Lorella Viola

Dr. Lorella Viola is an Assistant Professor in Digital Humanities & Society at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, affiliated with the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities and the Network Institute. Her research focuses on digital methodologies to study power dynamics and ideologies through language, and the impact of digital transformation on knowledge creation. She holds a PhD from the University of East Anglia (2016), awarded the CHASE Going Digital Award for her thesis on dubbing-induced language change in Italian.

Her academic journey includes roles as co-Principal Investigator in the Luxembourg National Research Fund's DHARPA project and Work Package Leader in the transatlantic Oceanic Exchanges project. Current initiatives include the PICCH project on contested colonial heritage and the Cultural Heritage, Identities & Perspectives project addressing societal changes.

• Education: PhD in Language and Communication Studies from University of East Anglia (2016), focusing on dubbing-induced language change in Italian.

Research interests span digital humanities methodologies, multilingualism in knowledge production, and historical discourse analysis. Her notable publications include The Humanities in the Digital: Beyond Critical Digital Humanities (Springer) and Multilingual Digital Humanities (Routledge). She has developed innovative digital tools like ChroniclItaly for Italian immigrant newspapers and GeoNewsMiner for spatial humanities analysis.

• Awards: CHASE Going Digital Award (2016), recognition in digital humanities contributions.

Viola’s work emphasizes transparency and replicability in digital research, reflected in projects like DHARPA’s software development. She also leads courses on digital humanities, discourse analysis, and historical data methods.