From the February 2014 Desktop News | Dr. Jolene Hubbs, assistant professor in the Department of American Studies, was elected to the Modern Language Association’s executive committee of the Discussion Group on Southern Literature. As an executive committee member, Hubbs will help ensure the association stays abreast of current trends in research done by Southern literary scholars.

The Modern Language Association is the chief professional organization for scholars of language and literature with nearly 30,000 members in more than 100 countries. Discussion groups promote scholarly and professional activities, arrange sessions at the MLA Annual Convention, advise MLA committees on research and pedagogical needs, and propose projects that the association might wish to undertake regarding their areas of expertise.

“Part of the Southern literature discussion group’s role is to ensure that the MLA’s conventions and other programming represent the kinds of work that Southern literary scholars are doing right now, from emergent trends to longstanding areas of interest,” Hubbs said. “I’m excited to be a part of this effort.”

Hubbs was one of two candidates nominated for the position in March 2013. After elections were held, she was announced the winner in December.  She began her five-year term last month.

Hubbs received her bachelor’s from Scripps College, graduating summa cum laude with degrees in English and Italian, and her doctorate from Stanford University. At UA, she teaches classes on Southern literature and culture and 20th-century U.S. fiction.

Her articles on William Faulkner, Charles Chesnutt and Flannery O’Connor have appeared in journals including American Literary Realism and Mississippi Quarterly. In 2013, she was awarded UA’s Clarence Mondale Fellowship in American Studies and the College of Arts and Sciences’ Distinguished Teaching with Technology Fellowship. Her research focuses on writers of the South, literary representations of race and social class, and modernism and modernity.