Rita Lucarelli studied at the University of Naples “L’Orientale,” Italy, where she received her MA degree in Classical Languages and Egyptology. She holds her Ph.D. from Leiden University, the Netherlands (2005).  Her Ph.D. thesis was published in 2006 as The Book of the Dead of Gatseshen: Ancient Egyptian Funerary Religion in the 10th Century BC. From 2005 to 2010, Lucarelli held a part-time position as a Lecturer of Egyptology at the University of Verona, Italy. From 2009 to 2012, she worked as a Research Scholar on the Book of the Dead Project at the University of Bonn, Germany.

Jane Raisch received her B.A. from the University of Pennsylvania in English and Classics and she continues to work in those areas as a graduate student. She focuses on the reception of Greek in Early Modern English literature and the intersection between scholarship and poetics.

Keith Budner studies Late Medieval and Early Modern Spain with complimentary interests in Latin, Italian, Greek and English literature.  His work and research is guided by questions of individual vs. communal identity, the social function of genre, the relationship between historiography and literature, and the transmission of cultural forms against divergent socio-political backdrops.

Linda Louie is a graduate student in the Romance Languages and Literatures program, emphasis French, with a Designated Emphasis in Renaissance and Early Modern Studies. She works on the history of French translation from the late Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Research interests include French, Italian, Spanish, and Occitan literature, manuscript studies, history of the book, translation studies, language standardization, imitation in Renaissance humanism, and textual transmission and reception.

Professor Joyce's research is concerned with questions about the ways people employ things in actively negotiating their place in society, the lives and itineraries of objects, and the reframing of human engagement with the world in terms of materiality.

Kathleen Huggins is a graduate student at UC Berkeley, in the department of Anthropology, with an emphasis on archaeology. She studies the pre-contact Andes, particularly the development of craft and arts traditions. Huggins has a background in technical illustration, and is interested in the long-term preservation of traditional art methods.

Professor Hendel is the editor-in-chief of the Oxford Hebrew Bible, a new critical edition of the Hebrew text, whose first volume (Proverbs, by Michael V. Fox) is in press. He is also writing a new commentary on Genesis for the Yale Anchor Bible. In 1999, he received the Frank Moore Cross Publications Award from the American Schools of Oriental Research.

Juliana Friend’s research explores the intersection of new media, sexuality, and Islam in Senegal. In her dissertation, she examines transformations in sexual education practice in a region officially marked by and popularly stigmatized for sexual violence. She also collaborates with LGBT activists in Senegal on issues of online activism and human rights. Drawing on experience in print and radio journalism, Juliana explores the opportunities and limitations of online platforms for collaborative storytelling. Friend holds an M.Phil in Anthropology from the University of Cambridge and a B.A.

Eduardo Escobar studies the languages, historiography, and the production of scientific and technical knowledge in Assyrian and Babylonian scholarship.

Jeroen Dewulf is the current director of Berkeley's Institute of European Studies and is an associate professor in the Department of German, where he is the incumbent of the Queen Beatrix Chair, serving as Director of the Dutch Studies Program. He is the founder and chair of both the Executive Committee of the Designated Emphasis in Dutch Studies and the Executive Committee of the Designated Emphasis in European Studies for graduate students.