Description: 1. Report of the Executive Director, Paula M. Krebs

2. The Presidential Address,“Being Human,” Simon Gikandi, Princeton U, MLA President. “Being Human” is an invitation to think together about what it means to be human in a precarious age. It is also an occasion to reflect on the role of literature and language in defining and defending the rights of human and other species in a time of unprecedented political and technological change. What is the role of the creative imagination in making sense of social spaces in which the desire for freedom is asserted against the forces of domination? How can literature bear witness to both the possibility and limits of the human? When the right to have rights is under siege around the world, literature and language are once again summoned to the frontlines.

Speakers

Simon Gikandi, Princeton U

Presider

Paula M. Krebs, MLA