The MLA (my professional association) is so pathetic. This year, the number of job offerings in languages dropped off a cliff. The number of positions offered is back to the levels of the horrible 2009-10 job cycle which was at the height of the recession and saw 40% of job searches in foreign languages canceled or frozen.
The economy is no longer in recession, the job offerings have been doing much better, but then this year the numbers of positions across all fields have collapsed again. Nobody knows why but instead of discussing this really serious crisis, the MLA is issuing ridiculous statements about the non-existent persecution of “those who teach about Islam.”
There was a situation with somebody who ran afoul of her religious institution’s Statement of Faith with a discussion of Islam in the classroom. But does that mean that we should all drop everything and start worrying about how evangelicals resolve their doctrinal concerns?
Another equally idiotic initiative is MLA’s statement “on the exclusion of refugees.” Playing the noble savior of non-existent refugees is, of course, much more pleasing than figuring out what the hell is happening with the job market. Let’s dispense imaginary bounty and pretend we are powerful and magnanimous.
Obviously, the MLA can and will do nothing for any refugees but the association just can’t pass up the chance to get some sweet “white man’s burden” thrills out of mentioning them.
Clarissa's Blog 
At least the MLA hasn’t voted to support the BDS movement yet, although does keep toying with the idea.
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I wouldn’t put it past those clowns.
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The MLA (my professional association) is so pathetic. This year, the number of job offerings in languages dropped off a cliff. The number of positions offered is back to the levels of the horrible 2009-10 job cycle which was at the height of the recession and saw 40% of job searches in foreign languages canceled or frozen.
What is your theory about this?
You could blame the collapse of the nation state (nation states often promote languages in the interest of reifying national identities so when nation states fail or falter, weak languages of weak nation states go by the wayside) or the rise of the internet (how much of the internet is in other languages besides English? What about the rise of machine translations?) but both have been around for a while. 🙂
Is there a pattern to this collapse? Are SLACs and elite institution positions holding steady while other colleges’ offerings have collapsed?
There is something to be said for a single interest organization addressing its single interest.
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I don’t have an answer yet, I just found this out. I’ll have to look closely at the numbers to figure this out. But it’s a shocking development. Possibly something is happening on the state levels in terms of disinvestment in higher ed. But I might be projecting from my own experience in Illinois.
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I do not know your field, but does MLA have any lobbying power to actually influence the number of the positions in the field?
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First, they’d have to understand the cause. Until the cause is known, it’s impossible to say what can be done, if anything.
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The MLA has always been useless. I dropped out and stopped paying dues years ago.
I find it particularly galling that they maintain the headquarters in the middle Manhattan and pay the staff that run it huge salaries that most English and FL faculty can only dream of.
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