Deanna Shemek is Professor of Italian and European Studies at the University of California, Irvine. She directs IDEA and serves as principal investigator for IDEA Letters and IDEA Virtual Studiolo.

IDEA's Advisory Board includes historians, art historians, literary scholars, and others with expertise in Mantua, the Italian Renaissance and Early Modern Europe. We thank them for their participation!

Valerie Taylor holds a Ph.D in Art History fom King's College, London and teaches at Santa Monica College. She is an expert on Italian Renaissance tableware and the director of The Illustrated Credenza project.

Catherine Kovesi is Professor of History at the University of Melbourne. She studies the history of luxury consumption, clothing, textiles and gender in early modern Italy and directs the Fashioning Isabella project.

Sarah Cockram lectures  in Medieval History at the University of Glasgow. Her research focuses on gender history and historical animal studies. She is co-developer of IDEA Bibliography.

Roberta Piccinelli is Curator of the Musei Civici di Mantova. Her scholarship focuses on the history of collections and collecting in Mantua. She is Associate Director of IDEA and co-principal investigator for IDEA Letters.

The VisITLab team at Italy's supercomputing center, Cineca, is a principal partner in the research, design, and development of IDEA's Virtual Studiolo, IDEA Letters, and the interfaces among our different projects. 

Lisa Boutin Vitela is Associate Professor of Art History and Visual and Cultural Studies at Cerritos College. A leading expert on Renaissance maiolica, Lisa directs IDEA Ceramics, which is currrently in redevelopment.

Marie-Louise Leonard is a historian of early modern public health and disease in Italy. She holds a Ph.D from the University of Glasgow and is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Venice, Ca' Foscari. She is co-developer of IDEA Bibliography.

Lisa De Luigi studied Philosophy and Aesthetics at the University of Rome La Sapienza and at the Birkbeck University of London. She now lives in Irvine, California with her family and too many cats. She freelances as web and media designer and video editor.