for impairment as of 31 August 2016 and 2015, and in the opinion of management there were no impairments. It is reasonably possible that relevant conditions could change in the near term and necessitate a change in management’s estimate of the recoverability of these assets.

9. Accrued Vacation—Accrued vacation is a liability that represents the MLA’s obligation for the cost


of unused employee vacation time payable in the

event of employee departures. he obligation is re

calculated every year. At 31 August 2016 and 2015,

the accrued vacation obligation was approximately

$103,000 and $117,000, respectively, and it is reported

as part of accounts payable and other liabilities in the

accompanying statements of inancial position.

10. Deferred Revenue—Dues and library sub scriptions that relate to the iscal year ater the one in which they are received are deferred and recognized as revenue over the applicable membership and subscription periods, as services are rendered and the related costs are incurred.

11. Deferred Rent Obligation—Total rent expense under the lease agreement is amortized using the straightline method over the term of the lease. The difference between rent expense incurred and the rental amounts paid, which is attributed to scheduled rent increases and abatements, is reported as a deferred rent obligation in the accompanying statements of inancial position.

12. Net Assets

(i) Unrestricted—Unrestricted net assets represent those resources that are not subject to donor restrictions and are available for current operations.

(ii) Temporarily Restricted—Temporarily restricted net assets represent those resources that are subject to the requirements of Maryland’s Uniform Prudent Management of Institutional Funds Act ( UPMIFA) and the use of which has been restricted by donors or state law. When a donor restriction ends—that is, when a stipulated time restriction expires, a purpose restriction is accomplished, or the funds are appropriated through an action of the Executive Council—temporarily restricted net assets are reclassiied as unrestricted net assets and reported in the accompanying statements of activities as net assets released from restrictions.

(iii) Permanently Restricted—Permanently re

stricted net assets represent those resources the

principal of which was originally restricted in

perpetuity by donors. The purposes for which

the income and net capital appreciation arising

from the underlying assets may be used depend

on the wishes of those donors. Under the terms of

UPMIFA, those earnings are classified as tempo

rarily restricted in the accompanying statements of

activities, pending action by the Executive Council.

13. Revenue Recognition

(i) Publication Sales and Royalties—Payments for publication sales are recognized as income at the time of sale. Revenue for backordered pub

lications is recognized when the publication is shipped. Royalty payments are recognized as revenue when earned.

(ii) Membership Dues—Membership dues are recorded when payment is received in the ap pli cable membership period. Any portion applicable to a subsequent period is reported as deferred rev e nue. Membership in the MLA is open to those who are interested in the study and teaching of the modern languages and their literatures. Mem ber ships in the MLA’s Association of De part ments of En glish (ADE) and Association of Departments of Foreign Languages (ADFL) are institutional and are open to administrators of En glish and foreign language departments. Mem ber ship dues earned from MLA, ADE, and ADFL mem ber ships for the f iscal years ended 31 August 2016 and 2015 were $1,800,450, $258,175, and $180,652 and $1,868,031, $259,470, and $185,125, respectively.

(iii) Job Information—Payments for job postings to the Job Information List are recognized as income in the year in which the posting appears online.

(iv) Contributions—Contributions to the MLA are recognized as revenue on the receipt of cash or other assets or of unconditional pledges. Con tri bu tions are recorded as temporarily or permanently restricted if their donors placed restrictions on their use. Conditional con tri butions are recorded when the speciied conditions have been met. Contributions to be received over more than a year are discounted at an interest rate commensurate with the risk involved.

Grant revenue is based on the terms of each grant and is available for unrestricted use unless the grantor restricts the use thereof, on a temporary or permanent basis.

14. Functional Allocation of Expenses—he costs of providing the various programs and supporting services have been summarized on a functional basis in the accompanying statements of activities. Accordingly, management has allocated certain costs among the program and management areas, using appropriate measurement methodologies.

15. Awards and Prizes—Publication awards and prizes are recorded as an expense and liability subse quent to triannual, biannual, or annual reviews and approvals by a designated award committee.

16. Advertising Costs—Advertising costs are expensed as they are incurred. Advertising expense was approximately $216,000 and $167,000 for the fiscal years ended 31 August 2016 and 2015, respectively.


17. Income Tax Uncertainties—he MLA is subject to the provisions of Accounting Standards Codiica-tion (ASC) Topic 740, Income Taxes, of the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) as it relates to accounting for and reporting uncertainty in income taxes. he MLA is subject to potential excise taxes relating to its income from selling advertising space and renting mailing lists; however, because of the MLA’s general tax-exempt status, ASC Topic 740 has not had, and is not expected to have, a material impact on the MLA’s inancial statements.

18. Reclassification—Certain amounts included in the prior year’s inancial statements have been reclas-siied to conform to the current year’s presentation.

19. New Accounting Pronouncements—In August 2016, the FASB issued Accounting Standards Up-date (ASU) No. 2016-14, “Presentation of Financial Statements of Not-for-Proit Entities.” ASU 2016-14 will amend financial-statement presentations and disclosures, with the goal of assisting not-for-proit organizations in providing more relevant in-formation about their resources (and the changes in those resources) to donors, grantors, creditors, and other users. ASU 2016-14 includes qualitative and quantitative requirements in the following areas: (i) net asset classifications, (ii) investment returns, (iii) expense categorizations, (iv) liquidity and availability of resources, and (v) the presenta-tion of operating cash lows. he new standard will be effective for annual reporting periods begin-ning ater 15 December 2017. he MLA has elected not to early adopt the new pronouncement.

20. Subsequent Events and Transactions—In the accompanying financial statements for the fiscal year ended 31 August 2016, the MLA considers the accounting treatments and related disclosures that may be required as the result of events and trans-actions that occurred between the iscal year-end and 24 February 2017, the date when the inancial statements were issued.

B. Investments

At each fiscal year-end, investments consisted of the following:

2016 2015

Certiicates of deposit $ 104,478) $ 107,425)

Money market funds 23,469) 42,120)

Mutual funds:

Growth 4,421,413) 4,480,506)

Fixed income 8,077,606) 7,544,502)

$12,626,966) $12,174,553)

During each iscal year, investment (losses) income consisted of the following:

2016 2015

Dividends and interest $257,316) $443,211)

Realized (losses) gains (111,786) 380,252)

Unrealized gains (losses) 211,153) (890,512)

Investment fees (9,652) (11,719)

$347,031) $ (78,768)

The FASB’s ASC Topic 820, Fair Value Mea-sure ments and Disclosures, establishes a three-level valuation hierarchy of fair-value measurements. These valuation techniques are based on observ-able and un ob serv a ble inputs. Observable inputs ref lect market data obtained from independent sources, while unobservable inputs relect market assumptions. hese two types of inputs create the following fair-value hierarchy:

Level 1: Valuations are based on observable inputs that relect quoted market prices in active markets for the same or identical assets and liabili-ties at the reporting date.

Level 2: Valuations are based on (i) quoted prices for similar investments in active markets, (ii) quoted prices for the investments or similar investments in markets that are not active, or (iii) pricing inputs other than quoted prices that are directly or indi-rectly observable on the reporting date.

Level 3: Valuations are based on unobservable pric ing inputs and include situations where (i) there is little, if any, market activity for the investments; or (ii) the investments cannot be independently val ued.

he MLA’s investments were valued under Level 1 of the fair- value hierarchy at 31 August 2016 and 2015, and there were no transfers between levels dur-ing either year.

C. Accounts Receivable

At each year-end, accounts receivable consisted of amounts due to the MLA for exchange-type transactions. All amounts are due within one year. Relying on its past experience, management has reserved approximately $11,000 of accounts receivable for uncollectible accounts for the iscal years ended 31 August 2016 and 2015.

D. Property and Equipment

At each fiscal year-end, property and equipment con sisted of the following:

2016 2015

Furniture and equipment $1,531,518) $1,422,764)

Leasehold improvements 466,808) 327,279)

1,998,326) 1,750,043)

Less accumulated depreciation

and amortization (664,372) (546,861)

$1,333,954) $1,203,182)


During the iscal year 2016, the MLA wrote of fully depreciated furniture and equipment with an original cost of approximately $84,740.

E. Retirement Benefits

he MLA sponsors two plans established with the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association and College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF): a defined-contribution plan and a tax-deferred annuity plan, which offer coverage to all el i gi ble employees. Ater two years of continuous em ploy-ment at the MLA, eligible employees are en rolled in the defined-contribution plan, and the MLA contributes 8% of the employee’s sal ary to an indi-vidual account established in the em ploy ee’s name.

Total contributions from the MLA to the deined- contribution plan in the fiscal years that ended on 31 August 2016 and 2015 were ap prox i mately $589,000 and $482,000, respectively. Im me di ately upon employment, an eligible employee may par-ticipate in the tax-deferred annuity plan by mak-ing voluntary contributions to the plan within the Internal Revenue Service guidelines. The MLA makes no contributions to the tax-deferred an nu-ity plan.

F. Temporarily Restricted Net Assets

At each iscal year-end, temporarily restricted net assets (ater investment gains and losses were allo-cated) were categorized as follows:

balance, 1 September

2015

Additions & market

adjustments

released from

restrictions

balance, 31 august

2016

Modern Language Materials Revolving Fund $ 69,537 $ — –) $ — ) $ 69,537

John Louis Haney Fund 32,131 6,602) — ) 38,733

Good Neighbor Fund 27,606 5,938) 5,672 27,872

Professional Education Assistance—Graduate Students 36,146 601) 35,600 1,147

Professional Education Assistance—Non-Tenure-Track

Faculty Members 20,494 100) 15,200 5,394

Professional Education Assistance—Travel Grants 1,772 45,156) — ) 46,928

Promotion of the Profession Fund 39,145 5,320) — ) 44,465

Katrina Assistance Fund 494 — –) — ) 494

Elliot Gilbert Fund 5,198 42) — ) 5,240

Lois Roth Award Fund 64 1,300) 1,364 — –

Fenia and Yaakov Leviant Memorial Prize in Yiddish

Studies 9,643 240) — ) 9,883

Matei Calinescu Prize Fund 100,339 1,607) 396 101,550

Howard Marraro Prize Fund 19,747 578) — ) 20,325

Morton Cohen Award Fund 7,921 454) 1,000 7,375

Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize Fund 83,870 1,053) 1,547 83,376

Phyllis Franklin Award for Public Advocacy of the

Humanities 87,627 7,621) 914 94,334

Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Award Fund 2,151,467 139,857) 24,611 2,266,713

Scaglione Publications Subvention — – 603) 603 — –

he Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant—Humanities

Commons 223,714 1,540) 118,104 107,150

he Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant—Connected

Academics 1,828,372 13,313) 364,144 1,477,541

American Council for International Education grant—

Enrollment Survey 2,498 8,553) 11,051 — –

total temporarily restricted net assets $4,747,785 $240,478) $580,206 $4,408,057


G. Accounting for and Reporting Endowments

1. The Funds—The MLA’s endowment funds con sist of one fund designated by the Execu-tive Council and two donor- restricted individual funds established for awards for literature work. As re quired by generally accepted accounting principles, the classiication and reporting of net assets associated with endowment funds are based on the existence or absence of donor-imposed re-

strictions. he MLA pools its endowment, under the direction of the trustees, and earnings on the pooled investments are allocated pro rata to each of the funds.2. Interpretation of Relevant Law—UPMIFA is applicable to all of the MLA’s institutional funds, including its donor-restricted endowment funds. he Executive Council adheres to UPMIFA’s re-quirements.

balance, 1 September

2014

Additions & market

adjustments

released from

restrictions

balance, 31 august

2015

Modern Language Materials Revolving Fund $ 94,537 $ — –) $ 25,000 $ 69,537

John Louis Haney Fund 46,086 6,045) 20,000 32,131

Good Neighbor Fund 26,364 7,342) 6,100 27,606

Professional Education Assistance—Graduate Students 36,431 35,715) 36,000 36,146

Professional Education Assistance—Non-Tenure-Track

Faculty Members 24,301 20,193) 24,000 20,494

Professional Education Assistance—Travel Grants — – 1,772) — – 1,772

Promotion of the Profession Fund 57,174 6,971) 25,000 39,145

Katrina Assistance Fund 494 — –) — – 494

Elliot Gilbert Fund 5,142 56) — – 5,198

Lois Roth Award Fund 63 1) — – 64

Fenia and Yaakov Leviant Memorial Prize in Yiddish

Studies 10,669 (26) 1,000 9,643

Matei Calinescu Prize Fund — – 100,755) 416 100,339

Howard Marraro Prize Fund 21,063 (316) 1,000 19,747

Morton Cohen Award Fund 8,295 (374) — – 7,921

Katherine Singer Kovacs Prize Fund 86,325 (929) 1,526 83,870

Phyllis Franklin Award for Public Advocacy of the

Humanities 80,778 6,849) — – 87,627

Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Award Fund 2,203,715 (26,723) 25,525 2,151,467

Scaglione Publications Subvention — – 6,453) 6,453 — –

he Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant—Occupational

Horizons 40,416 251) 40,667 — –

he Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant—Humanities

Commons 8,460 217,103) 1,849 223,714

he National Endowment for the Humanities grant—

Humanities CORE — – 24,081) 24,081 — –

he Andrew W. Mellon Foundation grant—Connected

Academics — – 1,920,338) 91,966 1,828,372

American Council for International Education grant—

Enrollment Survey — – 41,510) 39,012 2,498

total temporarily restricted net assets $2,750,313 $2,367,067) $369,595 $4,747,785


31 August 2016

unrestricted temporarily restricted

permanently restricted total

Endowment net assets, beginning of year $3,895,752 $26,855) $49,378 $3,971,985)

Investment return:

Investment income 137,133 346) 49 137,528)

Net depreciation, realized and unrealized 155,400 1,499 84 156,983)

Total investment return 292,533 1,845) 133 294,511)

Contributions 24,873 — — 24,873)

Appropriation of endowment assets for

expenditure — (1,000) — (1,000)

24,873 (1,000) — 23,873)

Endowment net assets, end of year $4,213,158 $27,700) $49,511 $4,290,369)

31 August 2015



Endowment net assets, beginning of year $4,100,818 $27,790) $49,199 $4,177,807)

Investment return:

Investment income 236,026 465) 179 236,670)

Net depreciation, realized and unrealized (469,149) (400) — (469,549)

Total investment return (233,123) 65) 179 (232,879)

Contributions 28,057 — — 28,057)

Appropriation of endowment assets for

expenditure — (1,000) — (1,000)

28,057 (1,000) — 27,057)

Endowment net assets, end of year $3,895,752 $26,855) $49,378 $3,971,985)

4. Changes in Endowment Net Assets during Each Fiscal Year

31 August 2016



Donor-restricted endowment funds — $27,700 $49,511 $ 77,211

Executive Council–designated endowment fund $4,213,158 — — 4,213,158

Total funds $4,213,158 $27,700 $49,511 $4,290,369

31 August 2015



Donor-restricted endowment funds — $26,855 $49,378 $ 76,233

Executive Council–designated endowment fund $3,895,752 — — 3,895,752

Total funds $3,895,752 $26,855 $49,378 $3,971,985

3. Endowment Net Composition by Type of Fund at End of Each Fiscal Year


5. Return Objectives and Risk Parameters—The MLA has adopted an investment policy for en-dowment assets that attempts to provide a predict-able stream of funding for programs sup ported by its endowment, while seeking to main tain the purchasing power of the endowment assets and as-suming a moderate level of investment risk.6. Strategies Used for Achieving Objectives—To satisfy its long- term rate- of- return objectives, the MLA relies on a total- return strategy in which in-vestment returns are achieved through both capital appreciation (realized and unrealized) and current yield (interest and dividends). The MLA targets a diversified asset allocation that emphasizes cash-based investments to achieve its long-term return objectives, within prudent risk constraints.7. Spending Policy and Its Relation to Investment Objectives—The MLA appropriates a set amount from each donor- restricted fund for an award. he determination of the amount and frequency of the award has been based on the average rate of return on the underlying investments. The MLA does not have a formal policy of drawing down the en-dowment fund designated by the Executive Coun-cil. Instead, management determines a prudent amount to spend in each iscal year by considering the long-term expected return on the endowment assets with the goal of maintaining the value of the endowment assets held in perpetuity or for a speciied term.8. Funds with Deiciencies—From time to time, the fair value of assets associated with individual donor-restricted endowment funds may fall below the level that the donor or UPMIFA may require the MLA to retain in a fund of perpetual duration. There were no such deiciencies on 31 August 2016 and 2015.

H. Commitments

During 2015, the MLA relocated its offices and entered into a long- term lease agreement for its of fice facilities, which expires in April 2036. The lease contains escalation clauses relating to real estate taxes and other building expenses. Under

the lease agreement, the MLA received an eleven- month rent abatement, which has been deferred and will be amortized over the term of the lease. The future minimum payments under this lease are $1,246,829 per annum for the iscal years end-ing 31 August 2017 through 31 August 2021 and $18,268,819 thereater.

Rent expense for the iscal years ended 31 Au-gust 2016 and 2015 was $1,318,892 and $1,521,179, respectively. As required by the lease, for the fis-cal years ended 31 August 2016 and 2015 $748,023 and $748,028 in cash, respectively, were pledged as collateral against a letter of credit.

The MLA has various leases with third-party vendors for office equipment totaling $129,782 that met the requirements for treatment as capital leases. he related assets and liabilities discounted on a variable-rate basis amounted to $144,528 and are included in property and equipment and obli-gations under capital leases, respectively, in the ac-companying statements of financial position. For the fiscal years ended 31 August 2016 and 2015, $18,117 and $15,364, respectively, represent interest expense on these leases, and $27,288 and $36,742, respectively, represent lease amortization expense. Both are included as administrative and general ex-penses in the accompanying inancial statements.

Future minimum payments under oice equip-ment leases are as follows, for fiscal years end-ing 31 August: 2017, $42,012; 2018, $36,657; 2019, $14,222; and 2020, $9,625. The total for the four years is $102,516. When the amount represent-ing interest ($25,148) is subtracted, the result is $77,368, which is the present value of the mini-mum lease payments for the four years.

I. Credit Risk

The MLA places its cash equivalents with high-credit-quality financial institutions in amounts that, from time to time, may exceed federal insur-ance limits. he MLA’s management believes there is no substantial risk of loss associated with the fail-ure of these inancial institutions.


Independent Auditors’ Report

Executive CouncilModern Language Association of AmericaNew York, New York

Report on the Financial Statements

We have audited the accompanying inancial state-ments of the Modern Language Association of America (the “MLA”), which comprise the state-ments of inancial position as of August 31, 2016 and 2015; the related statements of activities and cash lows for the years then ended; and the related notes to the inancial statements.

Management’s Responsibility for the

Financial Statements

The MLA’s management is responsible for the preparation and fair presentation of these inancial statements in accordance with accounting prin-ciples generally accepted in the United States of America; this includes the design, implementation, and maintenance of internal control relevant to the preparation and fair presentation of inancial state-ments that are free from material misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.

Auditors’ Responsibility

Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these inancial statements based on our audits. We conducted our audits in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America. hose standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the inancial statements are free of material misstatement.

An audit involves performing procedures to ob-tain evidence about the amounts and disclosures in the inancial statements. he procedures selected depend on the auditors’ judgment, including the assessment of the risks of material misstatement of the inancial statements, whether due to fraud or error. In making those risk assessments, the audi-tors consider internal control relevant to the orga-nization’s preparation and fair presentation of the financial statements, to design audit procedures that are appropriate in the circumstances but not to express an opinion on the efectiveness of the orga-nization’s internal control. Accordingly, we express no such opinion. An audit also includes evaluating the appropriateness of accounting policies used and the reasonableness of signiicant accounting esti-mates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall presentation of the inancial statements.

We believe that the audit evidence we have ob-tained is suicient and appropriate to provide a ba-sis for our audit opinion.

Opinion

In our opinion, the inancial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the i-nancial position of the Modern Language Associa-tion of America as of August 31, 2016 and 2015, and the changes in its net assets and its cash lows for the years then ended, in accordance with account-ing principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

EisnerAmper LLP

New York, New York

February 24, 2017


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