Congraatulations to Laura Lomas!!!

The Modern Language Association has awarded Laura Lomas the seventh annual MLA Prize for United States Latina and Latino and Chicana and Chicano Literary and Cultural Studies. She is awarded the prize based on her text Translating Empire: Jose Marti, Migrant Latino Subjects, and American Modernities.

The committee's citation for the winning book reads:


Translating Empire: José Martí, Migrant Latino Subjects, and American Modernities does an excellent job of reinterpreting the legacy of José Martí while documenting an impressive body of archival work. Covering the North American literary and cultural texts of the United States in the Gilded Age, Laura Lomas reads Martí and his contemporaries to tell the story of Latino migrants as the translators of cultures situated between modernities. Lomas gives close attention to Martí's lesser-known texts, reinvigorates his contributions to the United States, and provides an abundance of provocative and thoughtful readings. Lomas's reinterpretation of Martí recasts the transamerican imaginary as a model for a contemporary readership drawing north-south intersections between Latin American studies and United States Latino studies.


Laura Lomas is an associate professor in the English Department and the Graduate Program in American Studies at Rutgers University, Newark.