A West Virginia University professor has been elected to the executive committee of the Modern Language Association (MLA) Division on African Literature.

Janice Spleth was elected to a five-year term on the five-person committee that serves as the governing body of the Division on African Literature, one of 85 divisions representing a major area of membership interest within the MLA .

Spleth is a professor in WVU s Department of Foreign Languages in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences. She also holds adjunct status in WVU s Womens Studies Program and faculty associate status in Africana Studies.

In addition, Spleth and Sandra Dixon, assistant professor of Spanish at WVU , will co-convene the 33rd annual meeting of the African Literature Association to be held at the Waterfront Place Hotel in Morgantown March 14-18. The conference is sponsored in part by the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences and by a grant from the West Virginia Humanities Council.

Spleth earned her doctorate in French from Rice University in 1973. Her expertise is in the field of African literature written in the French language. She has written numerous books, includingCritical Perspectives on Léopold Sédar Senghor,and more than 150 other publications, papers and articles.

She has been the winner of the WVU Foundation Outstanding Teacher Award and the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teacher Award. In 2006, Spleth was named the Armand E. and Mary W. Singer Professor in the Humanities.

The MLA of America provides opportunities for its members to share their scholarly findings and teaching experiences with colleagues and to discuss trends in the academy, while working to strengthen the study and teaching of language and literature.

For more information or to inquire about the African Literature Association, contact Spleth at jspleth@wvu.edu or at 304-293-5121, ext. 5532.