Vialla Hartfield-MéndezTeaching Professor of SpanishDirector of Engaged Learning, Center for Faculty Development and ExcellenceSenior Faculty Fellow, Center for Ethics

Vialla Hartfield-Méndez holds a Ph.D. in Spanish literature from the University of Virginia.  Dr. Hartfield-Méndez is Director of Engaged Learning in the Center for Community Partnerships (CFCP) and professor of pedagogy in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Emory University.  She joined Emory’s faculty in 1992 after holding teaching positions at Vassar College and Drew University.

Professor Hartfield-Méndez is the author of Woman and the Infinite.  Epiphanic Moments in Pedro Salinas’s Art (Bucknell UP, 1996) and has published articles and book reviews on twentieth-century Spanish poetry and narrative in such journals as Hispanic Review, Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature, Bulletin of Hispanic Studies, and Anales de la Literatura Española Contemporánea; additionally, her work on community engagement has appeared in Engaging Students in the Community and the World, a publication of the Faculty Resource Network. She has also served on the Editorial Board of the Revista de Estudios Hispánicos and as coeditor of the Review Section of the same journal.

Recipient of the Emory Language Center’s Excellence in Teaching Award, and the Winship Award for Senior Lecturers, Professor Hartfield-Méndez created several service-learning courses in Spanish and led the Department's effort to strengthen connections with Atlanta's Hispanic community. Her numerous conference presentations address topics of Spanish literature and culture as well as community-engaged learning pedagogy.

Professor Hartfield-Méndez directed the Theory Practice Learning Program in Emory College for a number of years and was faculty liaison for Project SHINE (Students Helping in Naturalization and English).  She also served as Director of the Emory Scholars Program in Emory College before being named Director of Engaged Learning for the OUCP in the Provost's Office in 2009.

Community-campus partnerships, community-engaged pedagogy

The arts and social justice in pedagogical practices

Border spaces and border narratives