A native of Canada, Tamara has lived in Venice for 14 years and coordinates the Canadian Pavillion at the Biennale. In 2000 she became a certified sommelier through AIS and has coordinated wine walks for prestigious organizations such as the Culinary Institute of America.

American-born Carla Cassano arrived in Europe over twenty years ago with a love of Italy and two suitcases. Carla has worked in travel and tourism for much of her career and currently works as a hotel inspector for an internationally recognized guide series. She also works as a consultant for local wine, food, and liquor producers, and is an expert in the agronomy and gastronomy of the Veneto. Among the walks and excursions that Carla leads for Context is our Bassano del Grappa Cultural Excursion, in which she weaves an incomparable experience of people, place, and time.

Originally from Madrid, Almudena graduated in art history in 1997 from Warwick University (B.A. Hons). Her first experience of Italy dates from 1996, as an undergraduate living and studying in Venice. Her interest in Italian art was further fueled during her Master's dissertation, which dealt with the fourteenth century tomb of Rizzardo di Camino in Vittorio Veneto, and the course "Rome before Avignon". After completing the M.A. in art history, Venice and Europe at Warwick in 1999, she started her Ph.D. at the same university. Her thesis studies the artistic patronage of Cardinal Gil de Albornoz in Spain and Italy in the fourteenth century. Almudena lived in Rome for a year, and has traveled extensively throughout Italy and Spain. Her main interests lie in the history of the church in the trecento, and the patronage of medieval fortresses, reliquaries, and textiles, as well as tomb sculpture. After living in Vicenza, Almu now splits her time between her native Madrid and Venice.

Originally from London, Jane graduated in zoology in 1988 from Oxford University. After a brief spell in the City she began her postgraduate studies at Imperial College Centre for Environmental Technology (London) and subsequently won a research scholarship to the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei in Milan. Her research has broadened from methods for valuing non-market goods, which is crucial to the development of environmental policies, to improving the connections between the scientific and policy making spheres, including the public understanding of science. She worked on a number of projects supported by the European Commission and for the Italian National Research Council to survey research efforts on climate change. Since marrying a Venetian, Jane's interest in sustainable development has concentrated on unraveling the key issues central to the safeguarding of Venice, from the physical, ecological, and socio-economic standpoints. Since 2001, her work has been supported by the Venice in Peril Fund as the Venice research fellow of a Cambridge University project which aims to crystallize our knowledge of the main issues, processes and trends in Venice which affect the long term survival of the city and its unique heritage. She is co-author of The Science of Saving Venice (Umberto Allemandi, 2004).

A native of Murano, Andrea is an accomplished musician and composer with a Master's degree in the humanities from Venice's Ca' Foscari University. In 1992 he founded the Joy Singers, a well-known Venetian gospel choir, which has won international acclaim, and is the artistic director of the Venice Gospel Festival. For years he has collaborated with schools in Venice and the Veneto in order to promote gospel music to Italian youths.

Rachel Erdman has been living in the Veneto since 1994 and is originally from Ohio. While working for the Boston University study abroad program in Padova and Venice for many years, she especially enjoyed sharing her love of all things Italian with students and visiting faculty. She now works as a travel consultant specializing in personalized travel throughout Italy. As a lover of food and wine, she is fulfilling a dream to become an Italian sommelier. She has also coordinated private cooking courses in the Colli Euganei for the Abano Ritz Grand Hotel with an emphasis on Mediterranean and Veneto cuisine. Rachel holds a B.A. from Boston University in international relations and it was during her studies that she first developed a passion for foreign language and culture. She lives in Padova with husband Mario and two children.

Francecsa studied foreign languages at Ca' Foscari University, Venice (including modules in comparative and Venetian history of art), and graduated with a dissertation in English Renaissance literature in 2002. She recently completed her Ph.D. at the same university in English Restoration theater. She has been lived in Venice since 1995, but also spent two years in England, where she studied history of art at Warwick University and taught Italian language and literature at Downe House School, Berkshire. She has always been deeply interested in Venice, its art and history, and worked as a registered guide of the mosaics in St. Mark's Basilica for two years.

Chris holds degrees in art history and Italian from Arizona State University. In 2001 he was a Rotary Scholar in Antwerp, Belgium, where he lived and studied Flemish art and language. His research interests include historic relations between Venice and Northern Europe and Venice and Dalmatia. In the US, Chris has worked for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) and the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), as well as taught middle school in his hometown in Arizona. In 2005 he worked at a language and cultural institute in Florence. In December of 2007, Chris came to Venice to intern at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection where he soon began giving tours and was promoted to assistant management. Starting in September he will co-manage the American Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. In his free time, Chris devours books on Venetian history and writes articles and art reviews for various sources, including [sic]magazine and NPR’s Marfa Public Radio, Texas. He feels that being from the Arizona desert gives him a unique insight into Venice: it’s a polar opposite in virtually every conceivable way.

Italo Ongaro is native of the island of Murano and, for the last decade, has been working for the University Ca’ Foscari of Venice as the head scientific glassblower. In addition, he works closely with the department of environmental science and the department of chemistry as the captain of a 25-foot research vessel. This vessel is partially owned by the Veneto Region’s Meteorological headquarters, with which he participates. His knowledge of the Venetian lagoon is extensive, as he frequently traverses the lagoon on research projects. He currently lives in Mestre.

Mario is a certified Italian Sommelier (AIS) and Master Cheese Taster (ONAF). His background also includes a degree in the Science of Food Production from the University of Bologna. Mario, a native of Milan, has lived in the Veneto for 35 years, and his grandmother was from the Cannaregio sestiere of Venice. He is an experienced wine educator, and particularly enjoys the wine tasting seminars he regularly organizes for the U.S. diplomatic corps in Italy. In the past Mario led a seminar on Italian wine and food for the undergraduate students of Boston University studying in Padova. He also works as a travel consultant, specializing the wine and food of the Veneto, Friuli and Trentino Alto-Adige. Mario lives in Padova with his wife, Rachel, a native of Ohio, and their two children. He can often be heard to say "A glass of wine is not merely something to drink, but a true reminder of our history, traditions and culture."

In 2006 Daniele finished his PhD in the History of Architecture at the University IUAV of Venice, where he now has a research fellowship and works as a teaching assistant. His main areas of interests are Italian Renaissance architecture, aesthetics, and contemporary architecture.

John Rapaglia is a coastal oceanographer who recently finished his PhD at the Marine Science Research Center of Stony Brook University, NY. Though his research has taken place on several continents, he now makes his home in Venice and works for the National Research Council of Italy's Marine Science Division. John first came to Venice in 2002 as a teaching assistant for the prestigious Research Experience for Undergraduates (R.E.U.) program and continued his work here with support from a Fulbright Scholarship. His research has focused on groundwater-seawater interactions and groundwater as a source of chemical contamination in the Venice Lagoon. In 2005, he published the first paper concerned with this phenomenon, which has brought to light many of the problems associated with groundwater in Venice. Recently he organized a major workshop at UNESCO Venice on the use of Radium and Radon isotopes in environmental research. This work is peripherally associated with many of the research and development projects underway in the lagoon. His main interests lie in the impact that human modifications have on natural subterranean systems.

Canadian art historian, Allison Sherman, took to heart the words of Francesco Sansovino, who wrote in his 1581 guidebook to Venice that the name of the city had its origins in the Latin Veni etiam, meaning "to come again and again." While studying art and architecture in the city for a month in 2000, Allison discovered a passion for this singular city and has returned on an annual basis to explore, learn the language and to do research. After completing her undergraduate degree in the history of art at Queen's University, Canada, Allison remained there to pursue a Master's degree on Venetian Renaissance painting. At present she is a doctoral candidate at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, and is once again making the city home while she wades through documents in the libraries and archives pertaining to her dissertation. The project will focus on the form and decoration of the church of Santa Maria dei Crociferi, addressing the many important cinquecento monuments produced for this little-known monastic order by artists such as Tintoretto and Veronese, as well as aspects of ducal, patrician and confraternity patronage. As an art historian, Allison is passionate about using visual material as a means of understanding people, places and times lost to us and will apply this same approach to her walks for Context. She looks forward to sharing her knowledge of the rich remains of Venice's historical past and the sites of its vibrant, captivating present.

Lorenza is a native of Venice who received her MA in Art History through Venice's Ca' Foscari University. For the past 20 years, she has divided her time between Venice and New York, where she teaches courses about the history of art and architecture in Venice at NYU. She has authored or contributed to numerous books and publications on Venice, including "Arts and Crafts in Venice" (Koneman, Koln, 1999) and her forthcoming "Venezia. La città, l'arte, la storia" (Arsenale 2008). Lorenza also worked with the Ministry of Fine Arts, Venice for 13 years, cataloging, documenting, and researching the collection at the Palazzo Reale.

Susan Steer teaches for the University of Warwick's undergraduate and MA Venice programmes. After graduating in the history of art and Italian in 1998, she took an MA concentrating on Venetian art and architecture, and in 2004 she completed her specialisation in Venetian renaissance painting with a PhD on the altarpieces of Bartolomeo Vivarini. Susan has taught undergraduate and life-long learning courses on subjects such as the altarpiece, Titian, and Venetian renaissance painting for the University of Bristol (UK). For the University of Glasgow, she has worked extensively as a researcher for the National Inventory of European Painting 1200 – 1900, the catalogue of European paintings in museums in the UK which will be published on-line in 2008. Susan has also contributed articles to the Burlington Magazine and Artibus et Historiae. Susan met her Venetian fiance Paolo in 1997 and they have since divided their time between homes in Venice and the UK.

Krystina, a native of Canada, has been living in Venice for three years, where she recently finished her PhD in art history from Queens College. Her research focused on Venetian art and the League of Cambrai and she teaches art and architecture courses for several study abroad programs in Venice.

Monica Vidoni was born in Venice to American parents. Raised mostly in the U.S, she has lived as an adult in the U.S., England, Hungary, Switzerland, and, of course, Italy. Monica holds undergraduate degrees in History from Kalamazoo College in Michigan, and the London School of Economics. She earned an MA and Ph.D. from Stanford University in European History and has published books and articles on Venetian history. Her specialty is women's history; her 2001 book "Working Women of Early Modern Venice" (Johns Hopkins U.P.) examines the popular-class society in sixteenth-century Venice through parish records and witchcraft trial transcripts. After working as a tenured professor in America for several years, Monica moved back to Europe three years ago. She now lives in Venice full time with her Venetian husband Pietro and their two daughters. Her current projects include a cookbook, a children's novel set in Renaissance Venice, and a study of the gambling habits of the poor in the Renaissance.

Louisa is an art historian who obtained her BA at the Courtauld Institute, where she specialised in Venetian art and the Italian Medieval and Renaissance periods. In 2000, she earned her MA from the University of Warwick in Venetian Renaissance art, although she specialised particularly in medieval Venetian art and sculpture. She has worked as an English teacher to students of all ages, as well as a translator for cultural and artistic publications on historic and contemporary art in Venice, for institutions such as the Fondazione Querini Stampalia and the Island of San Servolo. She has also worked as a simultaneous translator for the Italian Military on cultural tours of Venice for English American delegations and aboard cultural cruise ships as a lecturer on Venetian art, architecture and history. She is a keen art lover and although untrained in contemporary art greatly enjoy following it through the Biennale and with temporary art exhibitions held in the city. Louisa is married to a Venetian and has a baby daughter Isabelle. Married to a "native" she has the opportunity to enjoy Venice from different perspectives: as a tourist and art lover and as a practical everyday Venetian (with the added bonus of having a private boat!).

Luca Zaggia is a geologist who has been working for the last 15 years as a coastal oceanographer for the National Research Council of Italy, Institute of Marine Science, Venice. His research has been focused on many aspects of the management of the lagoon ecosystem, from the assessment of contamination in the water and sediments of the city canal network prior to dredging to the monitoring of the input of freshwater and contaminants from the tributaries of the drainage basin. More recently, with his staff of technicians, he has been involved in studies on the hydrodynamics and transport of sediments in the tidal channel and shallow water areas of the lagoon, as well as the monitoring of the environmental effects of the works for the protection of Venice and its lagoon from floods. In cooperation with European and American institutions he is also working on research focused on the determination of submarine groundwater input in lagoons and coastal areas.