Deanna Shemek is Professor of Italian and Comparative Literature at the University of California Santa Cruz and co-provost of Cowell College. Among other projects, she is currently working on a selection of epistolary material left by Isabelle d'Este for the University of Chicago Press translation series The Other Voice of Early Modern Europe.

Professor Shemek is interested in the development of narrative forms, from the epic and the early tale or novella through the romance tradition and into contemporary fiction. She also studies certain popular literary forms such as the letter, the pamphlet, and the ballad in Italian. Writings of Italy's sixteenth century are a particular interest, including all narrative and dramatic forms, the dialogue, and the theoretical tract. Literature written by women and other marginal figures to Renaissance high culture is a frequent focus of Professor Shemek's research. Though her orientation is strongly literary, Professor Shemek's research and teaching lies at a crossroads between literary, historical, art historical, and political materials. Theoretical interests include ancient and modern theories of literary and visual representation; psychoanalytical, historicist, and historical materialist methodologies; theories of sexuality and desire; and feminism.