Born and raised in Italy, Valeria Valotto was lucky enough to turn one her lifelong passions, chatting, into an academic interest, languages. Her undiscriminating love for words took her to pursue living and dead languages, to eventually focus on the Latin word res publica for her PhD at King’s College.
Valeria is an advocate for the revolutionary power of the humanities and believes that understanding words can help us understand, and eventually change, the world. Her mission is to showcase linguistics in unusual settings, experimenting with arts installations and talks for a broader public.
Besides loving words and their history, Valeria is passionate about people and their stories, which is why she works for a community charity south of the Thames, and spends her free time immersing herself in the local history of the East End, where she currently lives.