Guy P. Raffa is an award-winning writer, teacher, and digital humanist. He writes and speaks on Italian culture and history, primarily on Dante Alighieri’s life, works, and legacy. In addition to publishing books and journal articles, he has written essays for popular venues on topics ranging from medieval warfare and George Washington’s Siege of Boston to Google’s hiring assumptions and bearded baseball players. He also created the Danteworlds website—a multimedia tour of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise.
Born in Brooklyn in 1960, he graduated from Hauppauge High School on Long Island before receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science and Mathematics from Duke University in 1982. He worked briefly as an associate actuary in Connecticut before resuming his studies in Italy and then earning a PhD in Italian at Indiana University.
Raffa’s honors include research fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the American Council of Learned Societies. He also received the President’s Associates Teaching Excellence Award and the Gold Award for Innovative Instructional Technology from the University of Texas at Austin, where he taught for over thirty years.