Modern Language Association in the context of "Language studies"

A modern language (also known as a living language) is any human language that is currently in use as a native language.

The term is used in language education to distinguish between languages which are used for day-to-day communication (such as French and German) and dead classical languages such as Latin and Classical Chinese, which are studied for their cultural and linguistic value. For example, the Modern Language Association tracks student enrollments in Ancient Greek versus Modern Greek, or Biblical Hebrew versus Modern Hebrew, separately.

Linda Hutcheon, FRSC, OC (born August 24, 1947) is a Canadian academic working in the fields of literary theory and criticism, opera, and Canadian studies. She is a University Professor Emeritus in the Department of English and of the Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto, where she has taught since 1988. In 2000 she was elected the 117th President of the Modern Language Association, the third Canadian to hold this position, and the first Canadian woman. She is particularly known for her influential theories of postmodernism.

Speculum: A Journal of Medieval Studies is a quarterly academic journal published by University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Medieval Academy of America. It was established in 1926 by Edward Kennard Rand. The journal's primary focus is on the time period from 500 to 1500 in Western Europe, but also on related subjects such as Byzantine, Hebrew, Arabic, Armenian and Slavic studies. As of 2025, the editor is Barbara Newman.

The organization and its journal were first proposed in 1921 at a meeting of the Modern Language Association, and the journal's focus was interdisciplinary from its beginning, with one reviewer noting a specific interest in Medieval Latin.

In ethnography, a contact zone is a conceptual space where different cultures interact.

In a 1991 keynote address to the Modern Language Association titled "Arts of the Contact Zone", Mary Louise Pratt introduced the concept, saying "I use this term to refer to social spaces where cultures meet, clash and grapple with each other, often in contexts of highly asymmetrical relations of power, such as colonialism, slavery, or their aftermaths as they lived out in many parts of the world today". Pratt described a site for linguistic and cultural encounters, wherein power is negotiated and struggle occurs.

Viktor Borisovich Shklovsky (Russian: Ви́ктор Бори́сович Шкло́вский, IPA: [ˈʂklofskʲɪj]; 24 January [O.S. 12 January] 1893 – 6 December 1984) was a Russian and Soviet literary theorist, critic, writer, and pamphleteer. He is one of the major figures associated with Russian formalism.

Shklovsky's Theory of Prose was published in 1925. Shklovsky himself is still praised as "one of the most important literary and cultural theorists of the twentieth century" (Modern Language Association Prize Committee); "one of the most lively and irreverent minds of the last century" (David Bellos); "one of the most fascinating figures of Russian cultural life in the twentieth century" (Tzvetan Todorov)

Curt Ferdinand Bühler (11 July 1905 – 2 August 1985) was an American librarian and expert of early books who published mainly on the art and history of books printed during the fifteenth century. He took degrees from Yale University (B.A., 1927) and Trinity College, Dublin (Ph.D., 1930). After post-doctoral studies in the University of Munich (1931-1933), he worked as a rare book curator at the Pierpont Morgan Library from 1934, was appointed Keeper of Printed Books in 1948, and remained with the Morgan Library until his formal retirement in 1973. His own collection of manuscripts and early printed books was bequeathed to the same library.

Bühler served as president of both the Bibliographical Society of America (1952-1954) and the Renaissance Society of America (1961-1963), and was a member of many other organizations including the Grolier Club, the Century Association, the Modern Language Association, the American Council of Learned Societies, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the American Philosophical Society.

College English is an official publication of the American National Council of Teachers of English and is aimed at college-level teachers and scholars of English. The peer-reviewed journal publishes articles on a range of topics related to the teaching of English language arts at the college level, including literature, rhetoric, critical theory, and pedagogy. It sometimes publishes special issues devoted to specific themes. Its content is accessible electronically via ERIC, ProQuest, and JSTOR, and is indexed by the MLA.