Keynotes
Barbara Bordalejo (University of Lethbridge)
Barbara Bordalejo is a textual scholar specialising in digital methods applied to the study of texts. Bridging English literature and digital philology, she has produced digital editions of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales and Darwin’s Origin of Species, and collaborated on editions of Dante’s Commedia, Boccaccio’s Teseida, the 15th-century Castilian Cancioneros, and the Estoria de Espanna. Her articles explore the transformative impact of digital culture on authorship and copyright, and interrogate the future of the book, including e-books and e-readers. She has also published on EDID matters, including a book (Intersectionality in Digital Humanities, 2019, with Roopika Risam), various articles, and the Digital Privilege Game. An accomplished researcher in computational methods for textual study as well as a strong advocate of data sharing without commercial restrictions, she co-founded the Textual Communities Project used for transcribing, collating and publishing texts. Bordalejo is active in numerous organisations promoting philological research through digital methods, including as a president of the Canadian Society for Digital Humanities/ Société canadienne des humanités numériques, former secretary of the European Association for Digital Humanities, and former Chair of Global Outlook :: Digital Humanities. She has also held the positions of Assistant Professor at KU Leuven (2014–2019), Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham (2014–2016), Assistant Professor at the University of Lethbridge (2021-2024), served as a General Editor of Variants, the journal of the European Society for Textual Scholarship (2006–2012), and currently co-edits Ecdótica and Digital Studies/ Le champ numérique. She is now also in charge of the Canterbury Tales Project.
Paola Italia (University of Bologna)
Paola Italia is a textual scholar with a focus on the study of authorial textual variants. She was one of the key figures in proposing a new conceptualisation for the analysis of the manuscripts of nineteenth- and twentieth-century authors (What is authorial philology, 2021, with Giulia Raboni; Editing Novecento, 2013; Editing Duemila, 2020). Using this theoretical framework, she has worked on a number of authors: Manzoni (Manzoni, 2020), Leopardi (Il metodo di Leopardi, 2016), Gadda (Come lavorava Gadda, 2017 [Dans l’atelier de Carlo Emilio Gadda, 2023]), Savinio (Il pellegrino appassionato, 2004), Bassani (Opere, 2001) and Tobino (Opere scelte, 2007). Her editorial work has exemplified how linguistic issues can be addressed in critical editions and how paper and digital text editions coexist in contemporary publishing. Italia has taught at the Universities of Siena, Rome “La Sapienza”, Sorbonne Nouvelle, Wellesley, and now she teaches at the Alma Mater University of Bologna, where she coordinates the research groups: Digital Manuscripts and /DH.ARC Digital Philology. She is currently responsible for the new Adelphi edition of Gadda’s works (Accoppiamenti giudiziosi, 2011; Eros e Priapo, 2016, Giornale di guerra e di prigionia, 2023) and collaborates with the Italian Manuscripts Group at the Institute of Modern Texts and Manuscripts (ITEM, ENS/CNRS).
Franz Johansson (Sorbonne University, ITEM)
Franz Johansson is a scholar specializing in textual studies, with a focus on exploring the writing processes of authors, particularly through the analysis of manuscripts and drafts in all their forms, including those produced using digital tools and media. He teaches at Sorbonne University and co-directs the Séminaire général de critique génétique at ITEM (ENS/CNRS). His editorial work is centered on the writings and manuscripts of Paul Valéry, to whom he has dedicated numerous articles and collaborative volumes (Valéry traduit [2023], L’Isle sans nom: un projet dramatique inédit de Paul Valéry [2018], and Du divin et des dieux: Recherches sur le Peri tôn tou theou de Paul Valéry [2014]), as well as scholarly editions, (the digital genetic edition of Robinson). He has also studied the writings and creations of contemporary Belgian novelist and essayist Jean-Philippe Toussaint on several occasions. His most recent research involves applying a genetic approach to a collection of sixteenth-century manuscripts written in New Spain in the aftermath of the conquest of Mexico, namely Bernardino de Sahagún’s Historia general de las cosas de la Nueva España (General History of the Things of New Spain) and its avant-texte.
Juozas Rimantas Lazutka (Vilnius University)
Juozas Rimantas Lazutka is a Lithuanian geneticist focusing his research on chromosome analysis and oncogenetics. He is also interested in interdisciplinary topics such as genetic toxicology and behavioral genetics, which he teaches at Vilnius University. Based on these courses, he has published textbooks, including Genetic Toxicology (2000) and Behavioral Genetics (2008). In addition to his laboratory work, his interests include the theoretical aspects of sciences, especially at the interface of different research fields. As an invited speaker, he has participated in interdisciplinary scientific conferences on bioethics, public understanding of biotechnology, and the role of universities in developing cities and societies.