Karen Weingarten

Candidate statement

Associate Professor of English, Queens College, City University of New York
I’m running as the Membership and Elections Chair because I value how the Modernist Studies Association has increasingly paid attention to labor conditions and how they intersect with academic research in modernism and twentieth-century studies increasingly, I see the MSA Conference creating spaces for new (and critical) conversations about the adjunctification of the
university, the influence of prestige in academia, and teaching twentieth-century literature, while continuing to be a place where new ideas about modernism/ modernist studies are shared. Most recently, I’ve presented on panels at the MSA about adjunct labor and modernist maternity. The connections I made on the latter panel led us to organize a special issue for a journal. I’d like to see the MSA and its annual conference continue to be a resource for engaging the most pressing issues of our profession and bringing modernist and twentieth-century scholars in dialogue. I would bring to the position my administrative experience chairing my large department, and my increasing involvement with my faculty union, the Professional Staff Congress. As the Elections Chair, I promise to be fair, transparent, and communicative, and in my role as Membership Chair, I hope to continue bringing attention to exciting new work in the field through the organization’s social media and listserv.