Association of Departments and Programs of Comparative Literature (adpcl)

meeting for comp lit administrators and program representatives

acla 2003 minutes

Date:             6/23/2003

To:                  CAREY ECKHART, PRESIDENT, ADPCL

From:            CORINNE SCHEINER, SECRETARY-TREASURER, adPCL

RE:                  2003 Business meeting,; APRIL 5, 2003; SAN MARCOS, CA,;  minutes

Attendees: Alwin Baum (Cal State Long Beach), Thomas Beebee (Penn State), David Damrosch (Columbia), Carey Eckhart (Penn State), Carl Fisher (Cal State Long Beach), Alexander Gelley (UC Irvine), Margaret Higonnet (Connecticut), Don Kennedy (North Carolina Chapel Hill), Oscar Kenshur (Indiana), Kathleen Komar (UCLA), Elaine Martin (Alabama), Michael Palencia-Roth (Illinois), Ellen Peel (San Francisco State), Henry Remak (Indiana), Haun Saussy (Stanford), Corinne Scheiner (Colorado College), Ross Shideler (UCLA)

 

1.       ADPCL Business Meeting

a.        Description of ADPCL

b.       Discussion of the overlap of ACLA/ADPCL

                                                               i.      Proposal to have department membership in ACLA include membership in ADPCL

                                                              ii.      Goal: membership of every department/program

c.        Executive committee

                                                               i.      Current nominees: Nancy Blake, Illinois; Neil Donahue, Hofstra; Heather Hayton, Cal State San Marcos; Don Kennedy, North Carolina Chapel Hill; William Moebius, UMass

                                                             ii.      Additional nominees: Steve Ungar, Iowa; David Damrosch, Columbia

d.       Treasurer’s report

                                                               i.      Beginning balance:     $1179.64

                                                              ii.      Liabilities:                            0.00

                                                            iii.      Income (2002-2003)         25.00         Columbia Univ. Membership

                                                            iv.      Expenses (2002-2003)                   0.00

                                                             v.      Balance (as of 3/31/03)          $1204.64

2.       Discussion of Administrative Topics

a.        Notice: MLA “Teaching” series is looking for proposals on comparative topics

b.       Crisis in scholarly publishing

                                                               i.      Discussion of Carey’s proposal

                                                              ii.      Possible roles for the ACLA

1.       Serve as a gateway

2.       Confer legitimacy

3.       Create a subsidized press

4.       Identify individual presses willing to have a Comparative Literature series

a.        Would ACLA fund it?

5.       Provide guidance to young scholars

a.        Ex. discussion of types of Comparative Literature books

                                                            iii.      Is this a Comparative Literature problem?

c.        Strategies for dealing with funding cutbacks and merger pressure

                                                               i.      What’s going on at different schools?

                                                              ii.      How is it being handled?

d.       MLA Directory: the MLA has agreed to create a special section for Comparative Literature

                                                               i.      We will provide the MLA with a list of programs and administrators

                                                              ii.      We will host a summer conference similar to those of the ADE and ADFL

3.       Summer Conference 2004 on the Undergraduate Curriculum

a.        Date: weekend in early June that does not conflict with MLA events

b.       Registration fee: to be paid by department

c.        Potential topics to address:

                                                               i.      Teaching comparative literature at the undergraduate level

1.       Introductory courses in world literature

a.        Strategies

b.       Use of translations

c.        Size of courses

2.       General education courses vs. courses for majors

3.       Teaching majors vs. teaching non-majors

4.       Use of translations

5.       How disciplinary can you get at the undergraduate level?

6.       Theory

7.       Use of anthologies

8.       Staffing of courses

                                                              ii.      Language requirements

                                                            iii.      Non-academic career tracks

                                                            iv.      Teacher training/TA training/grad student training