Founded in 1959 and based at the University of Iowa, the Midwest Modern Language Association is a non-profit organization of teachers and scholars of literature, language, and culture. A regional affiliate of the Modern Language Association, the M/MLA provides a forum for disseminating scholarship and improving teaching in the fields of literary and cultural criticism. The members of the M/MLA hail from many different departments, including Comparative Literature, English, French, German, Italian, Linguistics, and Spanish. The M/MLA's annual November meeting builds a sense of community among many specialized fields with over 200 sessions, some coalescing around an informal convention theme and others focusing on widely ranging topics that represent the varied interests of the association's fields. Annual meetings also feature professionalizing workshops and a book exhibit that foregrounds the recent publications of its members. The M/MLA's Journal publishes their work in two issues each year.