This is a Fitchburg State University Alert: Due to inclement weather, the university is closed Tuesday, Jan. 27, and both day and evening classes and activities are canceled.
Rala Diakite
PROFESSOR
Humanities
School of Arts and Sciences
rdiakite@fitchburgstate.edu
978.665.4706
Office: Conlon Fine Arts 255A
Office Hours
Spring 2026
Tuesday 9:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.
Thursday 9:30 a.m. - 10:45 a.m.
Courses Taught
To see course descriptions go to the University Catalog.
Italian for Beginners I (ITAL 1000)
Italian for Beginners II (ITAL 1100)
Intermediate Italian I (ITAL 2000)
Intermediate Italian II (ITAL 2100)
Italian Culture in English I (ITAL 3000)
Italian Culture in English II (ITAL 3100)French for Beginners II (FREN 1100)
Background
Ph.D., Brown University (Italian Studies)
M.A., Brown University (Italian Studies)
B.A., Trinity College (Modern Languages)
I study the medieval period in Italy, the poetry of Dante, early comic verse, and the Italian chronicle tradition of the 14th century. I am fascinated by the opportunities offered by the conjunction of our modern digital culture with these medieval texts.
I am currently a Researcher for the Virtual Humanities Lab, a digital archive of early Renaissance and Renaissance Italian texts. Over the past two years, I have worked to encode (make searchable) a segment of a 14th century Florentine chronicle by Giovanni Villani, and am now focused on the translation into English and annotation of that same text. I am also preparing articles related to the role of women in Villani's chronicle.
AATI - American Association of Teachers of Italian
Dante Society of America
MLA - Modern Language Association