MELUS Meets the World: The Story of the Overseas Chapters

For most of my academic career, I have depended on national organizations to give me the kind of support network I need in my chosen areas of study, African American, ethnic, and Southern literature. This has turned me into a kind of conference junkie; I recently attended my 22nd MLA in a row! However, for many years the MLA was void of the kinds of panels I needed; for that reason, and many others, the organization that has always meant most to me is MELUS, the Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States. MELUS, in fact, eventually drew me to MLA, since this became the site where we convened executive committee meetings, enjoyed cocktail parties and banquets, and most importantly, presented our work to each other and the broader constituency of the MLA. MELUS, of course, is probably familiar to people reading this, but let me briefly relate the fabled story of the organization's origin. As Katharine Newman herself has recorded, the year was 1972, the setting, the MLA annual convention. A group of angry scholars of ethnic literature, who had many times tried and failed to get the MLA to accept a panel on African American literature, organized an impromptu session in the hallway of the headquarters hotel (99-100). Out of that frustration, rebellion, and commitment, MELUS was born: the original band of insurgents decided that they would foster a society dedicated to all the ethnic writers of our country. The organization was sustained, however, not by anger, but by the joy of discovery, fellowship, and a vital sense of mission. MELUS's goals were always clear: find and connect the scholars of ethnic American literature; encourage the development of a new literary history; and make that literary history live by locating, annotating, publishing, and discussing both "lost" and new literary texts. Eventually, even the MLA recognized MELUS and gave the organization regular sessions at the annual conference. Subsequently, MLA started sponsoring divisions and sessions on all the varieties of ethnic literature, as MELUS types began to infiltrate the hierarchy, and as more ethnic Americans were admitted into the academy itself and then began to demand their literatures be respected and studied. MELUS deserves kudos for its role in this revolution, but the organization got most of its reputation from its outstanding journal, which has today become one of the leading venues for discussions of ethnic literature, culture, and theory. The now-legendary "Mother MELUS," Katharine Newman, one of the original insurgents, became the founding and long-time editor of our journal. For many years, both the journal and MELUS itself were respectively the leading journal and umbrella organization for Asian American Studies, Jewish literary studies, and several other clusters of scholars, many of whom have now gone on to organize societies dedicated to their specialties. From the first, then, MELUS was evangelical, and none of our original motives have really changed. We tell prospective members, "We don't just want your dues--we want YOU!" One of the great benefits of our annual convention has been the invigorating influx of new, often young, talent, and the conferences have always attracted scholars from abroad, who until recently were often doing their work on ethnic writers in isolation. We also have "set our text" at ALA, ASA, and at regional MLAs. More importantly, for the past eighteen years, MELUS has sponsored its own conference in the spring; these events have taken place all over the United States, at campuses such as the University of Minnesota, UCLA, Howard, Hawaii, Vanderbilt, and Berkeley. Even in its infancy, MELUS drew the attention of devotees of American ethnic literature across the globe, particularly in Europe, where American studies programs had often seen the significance of American ethnic culture long before their counterparts in the States. Our conferences drew increasing numbers of European scholars, and eventually trans-Atlantic conversations developed about a European chapter. …