MSt (Wadham College, Oxford); B.S. (Intensive) (Yale University)

Research

Giovanna Truong's DPhil project is about the effect of letterpress printing technology (and its exchange) on the Yiddish language during the early modern period. She applies digital methodologies (including computer vision and machine learning) to linguistic, economic, and artistic questions to study vaybertaytsh/mashket typefaces and Yiddish printing networks.

Her MSt dissertation was on linguistic variation and hierarchy in Sholem Aleichem's epistolary novel Marienbad. It was awarded the Taube Prize for Student Writing in Hebrew and Jewish Studies.

Her undergraduate background is in experimental physics (supercooled water levitation) and German. During her undergraduate years, she also became a printer's apprentice.

Publications and Lectures

A Pair (translation of Sholem Asch). Yiddish Book Center Friendship Translation Series, 2025.

The Architecture of an Early Modern Hebrew-Yiddish Prayerbook. Five College Seminar in Book History, Amherst, MA, 2025.

The Typography of the 1609 Venice Haggadah. Letters that Link Us: Histories and Mysteries of Hebrew Type, Minneapolis, MN, 2024.

A Yiddish Love Affair: The State of Yiddish Today. American Jewish University, 2023.

Verter (zine). Yiddish: A Global Culture, Yiddish Book Center, Amherst, MA, 2023.

Translating a Text on Racist Violence as a Yiddish Student. In geveb, 2022.

Illustrating Ya'akov Fichmann's "Shabes in vald." In geveb, 2022.