The Modernist Studies Association was conceived in
1998 by a group of Modernist scholars, affiliated with
different institutions and working on different authors
and media, who felt that the profession needed a forum
for the exchange of recent research: a forum open to the
increasingly interdisciplinary dynamics of contemporary
scholarship.
The annual conference aims to provide such a
forum, as does the official journal of the MSA,
Modernism/Modernity, published by Johns
Hopkins University Press.
Governance
Each year the MSA holds elections for the various
committee positions outlined in the MSA
bylaws and constitution. The chairs of these
committees, along with the officers, the web editor,
and the co-editor of Modernism/Modernity,
comprise the MSA's Board of Trustees.
History of the MSA
The MSA took shape in an effort to provide a venue,
interdisciplinary and international, in which scholars of Modernism
could contribute to ongoing reshapings of the field. In 1998 Modernist
studies were in a peculiarly difficult place. On one hand, the
previous twenty years of scholarship had delivered overdue and
sometimes scathing reappraisals of what was still called "High
Modernism"; as the profession absorbed the lessons of
post-structuralist theory Modernist writers and especially poets came
increasingly to stand for various cultural and moral failures. By the
mid-nineties, "Modernism," especially as represented in the
popular press, seemed little more than the straw man for all that the
promoters of "postmodernism" disliked in modern history.
On the other hand, while the tenor of Modernist scholarship had
changed dramatically, its structures had changed hardly at
all. Single-author societies still dominated the professional field,
and there was little opportunity to respond to the impulses of what we
might loosely call cultural studies. Although the many author
societies that promote the study of particular writers, poets, and
dramatists have done much to help institutionalize Modernism, they are
often ill-suited to foster work that addresses the relations among
writers, or among writers and other cultural formations. The MSA
consequently aimed to provide more than merely a gathering place
wherein individual societies could pursue their several projects. It
aimed rather to represent the dynamic relations among fields too often
reified as separate and unrelated and to facilitate the development of
historical models that are broader in purview, more heterogeneous, and
more supple. From its first two conferences, both of which thematized
"New Modernisms," the MSA worked both to expand the
Modernist canon and to investigate the criteria invoked whenever
things are called "Modernist."
Michael Coyle invited nearly twenty other scholars to
participate in the first conversations, held in the Spring of
1998. After the initial excitement there remained five who were
willing to shoulder the burden of launching a new professional
association; Coyle, Cassandra Laity, Gail McDonald, Sanford
Schwartz, and Mark Morrisson. Schwartz took on the task of hosting
the first conference at Penn State University. The Board
anticipated maybe 100 people would attend the inaugural
conference; instead, it attracted over 400 conferees. That
success attracted the attention of the Chronicle of Higher
Education, which made the conference the cover story of its
November issue; the title of the story recognized the hopes of the
MSA's organizers: "New Life for Modernism." Soon after,
the Board negotiated its continuing relationship with
Modernism/Modernity, and worked out its constitution and
bylaws. For the second MSA conference, the Board expected perhaps
as many as 500 conferees, but attracted so may proposals that even
though 700 participants were accepted three hundred more had to be
turned away. Five years later, membership in the society was over
1,000, with up to 700 attending any given conference.
Since its inception, the MSA has already convened in three
different countries, and continues its efforts to work with
counterparts in other disciplines. The organization has always
depended on the willingness of active scholars to step up into
leadership roles, and the Board encourages you to contact us about
ways of participating, whether by running for office, serving on
appointed committees, offering suggestions, or – very important –
hosting a conference.
