SUNY Cortland Professor Emerita to Become Modern Languages Association President

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Catherine Porter (photo by Daniel Root)

CORTLAND, NY (12/17/2008)(readMedia)-- Catherine Porter of New York, N.Y., a professor emerita of French at SUNY Cortland, will become president of the Modern Language Association of America (MLA), an international organization serving English and foreign language teachers.

Elected to the organization as second vice president two years ago, Porter served as first vice president during 2008 and will be president during 2009.

For more than 100 years, MLA members have worked to strengthen the study and teaching of English and foreign language and literature. The association has more than 30,000 members in 100 countries with the majority in the U.S. and Canada. Founded in 1883, the MLA provides opportunities for its members to share their scholarly findings and teaching experiences with colleagues and to discuss trends in the academy, almost exclusively in higher education. Nearly 300 members are elected to govern the association through its Executive Council, Delegate Assembly and other governance committees.

The organization hosts meetings, an annual convention in late December and works with related associations. More than 2,000 members give papers and readings each year at the convention.

The organization sustains The MLA International Bibliography, the only comprehensive bibliography in language and literature, and an exceptional publishing program in the humanities, with four major periodicals: PMLA, the ADE Bulletin, the ADFL Bulletin and Profession.

Porter has served the MLA in the past as chair of its Committee on Academic Freedom and Professional Rights and Responsibilities. She served on MLA's Delegate Assembly and the Delegate Assembly Organizing Committee and was an elected member of the Executive Council from 1996-2000.

She joined SUNY Cortland in 1969 as an assistant professor of French in the International Communications and Culture Department, was promoted to professor in 1982 and chaired the department for 10 years. A former Faculty Senate treasurer, Porter also served on numerous committees, including the College Assessment Committee and the Graduate Faculty Executive Council. She retired in 2001 after serving for 32 years on the faculty.

An internationally recognized translator of scholarly works, Porter has translated 35 books. Over the years, she has been a reviewer of texts and translations for several university presses and reviewed translation grant proposals for the National Endowment for the Humanities.

She served for many years as an appointed member of the Liberal Arts and General Education Faculty Committee of Excelsior College, formerly Regents College.

In 1996, the French Ministry of National Education, Higher Education and Research named her Chevalier de l'Ordre des Palmes Academiques, a title bestowed upon scholars who have contributed significantly to the advancement of French language and culture.

In 1997, Porter was honored with a Phi Kappa Phi Scholar Award from the honor society's Northeast Region for her outstanding academic achievement. A 1993 inductee into SUNY Cortland's Chapter of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, she had served as the chapter's president in 1995-96.

In 1999, she was a finalist for the MLA Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for a Transition of a Scholarly Study of Literature.

A native of Dunsmuir, Calif., Porter earned a bachelor's degree in French from Pomona College, where she was Phi Beta Kappa and a National Merit Scholar. As an undergraduate, she also studied at the Sorbonne in Paris, France. She earned both her master's degree and a Ph.D. in French from Yale University, where she received fellowships. Before joining SUNY Cortland, Porter taught at Wilson College in Pennsylvania, the University of Hartford in Connecticut, and Cornell University.

She and her husband, Philip E. Lewis, have two grown children, Maria Lewis Wolff of Ithaca, N.Y., and Benjamin Porter Lewis of Berlin, Germany.

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