John Berryman on Twitter

The annual rite of the Modern Language Association has begun, as its convention starts up in San Francisco. As in any year, I always think of the MLA poem by John Berryman, the thirty-fifth of his Dream Songs, in which the poet exclaims, "Hey, out there!—assistant professors, full, associates,—instructors—others—any—I have a sing to shay" and goes on to recommend subversive activities like seducing faculty wives or engaging in collegial back-stabbing of one's seniors. (A Google search on Berryman soon reveals that term paper mills are among the top results, so the MLA may have had the last laugh.)

This year, the generally staid print-based organization is including a number of panels and events devoted to digital texts. In addition to the annual reception for the Electronic Literature Association, HASTAC announces that there will also be a panel on Twitter and one with MacArthur Foundation grant recipients from the Digital Media and Learning Competition.

Here's the full rundown of sessions on these topics:

General Literature: Electronic Technology (Teaching, Research, and Theory)

52. Defoe, James, and Beerbohm: Computer-Assisted Criticism of Three Authors
108. Using Technology to Teach Languages
163. Scholarly Editing in the Twenty-First Century: Digital Media and Editing
174. Microblogging: Producing Discourse in 140 Characters or Less
224. Methodologies for Literary Studies in the Digital Age
271. Genre, Form, and Cultural Practice in Contemporary Electronic Literature
320. Biocultures: Closing the Science-Humanities Gap
369. Promoting the Useful Arts: Copyright, Fair Use, and the Digital Scholar
421. Digital Immigrants Teaching Digital Natives
464. Online Course Management: Friend or Foe?
497. Digital Initiatives in Early Modern English Literature
543. The Library of Google: Researching Scanned Books
617. Editing Manuscripts in Digital and Print Forms
724. E-Criticism: New Critical Methods and Modalities
796. The Audiobook