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SLU-Madrid Alumna Wins MLA Award for Johns Hopkins University Course

by Caroline Fields and Isaiah Voss on 02/25/2025

02/25/2025

Laura Hartmann-Villalta ('05) received a Modern Language Association of America (MLA) prize for her first-year writing course at Johns Hopkins University in January 2025.

Hartmann-Villalta was the fourth annual recipient of the MLA-EBSCO Collaboration for Information Literary Prize for her course "Reintroduction to Writing: Sheridan Libraries Collaboration." This award recognizes the collaboration between faculty and librarians who develop course curricula in literature, language or related disciplines.

Hartmann-Villalta's class was the first writing course to achieve this accolade.

She partnered with Hedi Herr, librarian for English, philosophy and special collection student engagement at Johns Hopkins University. The pair designed "Reintroduction to Writing: Sheridan Libraries Collaboration" to introduce students to archival research.

Woman in blazer smiles at camera while leaning against brick ledge of building.

Portrait of Hartmann-Villalta. Submitted photo.

"There is such a beautiful marriage between teaching writing and teaching information literacy. It's already there," said Hartmann-Villalta.

The course is one of 12 options that satisfy a first-year writing requirement.

"The inspiration behind the class is my own love of libraries," she said.

"You're there with some really extraordinary people — being able to have conversations that can't really take place in any other space," she reflected on her time at SLU-Madrid.

She also explained how SLU-Madrid professors helped her learn skills like "how to engage with a text, how to participate in a seminar, how to have a one-on-one with someone who's super qualified about their topic and do so in multiple languages — but also learn how to dialogue across differences."

Hartmann-Villalta is a lecturer in her third year at the Johns Hopkins University Writing Center. 

She previously taught at Georgetown University for five years. She has also been a member of the MLA for 10 years and served as chair of the MLA's Committee on Contingent Labor in the Profession from 2023-2024.