An examination of grief won English associate professor Dana Luciano a book prize at last month’s Modern Language Association (MLA) convention in San Francisco, while English associate professor Ricardo Ortiz earned notice for his book on the threat of cultural disappearance in Cuban America.

The 124th MLA conference, held from Dec. 27 to 30, served as a gathering opportunity for linguists and literary scholars and teachers -- including several Georgetown professors -- to share each other’s ideas and latest works and examine different forms of literary and critical traditions.

The MLA awarded Luciano with the 2008 Prize for a First Book for “Arranging Grief: Sacred Time and the Body in Nineteenth-Century America” (New York University Press 2007). The $1,000 award honors the first book-length publication of an MLA member.

Luciano received the prize for her consideration of how grief was imagined and experienced in various 19th-century cultural contexts.

“I was honored even to be considered for the award -- winning it was unexpected and wonderful,” Luciano said. “As someone working in sexuality studies, a long-marginalized field, having my book recognized by colleagues is even more gratifying, since it confers a degree of recognition on the field as well.”

English department chair Jason Rosenblatt calls it an award well-deserved.

“When you consider that the MLA has more than 30,000 members in 100 countries, mostly academics who teach and publish in the fields of English and foreign languages, you can begin to imagine how competitive this prize is,” he said. “In Dana Luciano, GU is thrice blessed because her teaching and her service to the English department and the university are as meritorious as her scholarship.”

Ortiz took home an honorable mention for the MLA’s Alan Bray Memorial Book Award, given to a scholar whose book profoundly influences gay and lesbian studies. Ortiz’s book, “Cultural Erotics in Cuban America” (University of Minnesota Press 2007), features Cuban-American artists and writers whose work, he argues, confronts the hegemonic U.S. culture.

In addition to Luciano and Ortiz’s recognitions, Georgetown faculty members filled out a full slate of panel discussions on topics ranging from the opportunities and challenges of globalization to Renaissance texts and 21st-century humor.

Adam Lifshey, assistant professor of Latin American literature, contributed to the latter panel sponsored by the American Humor Studies Association with a paper on the satirical newspaper “The Onion” and Comedy Central’s spin on the news, “The Daily Show.”

“The satirical media are often far more accurate in their portrayals of U.S. history than mainstream news organizations,” Lifshey said, pointing to fake coverage of Pearl Harbor and Vietnam in “The Onion.” “I was very pleased to present on these dynamics at the MLA.”

In all, eight faculty members presented papers for panels:

• Laura Benedetti, associate professor of Italian: “Italian Mothers Between Instinct and Reason.”

• Heidi Byrnes, the George M. Roth Distinguished Professor of German: “Advanced Language and Content Acquisition in Collegiate Education: Challenges of the MLA Report” and “The Audacity of Hope in Foreign Language Departments.”

• Tania Gentic, assistant professor of Spanish and Portuguese: “ ‘Cuba: Mi Secreto’: The Poetics of Space in María Zambrano and José Lezama Lima.”

• Lifshey: “America (The Conference Paper): The Onion Unpeeled, The Daily Show Untimed” and “The First Asian Novel In Spanish: Potential Readings of Pedro Paterno’s ‘Ninay.’ ”

• Mark McMorris, associate professor of English: “Outside the Republic of Literature: The Fate of Writing as Social Practice.”

• James O’Donnell, provost: “What is a Scholarly Journal? Identity Issues in Our Digital Age.”

• Samantha Pinto, assistant professor of English: “Repetitive Objects: Methodology as (Queer) Feminist Destiny.”

• Mimi Yiu, assistant professor of English: “Othello’s Blackwork: Embroidering the Moor.”Linguists can look forward
to MLA’s quasquicentennial – that’s 125th -- convention in Philadelphia next December.