I am a textual critic, editor, and digital humanist. I studied Literature and Linguistics in Venezuela. In 2003, I completed two PhDs, one in English and American Literature (New York University) and one in Middle English Literature (De Montfort University). Since then, I have worked at four universities on two continents. Currently, I am part of the English Department and co-direct the Humanities Innovation Lab at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta. 

 

I started working as part of the Canterbury Tales Project team in 1999 and became co-director of the project in 2005, and sole director in 2019. I have edited Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Darwin’s Origin of Species and collaborated in the creation of editions of Dante’s Commedia, Boccaccio’s Teseida, 15th Century Castillian Cancioneros, and the Estoria de Espanna. With Peter Robinson (University of Saskatchewan), I work in the Textual Communities Project, a tool for transcribing, collating and publishing texts. I am currently involved in the CantApp, an edition of the Canterbury Tales for mobile devices of which we published The General Prologue in February 2020.

 

My research centers on the theoretical aspects of textual criticism, especially computerized methods and the history and future of the book (including e-books and e-book readers). A large proportion of my work focuses on the application of phylogenetic software to the study of large textual traditions. I also write about digital literature and transmedia storytelling, as well as the transformational impact of digital culture on our ideas of authorship and copyright. I advocate data-sharing through Creative Commons licenses without commercial restrictions. I teach digital literature, digital textuality, new media, and English and American literature. I am the president of the Canadian Society for Digital Humanities / Société canadienne des humanités numériques (CSDH/SCHN).