Abbreviation | CLA |
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Formation | 1937 |
Headquarters | Memphis, Tennessee, U.S. |
Fields | |
President | Jervette R. Ward |
Website | https://clascholars.org |
The College Language Association (CLA) is a professional association of Black scholars and educators who teach English and foreign languages. [1] Founded in 1937 by a group of African-American language and literature scholars, the organization "serves the academic, scholarly and professional interests of its members and the collegiate communities they represent." [2] The organization has approximately 450 members based in the United States and internationally. Members are primarily academic scholars, professors, and graduate students who specialize in African American studies and literature as well as world languages. Membership is open to all.
Hugh Gloster, a professor of English at LeMoyne College corresponded with Gladstone Lewis Chandler of Morehouse College about the low English proficiency rates among their students. Together with other teachers at predominantly Black institutions, they formed the Association of Teachers of English in Negro Colleges in 1937. [3] [4] In 1941, the organization broadened their scope and changed their name to the Association of Teachers of Languages in Negro Colleges (ATLNC). The name was changed again in 1949 to the College Language Association (CLA). [5]
The organization's membership has expanded to an international audience focusing on themes of African American, Caribbean and African diaspora studies. [6] Members range from undergraduate students to university faculty. [7] Notable contributors include John Frederick Matheus, Therman O'Daniel, Lucy Clemmons Grigsby, A. Russell Brooks, Darwin Turner, Charles A. Ray, Nick Aaron Ford, Dana Williams, Houston A. Baker Jr., Margaret Walker Alexander, Sterling Allen Brown, Maryemma Graham, Trudier Harris, and Jerry Ward. [3]
The College Language Association promotes and cultivates the study of languages and literatures to improve higher education experiences for students and teachers at colleges and universities across the world. CLA's annual Convention and peer-reviewed academic journal, the College Language Association Journal (CLAJ), support the organization's commitments to literary excellence, inclusivity, and advocacy for scholarly research in and the teaching of Black literatures and cultures as necessary aspects of higher education.
All officers, except the Editor of the CLA Journal, shall be elected at the convention by majority vote. The officers of the association are the President, Vice President, Secretary and Communications Director, Membership Engagement Director, Treasurer, Assistant Treasurer, English Area Representative, World Languages Area Representative, and Editor of the CLA Journal. All officers must be current members of the association and in good financial standing.
The first president of the association was Hugh M. Gloster in 1937. The current President is Jervette R. Ward (2022–2026), and the current Vice President is Janaka B. Lewis.
CLA publishes the College Language Association Journal, an international multilingual peer-reviewed bi-annual publication. It is issued in September and March of each year.
CLA hosts an annual Convention in the spring of each year, preferably in April, at a place chosen with due regard to favoring the several geographical regions represented in the association and subject to venue availability. The Executive Committee is empowered to establish the time and place for the convention. The convention is attended each year by a majority of CLA’s members and consists of robust panels on African American, Caribbean and African diaspora studies, language, linguistics, creative writing, and pedagogy.
The Phi Beta Kappa Society (ΦΒΚ) is the oldest academic honor society in the United States. It was founded at the College of William & Mary in Virginia, in December 1776. Phi Beta Kappa aims to promote and advocate excellence in the liberal arts and sciences, and to induct outstanding students of arts and sciences at select American colleges and universities. Since its inception, its inducted members include 17 United States presidents, 42 United States Supreme Court justices, and 136 Nobel laureates.
The Modern Language Association of America, often referred to as the Modern Language Association (MLA), is widely considered the principal professional association in the United States for scholars of language and literature. The MLA aims to "strengthen the study and teaching of language and literature". The organization includes over 25,000 members in 100 countries, primarily academic scholars, professors, and graduate students who study or teach language and literature, including English, other modern languages, and comparative literature. Although founded in the United States, with offices in New York City, the MLA's membership, concerns, reputation, and influence are international in scope.
Morehouse College is a private historically Black, men's, liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. Anchored by its main campus of 61 acres (25 ha) near Downtown Atlanta, the college has a variety of residential dorms and academic buildings east of Ashview Heights. Along with Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University, and the Morehouse School of Medicine, the college is a member of the Atlanta University Center consortium.
Spelman College is a private, historically Black, women's liberal arts college in Atlanta, Georgia. It is a founding member of the Atlanta University Center academic consortium. Founded in 1881 as the Atlanta Baptist Female Seminary, Spelman awarded its first college degrees in 1901 and is the oldest private historically Black liberal arts institution for women.
The National Education Association (NEA) is the largest labor union in the United States. It represents public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college students preparing to become teachers. The NEA has just under 3 million members and is headquartered in Washington, D.C. The NEA had a budget of more than $341 million for the 2012–2013 fiscal year. Becky Pringle is the NEA's current president.
The National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) is a United States professional organization dedicated to "improving the teaching and learning of English and the language arts at all levels of education. Since 1911, NCTE has provided a forum for the profession, an array of opportunities for teachers to continue their professional growth throughout their careers, and a framework for cooperation to deal with issues that affect the teaching of English." In addition, the NCTE describes its mission as follows:
The Council promotes the development of literacy, the use of language to construct personal and public worlds and to achieve full participation in society, through the learning and teaching of English and the related arts and sciences of language.
The Canadian Library Association (CLA) was a national, predominantly English-language association which represented 57,000 library workers across Canada. It also spoke for the interests of the 21 million Canadians who are members of libraries. CLA members worked in all four types of libraries: academic, public, special and school libraries. Others sat on boards of public libraries, work for companies that provide goods and services to libraries, or were students in graduate level or community college programs.
Sigma Tau Delta (ΣΤΔ) is a US-based, international honor society for students of English at four-year colleges and universities who are within the top 30% of their class and have a 3.5 GPA or higher. It presently has over 770 chapters in the United States and abroad. The organization inducts over 7500 new members annually, and is the largest honors organization in its field and one of the largest members of the Association of College Honor Societies (ACHS).
The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi is an honor society established in 1897 to recognize and encourage superior scholarship without restriction as to the area of study, and to promote the "unity and democracy of education". It was the fourth academic society in the United States to be organized around recognizing academic excellence, and it is the oldest all-discipline honor society. It is a member of the Honor Society Caucus.
American Baptist College is a private, Baptist college in Nashville, Tennessee, affiliated with the National Baptist Convention, USA. Founded in 1924, its predecessor in black Baptist education was Roger Williams University, a Nashville college begun in the late-19th century and closed in the early 20th century. Upon full accreditation by the American Association of Bible Colleges, ABTS dropped use of the term "Theological Seminary" and renamed itself American Baptist College. The college has an 82% acceptance rate. In Fall 2019, 77% of students were retained after the first year of attendance.
The University of Virginia College of Arts & Sciences is the largest of the University of Virginia's ten schools. Consisting of both a graduate and an undergraduate program, the College comprises the liberal arts and humanities section of the University.
The Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies (ASEEES) is a scholarly society "dedicated to advancing knowledge about Central Asia, the Caucasus, Russia, and Eastern Europe in regional and global contexts." The ASEEES supports teaching, research, and publication relating to the peoples and territories within this area.
American College Personnel Association - College Student Educators International is a major student affairs association headquartered in Washington, D.C. at the National Center for Higher Education.
Founded in 1990 in Rome, the European Society for the Study of English (ESSE) is the largest and most comprehensive organization for university teachers and researchers in English Studies, including literature, linguistics, and cultural studies, throughout Europe. It is an association (Verein) conformable to articles 60ff of the Swiss Civil Code (ZGB) with its seat in Basle. As stated in the 2022 ESSE Treasurer's Report for the ESSE Board Meeting in Mainz, 28 August 2022 (p. 4), currently, ESSE has 33 national associations and, according to the November 2021 membership lists, there are 7,590 members of ESSE.
The Children's Literature Association (ChLA) is a non-profit association, based in the United States, of scholars, critics, professors, students, librarians, teachers, and institutions dedicated to studying children's literature. Begun in the 1970s to generate interest in children's literature as an academic discipline and to provide a place for those studying children's literature to share ideas, the association sponsors an annual conference, two scholarly journals, and a series of awards. The association has also published a series of essays, Touchstones, attempting to establish a canon of children's literature.
The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literature of the United States (MELUS) is a scholarly society established in 1974. MELUS publishes a quarterly academic journal, MELUS. The aim of the Society is "to expand the definition of American literature through the study and teaching of Latino American, Native American, African-American, Asian and Pacific American, and ethnically specific Euro-American literary works, their authors, and their cultural contexts".
Muhammad Umaru Ndagi is a professor of Arabic Linguistics in the Department of Linguistics and African Languages, University of Abuja, Abuja, Nigeria.
Stella Brewer Brookes was a professor of English at Clark College from 1924 to 1969. She was a folklorist and a writer.
Helen Pyne-Timothy was a Jamaican feminist literary critic and academic, who was a founder and the inaugural president of the Association of Caribbean Women Writers and Scholars (ACWWS), a contributing editor of the journal MaComère, and the author of the 1998 book The Woman, the Writer and Caribbean Society.
Nick Aaron Ford Jr. was an American writer. A native of South Carolina, he was educated at Benedict College and Iowa State University. Ford then joined the faculty of Morgan State University, eventually accepting the Alain Locke Distinguished Professorship of Black Studies.
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