Ada Palmer

Ada Palmer is an assistant professor in the history department at Texas A&M University. She teaches European intellectual history, focusing on the Italian Renaissance and on the long-term history of ideas, especially the relationship between religion, science, atheism and the classics. Her research focuses on Latin manuscripts in Italian libraries, especially in Rome and Florence, which gives her many opportunities to enjoy and study Italian cooking. Ada is the composer of almost all Sassafrass's music. She took Peabody music theory courses in childhood, and has studied violin, piano, guitar, and various medieval instruments, but her compositions are primarily vocal. Outside the Filking world, Ada enjoys many sci-fi, fantasy and gaming activities, especially LARPing and costuming. She is active in the anime fan community, running cosplay and gameshow events like Cosplay Human Chess, primarily at Anime Boston. She is also a manga scholar, working mostly on the works of the "God of Manga" Osamu Tezuka. She has published several articles on Tezuka, and runs TezukaInEnglish.com. Ada's interest in Viking culture and Norse Mythology stems from stories her parents read her in childhood. Ada's website (adapalmer.com) has more information; she suffers from RSI in her wrists, so she does not blog, but she is on Facebook, and on LJ others usually refer to her as Thrud.