Mark Marino writes, “At the 2013 MLA Convention in Boston, I revealed that I and my writing partner Rob Wittig created the fictional protest movement OccupyMLA.
What started out as a single Twitter account evolved into an elaborate fiction about a hapless trio of adjuncts, trying to fight for their place in the academy. Often fighting just as much against one another, the members of Occupy MLA struggled to reach the very bottom rungs of the academic ladder in a professional ecology that has stratified the administration, the tenured, and the adjuncts, with a chasm between each domain.”
The story of Occupy MLA is story that MLA must wrestle with, the plight of adjuncts, the future of “the profession.” Notice this year’s theme for the conference in Chicago: Vulnerable Times.
The piece is an example of improvised narrative, Wittig and Marino call netprovs, a form which combines real-time performance with emerging online venues.
(Thanks, Mark!)