Introducing… Giorgia Tolfo

What’s your name?
Giorgia Tolfo

What’s your background?
My primary background is in comparative and postcolonial literature, in which I have a BA, MA and PhD from the University of Bologna. When I moved to London I got a Postgraduate Diploma in Digital Humanities from UCL which opened up my career to the digital publishing and digital humanities world. Because I can’t stay away from literature, in 2017 I co-founded the Festival of Italian Literature in London, which I now co-direct with a group of friends.

In one sentence, what is your role on the project?
As Data and Content Manager I’m responsible for the digitisation and delivery of content assets as well as involved in conceptual data modelling.

What excites you about the project?
The scale of it and the possibility of being part of a multidisciplinary team working towards the shaping of new research methods. I’m also excited by being constantly exposed to cutting-edge technologies and the fact that I can learn new things every day.

What challenges do you see ahead?
Living up to the ambition of the project and being as truly radical as we’d like to be. Trying to open new avenues for research is always hard, partly because it’s difficult to shake off pre-existing established methodologies, partly because everything new requires double efforts to be validated.

What’s the last (non work) book you read, exhibition or performance you saw?
I read so many books it’s really hard to name one, so I’ll mention the last one I was truly excited about, which is Flights by polish writer Olga Tokarczuck. It’s a book that brings together a constellation of multiple brief narrations about travelling, the history of anatomy and astronomy, religion, faith, but also personal stories of human beings constantly in motion looking for the true sense of life.

Finally, where can people find out more about you and your work?
I can be found easily on the usual professional channels, but also behind the curtains of FILL.