About

Rahel [ra'ɛl] is an author, content creator, freelance Web Designer and doctoral researcher in Linguistics at the Department of Languages, University of Helsinki.

Her creative work spans from photography and video editing to digital design, writing and science communication.

She uploads weekly videos on her main YouTube channel The Stories' Eater (cinema, linguistics and academia) and twice a month on her second channel Rahel's Log (vlogs, indie publishing and small business).

In February 2024 she published her first children's book Yael's Whimsical Quest: Heritage Uncovered, available on Amazon (Kindle), Google Books, Lulu, Kobo, and on the Download page on this website. In April 2024 she released the Italian edition of her book, Il Viaggio Incantato di Yael, currently available on Ingramspark, Amazon, Lulu and on the Download page on this website.

In June 2024 she launched her online Stationery Shop where you can purchase notebooks, journals and posters (more products and designs will soon be available).

In 2023 she started a YouTube channel called The Stories'' Eater where she initially shared her fieldwork experience as an independent researcher, her views on cinema, AI, and Academia as well as her passion for stories in a broad sense. In 2024 she decided to split the contents of her videos into two separate channels, the first devoted to Cinema, Linguistics and Academia, the second to Vlogs, Indie Publishing and Small Business.

On Buymeacoffee and Patreon you can support her creative endeavours.

She joined an Italian community of expat women, as an author of blog posts regarding her experience as an expatriate in Finland. You can find it here at Donne che Emigrano all'Estero (written in Italian). It's a collaboration on a voluntary basis.

Rahel is interested in sustainability and making informed decisions to fight climate change by taking small daily actions.

Academia

Recent academic experience: Visiting scholar at LLACAN (CNRS Villejuif, Paris) awardee of a Labex EFL scholarship, September-December 2022.

Her BA thesis focused on analysing and collecting loanwords from Italian, English and French into Amharic. During her MA studies, her interest in Afroasiatic languages increased: her thesis was a study on situatives in Somali and Amharic, through the innovative Constructive Adpositional Grammars (CxAdGrams) framework. Her current project is a typological study on singulatives in Cushitic languages.

Her doctoral research in Linguistics at the Department of Languages, University of Helsinki is currently on hold.

Curriculum Vitae

Writing

English edition

Yael's Whimsical Quest

Italian edition

Il Viaggio Incantato di Yael

The book cover of Yael’s Whimsical Journey, the English edition of Rahel's book

The book cover of the Italian edition of my book

Meet Yael, a curious kid exploring her diverse family. One day, a forgotten photo album leads her and Opal the Owl on a magical adventure to an African town through a special portal. Along the way, they uncover fascinating secrets about Yael's family language. This fun story celebrates being different and allows for a delicate exploration of black heritage with a magical twist.

We recommend you read it aloud with your 6- to 8-year-old (especially if your child is a non-native English speaker) while independent reading is suitable for 9- to 12-year-old children.

Yael's Whimsical Quest is a joyful journey into a little girl's heritage, great for Black History Month too!

Copyright ©, Rahel T. Dires, 2024
All rights reserved. No parts of this book may be reproduced without the written permission of the publisher.

Leave a review on Goodreads or the platform you got your book from, you would truly support a black author!