Rala Diakite

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