Constitution of the Association
Article I. NAME AND OBJECT
Sec. 1 – This society shall be known as the Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association.
Sec. 2 – Its object shall be the creation, advancement, and diffusion of the aesthetic practices and knowledge of ancient and modern languages, literatures, cultures, and the arts.
Article II. OFFICERS
Sec. 1 – The Officers of the Association, to be referred to as the Executive Committee, shall be a President, First Vice President, Second Vice President, General Editor(s) of the association’s journal Pacific Coast Philology, Treasurer, and Executive Director. The President and Vice Presidents shall be elected for one-year terms with a pattern of succession at the end of the term as follows: the Second Vice President shall become the First Vice President; the First Vice President shall succeed to the Presidency; the outgoing President shall become head of the Nominating Committee. The General Editor(s), Executive Director, and Treasurer shall be appointed for renewable three-year terms. The Treasurer will work with PAMLA’s Internal Audit Committee in charge of reviewing the Association’s financial records.
Sec. 2 – There shall be a PAMLA General Board composed of the above officers (the Executive Committee), the immediate past President, six to nine members-at-large, and a graduate student representative. The immediate past President will serve on the General Board for one year. The six to nine members-at-large of the General Board shall be elected for three-year terms with two to three members elected each year, as determined by the General Board. In addition, one graduate student member shall be elected for a two-year term.
Sec. 3 – The above Officers and members of the General Board shall be elected by electronic ballot and their names announced at the annual General Membership Meeting. Their term of office will begin at the conclusion of that General Membership Meeting.
Sec. 4 – Officers and General Board members, apart from the General Editor(s), the Executive Director, and the Treasurer, ordinarily may not be re-elected to succeeding terms in the same office.
Article III. MEMBERS
Sec. 1 – Anyone interested in language, literary, artistic, and cultural studies may become a member of the Association upon application to the Executive Director and the payment of the first year’s annual dues.
Sec. 2 – The price of annual dues shall be determined by the General Board, with the approval of the members by a majority vote at the annual membership meeting or an online ballot of current members.
Article IV. MEETINGS
Sec. 1 – The Association, which first met in San Francisco in 1899, shall hold an annual fall conference at a western city or alternative site, such as online, as determined by the General Board.
Sec. 2 – There shall be a General Membership Meeting at each conference, at which time the Executive Committee shall present an annual report on the progress of the Association.
Sec. 3 – Action on any item at the annual General Membership Meeting, including resolutions, amendments to the Constitution, and changes in operating procedure, will require a quorum equal to ten percent of the membership listed on record. If such a quorum is not present, the General Board is empowered to act on the agenda of the General Membership Meeting unless ten percent of those in attendance request an electronic mail ballot on action items. If the electronic ballot produces less than a ten percent response, the General Board shall be empowered to act on the item(s).
Sec. 4 – The general arrangements of the proceedings of the conference shall be directed by the Executive Director in consultation with the General Board.
Sec. 5 –Special meetings may be held at the call of the General Board, when and where they may decide.
Article V. PAPERS AND PUBLICATIONS
Sec. 1 – All papers to be read at the conference must be approved in advance by the presiding officers of the appropriate sessions. In the absence of such an approval, the Executive Director shall make the final decision concerning papers.
Sec. 2 – Publications of the Association, of whatever kind, shall be made only under the authorization of the General Board.
Article VI. AMENDMENTS
Sec. 1 – Amendments to this Constitution may be made by a vote of two-thirds of those present at the General Membership Meeting, providing a quorum equal to ten percent of the membership listed on record is present. If such a quorum is not present, the Executive Committee is empowered to conduct a vote of the General Membership Meeting unless ten percent of those in attendance request an electronic ballot on action items. If the electronic ballot produces less than a ten percent response, the General Board shall be empowered to act on the item(s). Proposed amendments must be sent to the general membership at least 60 days prior to the General Membership Meeting.
Sec. 2 – Changes to the Standard Operating Procedures of the Association, as distinct from its Constitution, may be made by a majority vote of those present at any General Membership Meeting, providing a quorum is present. Alternatively, the General Board can alter Standard Operating Procedures by a majority vote as long as such changes remain consistent with the PAMLA Constitution. The Executive Committee will notify membership of any such changes at the next General Membership Meeting and call for a vote to approve them as permanent changes to procedures.
Standard Operating Procedures
The Standard Operating Procedures of the Association are determined by the PAMLA General Board in conformity with the Constitution. Members may propose changes by writing to the Executive Committee or General Board. The General Board presents its decisions for approval to the members at the next General Membership Meeting.
Duties of Executive Committee and General Board Members
Members of the Executive Committee and General Board shall be asked to offer advice and support for a variety of PAMLA initiatives, including being asked to serve on possible sub-committees, including the conference/registration committee, membership/outreach committee, publicity and social media committees, undergraduate scholarship committee, awards committees, and other ad hoc committees that may be established to address the needs of the organization.
PAMLA Auxiliary Council
The PAMLA Auxiliary Council is open to all PAMLA members in good standing and shall meet at least once a year. The PAMLA Auxiliary Council is designed to assist the PAMLA President, Executive Director, and Executive Committee with various duties, as well as remain available for consultation on specific PAMLA matters. Members of the Auxiliary Council shall be invited to serve on various PAMLA subcommittees on a case-by-case basis by the President, Executive Director, or a majority of the General Board.
PAMLA Caucuses
PAMLA shall allow members to form disciplinary or advocacy caucuses, subject to review by the General Board. Such caucuses could include Graduate Student, Ancient Languages and Literatures, French, German, Spanish, Asian Studies, and others. These caucuses are designed to assist in the planning for new Special Sessions and events so as to strengthen and represent their areas at PAMLA’s annual conference. In service to this goal, approved caucuses will be allowed to host a special caucus meeting at the annual PAMLA conference, should they wish to do so.
CONFERENCE
Invitations to the Association from institutions that wish to host the annual conference are received by the President or Executive Director and acted upon by the General Board. If no host institution comes forward, PAMLA becomes the host institution. The Executive Director, working in collaboration with the President, Vice Presidents, and other officers, will secure commitments from institutions and/or hotels or conference centers as sites for the annual conference. The General Board will assist the Executive Director and President to identify and enlist financial co-sponsors for the conference. A signed contract for a hotel, conference, or university site should be in hand at least one year prior to the conference date, but ideally sooner. At each year’s General Membership Meeting, the Executive Committee shall announce the conference location for the following year.
The General Board shall work together with the PAMLA President and Executive Director to gain co-sponsors for the conference so as to help to allay expenses. Any honoraria for speakers more than $1,400.00 will require approval by the Executive Committee in advance of the conference.
At or prior to each annual conference, the General Board shall hold a meeting to review the Association’s health and discuss Association matters.
At or prior to each conference, the President, in consultation with the General Board, will appoint an Audit Committee, consisting minimally of two members, neither of whom will be the Treasurer or Executive Director. The Audit Committee will examine the PAMLA accounts and provide a report on PAMLA’s finances at the General Membership Meeting.
SUBMISSION OF PAPERS
Anyone delivering a paper or presentation at the conference or serving as a chair, presiding officer, discussant, or participant in the sessions, workshops, seminars, or panels must be a dues-paid member of PAMLA for the current calendar year.
PAMLA members may present one traditional panel paper at the conference, as well as participate in a Roundtable, Workshop, Creative Conversation, Special Event, or other event.
PAMLA members may not typically present more than two papers or presentations at the conference, although exceptions to this rule may be made by the Executive Director.
While PAMLA’s President, First VP, or Executive Director may grant exceptions, there typically may not be more than two papers in a session from colleagues or graduate students from the presiding officer’s institution. Additionally, presiding officers normally may not read a paper in the same session over which they preside, with exceptions subject to the approval of the Executive Director.
Members of PAMLA can typically present one traditional panel paper at the conference, and chair one session; or, if they are not presenting a paper, they may chair two sessions, with exceptions subject to the approval of the Executive Director.
One may not present the same or a largely similar paper twice at the conference (once in a traditional panel, and once in a roundtable, for example). One also may not present a paper already presented at a previous PAMLA conference or another conference.
Papers may not be read in absentia.
The Executive Director shall have the power to allow exceptions to these conference rules and resolve any conflicts that may arise.
STANDING SESSIONS
The following Standing Sessions present programs at the Association’s annual conference: 21st-Century Literature; Adaptation Studies; African American Literature; American Literature before 1865; American Literature 1865-1945; American Literature after 1945; Ancient-Modern Relations; Anime and Manga; Architecture and Space; Asian American Literature; Asian Film and Media; Asian Literature; Austrian Studies; Autobiography; Beyond Binaries; Bible and Literature; British Literature and Culture: To 1700; British Literature and Culture: The Long Eighteenth Century; British Literature and Culture: The Long Nineteenth Century; British Literature and Culture: 20th and 21st Century; Canadian Literature and Culture; Children’s Literature; Classics (Greek); Classics (Latin); Comics and Graphic Narratives; Comparative American Ethnic Literature; Comparative Literature; Comparative Media; Composition and Rhetoric; Creative Writing: Brief Prose; Creative Writing: Poetry; Crime and Mystery; Critical Theory; Cultural History; Digital Humanities & Creative Praxis; Digital Studies; Disability Studies; Disney Culture; Drama and Society; East-West Literary Relations; Family and Metafamily; Fantasy and the Fantastic; Feminisms; Film and Literature; Film Studies; Folklore and Mythology; Food Representation in the Spanish-Speaking World; Food Studies; French; Gay, Lesbian and Transgender Literature; Germanic Studies; Gothic; Hip Hop Aesthetics and Spoken Word Poetics; Horror and the Supernatural; Indigenous Literatures and Cultures; Italian; Italian Cinema; Italian Ecocriticism; Jewish Literature and Culture; Language, Culture, and Linguistics; Latin American Cinema; Latina/o Literature and Culture; Literature & the Other Arts; Literature and Religion; Medieval Literature; Middle English Literature, including Chaucer; New Italians; Oceanic Literatures and Cultures; Old English Literature, including Beowulf; Poetry and Poetics; Postcolonial Literature; Prison Studies; Religion in American Literature; Rhetorical Approaches to Literature; Rhetorical Theory; Romanticism; Science Fiction; Shakespeare and the Early Moderns; Spain, Portugal, and Latin America: Jewish Culture & Literature in Trans-Iberia, Spanish and Portuguese (Latin American); Spanish and Portuguese (Peninsular); Teaching with Media and Technology; Teaching Writing Across the Disciplines; Television Studies; Travel and Literature; Un camino difícil/A difficult Journey: Cultural Products about “(il)legal” (im)migration; Veterans Studies; Video Game Studies; Women in Literature; Young Adult Literature and Culture.
The Standing Sessions are broad, open-topic, paper-reading sessions. Any Standing Session that does not convene for two consecutive years will be struck from the roster. It may be reinstated upon written request by twenty members of PAMLA. Each Standing Session has a presiding officer. At the conclusion of each Standing Session’s program, the presiding officer calls for nominations from the floor for the office of presiding officer and elects the next year’s presiding officer by a majority vote of members present in the session. Candidates for the office must be members of PAMLA. In the event that any presiding officer is unable to serve, or the session has failed to put forward a name for the next presiding officer, the Executive Director of the Association, acting for the General Board, will designate another member to take on the role.
Presiding officers are responsible for reviewing, inviting, or declining proposals to their session, designing their session’s program, and submitting them to the Executive Director. The presiding officer will also file a report with the Executive Director or a delegate of the Executive Director immediately following the conference. This report will include a brief evaluation of the session’s program, the results of any elections (for Standing Sessions), as well as attendance figures and the names of anyone who didn’t present. The Executive Director and Board will use these reports, and other appropriate information, to review the sectional structure of PAMLA.
SPECIAL SESSIONS
Roundtables, Workshops, Creative Conversations, Seminars, Special Events, or Special Sessions on any topic that is different from the topics of the Standing Sessions may be proposed for each conference. Proposals will be sent to the First Vice President via online submission by a reasonable deadline, which will be determined by the Executive Director in consultation with the First Vice President and which will provide adequate time for the proposals to be evaluated. The selection or rejection of proposals will be determined by the needs of the conference program. While Special Session proposers need not be current PAMLA members at the time of their submission, they must pay their membership fee immediately upon having their proposed session accepted.
Presiding officers will be responsible for inviting and vetting participants for their sessions, designing their sessions, and communicating session information with the Executive Director. Typically, no more than two presenters may be from the presiding officer’s own institution.
After meeting successfully for three consecutive years, a Special Session may be considered for Standing Session status upon petition from at least two PAMLA members. The General Board will make the decision of whether to approve such petitions.
SESSION STRUCTURE
Conference sessions typically last for ninety minutes. In drawing up the program of their own sessions, presiding officers are responsible for the format and for ensuring that a minimum of fifteen minutes will be allowed for discussion, including participation from the audience, which they shall facilitate. They shall accordingly adjust the number and length of presentations in their session.
ALLIED ORGANIZATION STATUS
An organization may apply for allied status to PAMLA, to be granted at the discretion of the Executive Director for a five-year renewable term. Allied organizations may hold at least one session, not to exceed ninety minutes, at the PAMLA conference. Participants in such Allied Sessions must be members of PAMLA.
PACIFIC COAST PHILOLOGY
Pacific Coast Philology publishes peer-reviewed essays of interest to scholars in the classical and modern languages, literatures, and cultures in two issues annually, usually a general issue and a special topics issue. Both issues are published through Penn State University Press. Essays may be submitted any time throughout the year. While articles that grow out of papers delivered at the Annual Conferences of PAMLA are welcome, PAMLA members are encouraged to submit essays independently of the conference as well. Proposers shall not submit more than one article at a time, and a decision on publication should have been made concerning a submitted article before a new essay is submitted. PAMLA membership is not required to submit to Pacific Coast Philology. Normally, up to five reviews of recent works by PAMLA members will be published in the regular issue of the journal, and members may be solicited to submit their books for review. Additional monographs serving the interest of the Association may be published, when funds are available, under the authorization of the General Board.
The general issue of Pacific Coast Philology is edited by the General Editor(s), in consultation with the Editorial Committee, consisting of the incoming President and the First and Second Vice Presidents. The General Editor(s) shall organize an election of an Editorial Advisory Board, its members to be approved by the General Board and to serve renewable five-year terms. Members of the Editorial Advisory Board may serve as referees of those manuscripts having the best potential for publication. In addition to the Editorial Advisory Board members, the General Editor(s) shall contact specialists in the field as referees of the submitted essays and make the final selection of essays. The Executive Director is authorized to pay expenses for one editorial meeting each year.
The special topics issues are edited by Guest Editors. In many cases, a past PAMLA President, sometimes working with an assistant Guest Editor, will serve as Guest Editor. But any PAMLA member(s) may suggest a topic to the General Editor(s), the Editorial Committee, and the Editorial Advisory Board and be selected as Guest Editor(s), with the approval of the General Editor(s) and the General Board. The Guest Editor solicits manuscripts, obtains reviewers, and works with the General Editor(s) to fulfill the duties specified in the agreement with Penn State University Press.
Due to the diversity of the readership, all essays submitted to Pacific Coast Philology should be primarily in English.
Pacific Coast Philology is managed by one or two General Editor(s), appointed for renewable three-year terms by the General Board. The General Editor(s) perform(s) the managerial duties as described in the agreement with the journal’s current publisher, including: soliciting essays; appointing and overseeing a book review editor; and organizing the nomination and election of an Editorial Advisory Board (12-15 scholars or professionals). The General Editor(s) of the regular issue and the guest editor(s) of the special issues perform(s) or oversee(s) all editorial functions, including ensuring peer-review of essays; communicating with authors about receipt and decisions with respect to manuscripts’ acceptances; and preparing manuscripts according to Penn State University Press guidelines. The General Editor(s) sit(s) on the PAMLA Executive Committee, making annual reports on the production and finances of the journal and presenting proposals concerning the journal.
ELECTION OF OFFICERS OF PAMLA
Each year the PAMLA President appoints a Nominating Committee, usually consisting of the three most recent former Presidents of the Association. When it is impossible for a past-President to serve, the current President may fill that vacancy. If the President is unable or unwilling to serve in this role, then the President, in consultation with the Executive Committee, may select an alternative member to fill this role. The Nominating Committee shall nominate at least two candidates for each vacant office (except the President and First Vice President when succession follows the order described in the Constitution, Article II, Sec. 1; the General Editor(s); the Executive Director; and the Treasurer), giving fair representation to the several geographical areas and literary, cultural, and linguistic fields of the members, and striving for a diverse array of experiences and knowledges. The individuals nominated as General Editor(s), Executive Director, and Treasurer will be approved by the General Board before taking office. In addition, any member of the Association may initiate a petition nominating additional members as candidates for the office of Second Vice President and for each of the vacancies on the General Board. Petitions must be signed by at least 25 members of the Association and presented to the Executive Director by April 10.
The Executive Director shall prepare an official ballot of the nominations proposed by the Nominating Committee and any additional nominations proposed by petition of members of the Association (see preceding paragraph). The ballot will be sent electronically in a timely fashion. Members must return electronic ballots by the announced deadline. The nominees receiving the highest number of votes shall be declared elected, and their names shall be announced at the General Membership Meeting. In the case of a tie vote, the General Board may vote to break such a tie, or in the case of General Board members-at-large, may choose to seat an additional member. In the case that an Executive Committee or General Board member cannot serve out their term, the General Board may vote for a replacement for the remainder of the term or may leave that position vacant until the next regularly scheduled election. Should a President be unable to complete their term, the First Vice President shall step in to serve the remainder of the President’s term.
ANNUAL DUES
Annual dues to the Association are $35 for students and part-time faculty; $40 for independent scholars, postdocs, and non-tenure track (full time) faculty; $55 for assistant professors and museum or academic staff; $60 for associate professors, retired/emeriti, K-12 teachers, and librarians; $65 for full professors; and $75 for administrators. A lifetime membership is available for $500.00, plus a $10 service fee if paid online. All persons attending conferences of the Association will be charged a conference registration fee beyond the regular membership fee sufficient to help defray expenses of the conference and conference staff. The amount of the conference registration fee shall be determined by the Executive Director with the advice and consent of the General Board. There will also be an auditor conference fee option, for those who wish to attend the conference but who aren’t chairing, presiding, or presenting.
GENERAL INFORMATION
At the beginning of each calendar year, the Executive Director shall post a Call for Papers for Special Sessions for the fall conference.
The Executive Director is responsible, with the assistance of the sessions’ presiding officers and perhaps a Site Committee chair, for the preparation and publication of a program of the conference. Conference participants who are not members and who have not paid their conference fees by the conference program publishing deadline will be dropped from the program.
Remuneration of the Executive Director shall be determined by the General Board, subject to approval by the members. By decisions of the General Board (formerly named the Executive Committee) as ratified in the Regular Plenary Sessions of 1967 and 1973, the Association pays for expenses incurred by the Executive Director in the conducting of their duties, including attending the conference or other meetings on behalf of the Association and not reimbursed from other sources. The financial allowance made by the Association to the Executive Director was set in 2014 at a total of ten thousand dollars. In 2017, the Executive Director’s annual compensation was increased to thirteen-thousand dollars. In 2017, the Board approved the creation of an Assistant Director position (to be reasonable compensated). In 2022, the Executive Director’s annual compensation was increased to twenty-thousand dollars. Members of the General Board may be reimbursed, if funds are available, for travel on behalf of the Association.
The Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association has been affiliated since its founding as the Philological Association of the Pacific Coast in 1899 with the American Philological Association, and since 1917 with the Modern Language Association of America. The Executive Director or a representative of PAMLA is a voting member of the MLA Delegate Assembly representing the region.
PAMLA-RMMLA REGIONAL BOUNDARIES AGREEMENT
The Pacific Ancient and Modern Language Association (PAMLA) and Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association (RMMLA) agree to share the cities of Las Vegas, Nevada and Spokane, Washington as convention sites. When either association anticipates locating a conference in one of these cities, it is expected to notify the other association of its intent when negotiations begin and before finalizing a contract. PAMLA and RMMLA further agree that any conferences they schedule in Las Vegas or Spokane will not be held in the same city in the same year or in contiguous years.
The PAMLA region includes the full states of Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington (with the exception of Spokane). Canada will be divided following the state line between Washington and Idaho, going north; everything west and north of that line is in the PAMLA region, including the province of British Columbia, Canada.
The RMMLA region includes the full states of Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada (with the exception of Las Vegas), New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming, and portions of Texas agreed upon with South Central Modern Language Association. Canada will be divided following the state line between Washington and Idaho, going north; everything east and north of that line is in the RMMLA region, including the province of Alberta, Canada.
RMMLA or another regional MLA may be permitted to hold a conference in PAMLA’s above-specified territory only upon prior approval by PAMLA’s Executive Director in conjunction with the PAMLA Executive Committee, and subject to an agreed-upon “out-of-region usage fee.” (This out-of-region allowance does not affect the above-stated PAMLA-RMMLA agreement concerning the shared cities of Spokane and Las Vegas.)
Likewise, upon prior approval by the appropriate regional MLA’s Executive Director in conjunction with their Executive Board, PAMLA is willing to pay an agreed-upon “out-of-region usage fee” to book a conference out of its territory.
The PAMLA Executive Director in conjunction with the PAMLA Executive Committee reserves the right to refuse any and all offers by other regional MLAs to use any location in our above-specified territory.
Territorial Agreement ratified by the PAMLA Executive Committee on November 10, 2024, and approved by a vote of the PAMLA General Membership.