Staff profile

I am an Assistant Professor in Digital Humanities and the Ancient World, with a specialization in Greek Literature.

I hold a Doctorate in Classical Philology from the University of Bari Aldo Moro, where my research focused on the Minor Greek Geographers. Since 2016, I have been working with digital and computational approaches to the ancient world, beginning as a Research Assistant at the Alexander von Humboldt Chair of Digital Humanities at the University of Leipzig. My work has since taken me to a number of European and international institutions, including KU Leuven, the University of Cologne, the University of Bonn, Furman University, and Tufts University.

My current research explores travel narratives and descriptions of landscapes in Greek and Roman sources through geospatial modeling, GIS, and large language models. I have developed machine learning methods for the automatic recognition and classification of toponyms in Ancient Greek texts, and I study ancient documents through the combined perspectives of mapping and natural language processing. I also co-lead various projects on the digital analysis of literary texts: among these is the Ugarit Translation Alignment Editor (https://ugarit.ialigner.com/), an annotation platform that supports the study of how ancient texts are reinterpreted by translators.

My most recent book, "Can’t Touch This: Digital Approaches to Materiality in Cultural Heritage" (co-edited with Gabriel Bodard, University of London), published in Open Access, addresses ethical questions in the digital representation of material heritage, with particular attention to debates on decolonization and restitution.

I have worked in several major projects in Digital Classics, including the Perseus Digital Library, the Pelagios Project, Sunoikisis Digital Classics Consortium, and the Digital Classicist Wiki. I also have a keen interest in interdisciplinary collaborations: I am a founding member of the Digital Tolkien Project (https://digitaltolkien.com), and I collaborate in various capacities with colleagues in Egyptology,  Archaeology, and Near Eastern Studies.  

I greatly enjoy working with students on digital projects related to the ancient world. I have supervised projects on a wide range of topics, from maps of Colonial America and cuneiform inscriptions to Ancient Greek comedy, digital mapping of the Odyssey and Old Norse sagas, 3D models of Pompeii, GIS analyses of ancient travel, comparative translations of Homer, and sentiment analysis using AI.

Research Interests

• Digital and Computational Humanities
• GIS and spatial modeling
• Linguistic Analysis and Visualisation
• Translation Studies
• Ancient Geography and Science
• Ancient Mediterranean History

Student Supervision and Mentorship

PhD Supervision

I am very happy to supervise students interested in applying digital methods to the study of ancient documents, particularly within the domain of mapping, GIS, and Machine Learning. Feel free to get in touch, even if you have no prior technical knowledge, and I'll help you understand how to get started.  

Postgraduate and Early Career Supervision

I collaborate with several Early Career Scholars from various institutions. If you would like to know more about Digital Humanities, how to get started, and what career prospects are available in the field, do get in touch. 

Awards and Recognition

• 2024. LECTIO Fellowship, KU Leuven.
• 2020. NetEx Fellowship, University of Cologne, Institute of Digital Humanities.
• 2019. EXCELLENT Fellowship, University of Cologne, Institute of Digital Humanities.
• 2016-2017. DAAD Scholarship, University of Leipzig, Alexander von Humboldt Chair of Digital Humanities. 
• 2014. Visiting Scholarship, Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, Abteilung Ägyptologie.

• Digital and Computational Humanities
• GIS and spatial modeling
• Linguistic Analysis and Visualisation
• Translation Studies
• Ancient Geography and Science
• Ancient Mediterranean History