University of Bath

Post-Doc, Architecture and Civil Engineering

Other Affiliations: University of Edinburgh, Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies

Postdoctoral Research Officer

Department of Architecture and Civil Engineering

About

I am a historian of renaissance Italy, with a focus on urban culture during the 16th and 17th centuries. In 2013 I am publishing a book with Brepols that deals with the rise and fall of artisan festive 'kingdoms' in Florence from c1500-1650. The study incorporates my main research interests to date: artisan institutions, sociability and culture; work and the trades; urban social geography and street life; class; patronage and petition; masculinity and gender roles; festivity and the carnivalesque; religious reform; the early modern state and the nature of authority.

Currently I'm a postdoctoral researcher, though the university of Bath, on a UK AHRC Connected Communities pilot study on tavern culture called 'Taverns, Locals and Street Corners', a collaborative project with case studies ranging from early modern Florence to Enlightenment London to Bristol today (http://tavernsproject.com). In 2011, I was the postdoctoral research officer on 'Urban Communities in Early Modern Europe c1400-1700: A Research Review'. This AHRC project flagged up new avenues for research and involved interviews with a number of historians and an expert in digital humanities. All of this material can be found at http://earlymoderncommunities.com