The Modern Language Association holds an annual convention each year in a different city—2013 in Boston, 2014 in Chicago, and 2018 in New York City.

You do not need to be a member to attend. I have never gone myself, but when I was a graduate student, I always heard about it as an academic jobseeker’s pressure cooker. Many interviews are conducted there annually, for many anxious graduating doctoral students.

But there are tons of other things going on as well, mostly of interest to a more scholarly crowd I would say, but focusing in any case on the wonderful world of language and literature.

In 2013, for example, you could have gone to sessions such as these:

• “What Is (a) Jewish Language?”
• “Tuning In to the Phoneme: Phonetic and Phonological Nuances in Second Language Acquisition”
• “Learning Outcomes in Online Second-Language Environments”
• “Using Your Language Proficiency and Cultural Expertise in a Federal Government Career”

Anyone can join the Modern Language Association, but you do not need to be a member to attend the conference. The registration fee is just a little higher for non-members is all.