Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Emanuela Vai @emanuelavai.bsky.social · 4d

I’m now looking forward to finalising the exhibition I am curating for @batecollection.bsky.social @oxhumanities.bsky.social, teaching, meeting my new DPhils, and finishing up some research projects... @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social @oxmusicfaculty.bsky.social
#EarlyModernHistory #academiclife

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Emanuela Vai @emanuelavai.bsky.social · 4d

[#AnOxfordDiary]

Over the years, I’ve become a strong advocate of offline breaks. These summer months have featured breathtaking views in Norway (our Scandinavian retreat), a quiet spell of writing perched on Cornwall’s cliffs progressing on my book, and the warmth of Italy.

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Emanuela Vai @emanuelavai.bsky.social · Jul 25

Thanks! The Renaissance World, eds. Erika Honisch and Giovanni Zanovello. If you are interested in the topic you might find another recent publication of mine of use: www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/oa-...

Fantastic Finials | 18 | The Materiality, Decoration and Display of Re

Renaissance musical instruments frequently feature masterfully carved figures, intricate geometric and arabesque patterns, expensive and exotic materials, and a

www.taylorfrancis.com

Emanuela Vai @emanuelavai.bsky.social · Jul 25

[#AnOxfordDiary]

Relieved to have submitted my contribution just before going off grid...

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Emanuela Vai @emanuelavai.bsky.social · Jul 25

[#AnOxfordDiary]

Welcome to our team!

Bate Collection of Musical Instruments @batecollection.bsky.social · Jul 25

We're thrilled to welcome two new members of our museum team!

Byung Kim joins as Exhibition Designer, a multidisciplinary creative with international experience. Nic Fulcher joins as Projects Manager from the Ashmolean, focusing on management & exhibition admin.

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Reposted by Emanuela Vai

Bate Collection of Musical Instruments @batecollection.bsky.social · Jun 17

A Participatory Research Fund has been awarded to
@batecollection.bsky.social, @torchoxford.bsky.social & @modernartoxford.bsky.social Led by @emanuelavai.bsky.social & Alex Coke, this collab with artist Appau Jnr Boakye-Yiadom blends historic instruments, student performances & video art for 2026!

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Emanuela Vai @emanuelavai.bsky.social · Jun 3

[#AnOxfordDiary]
What a gorgeous night @NationalGallery for the Festa della Repubblica, promoting Italian academic research, culture art & musical instruments surrounded by Caravaggio! @batecollection.bsky.social @ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social @oxmusicfaculty.bsky.social @oxhumanities.bsky.social

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Emanuela Vai @emanuelavai.bsky.social · Jun 2

[#AnOxfordDiary]

Great to attend the re-opening of the Early Italy and Rome Gallery @ashmoleanmuseum.bsky.social !
 Huge congratulations to our colleagues on an incredible new display — beautifully redesigned! @torchoxford.bsky.social @oxhumanities.bsky.social @ox.ac.uk
Do visit!

Emanuela Vai @emanuelavai.bsky.social · May 27

*Job Fairy*

Part-time Departmental Tutor in History of Art of the Global Renaissance at Continuing Education, Oxford.

www.jobs.ac.uk/job/DNF071/d...

Departmental Tutor at University of Oxford

Searching for an academic job? Explore this Departmental Tutor opening on jobs.ac.uk! Click to view more details and browse other academic jobs.

www.jobs.ac.uk

Reposted by Emanuela Vai

Emanuela Vai @emanuelavai.bsky.social · May 11

📢 Job fairy!

Junior Research Fellowship in Architectural History @ox.ac.uk ! Don't hesitate to get in touch with me if you have any queries!
Find out more: jobs.ac.uk/job/DNA489/t...
#architecturalhistory #renaissance

The Scott Opler Fellowship in Architectural History at University of Oxford

Explore an exciting academic career as a The Scott Opler Fellowship in Architectural History. Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.

jobs.ac.uk

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Emanuela Vai @emanuelavai.bsky.social · May 26

[The Other Place]

A really nice time at our sister college @stcatharines.bsky.social for 'The Future of Sound Studies: Remembering Bruce Smith'. Thanks to
Jennifer Richards for organising and ‪@racheljwillie.bsky.social‬ for her incredible work with the 'Early Modern Soundscapes' network.

Emanuela Vai @emanuelavai.bsky.social · May 11

📢 Job fairy!

Junior Research Fellowship in Architectural History @ox.ac.uk ! Don't hesitate to get in touch with me if you have any queries!
Find out more: jobs.ac.uk/job/DNA489/t...
#architecturalhistory #renaissance

The Scott Opler Fellowship in Architectural History at University of Oxford

Explore an exciting academic career as a The Scott Opler Fellowship in Architectural History. Don't miss out on other academic jobs. Click to apply and explore more opportunities.

jobs.ac.uk

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Reposted by Emanuela Vai

Society for Renaissance Studies @srsrensoc.bsky.social · Apr 4

Book Talk – Humans: A Monstrous History with @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social. Nash Lecture Theatre, King's College London, April 28, 2025. www.rensoc.org.uk/event/book-t...

Book Talk – Humans: A Monstrous History with Dr. Surekha Davies – Society for Renaissance Studies

www.rensoc.org.uk

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Reposted by Emanuela Vai

Dr Surekha Davies (she/her) @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social · Apr 3

Join me talking about HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY @ucpress.bsky.social with BITE author @billschuttauthor.bsky.social on @peculiarbookclub.bsky.social live show! 1/n

💙📚 🧪🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #HAMH
www.youtube.com/watch?v=SgbG...

MONSTERS with Surekha Davies

YouTube video by Brandy Schillace

www.youtube.com

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Emanuela Vai @emanuelavai.bsky.social · Apr 2

📢 Book presentation!

Streamed live www.youtube.com/@urbanmusics. I wish I could be there in person in Barcelona! Huge thanks to @Tess Knighton and all the authors!
@oxmusicfaculty.bsky.social @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social
#digitalhumanities #arthistory #musichistory #ArchitecturalHistory

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Reposted by Emanuela Vai

John Gallagher @earlymodernjohn.bsky.social · Jan 29

Delightful work post — the hard copy of the new issue of Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, featuring my article, 'Migrant Voices in Multilingual London, 1560-1600'.

Cover of the current issue of Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, sitting on a speckled windowsill.

The journal opened to the first page of my article in paper form.

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Reposted by Emanuela Vai

Dr Surekha Davies (she/her) @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social · Mar 26

On Mon March 31st I'm giving a book talk on HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY, just out with @ucpress.bsky.social, in New Orleans! 6pm at Tulane University. @tulaneu.bsky.social

💙📚 🧪🗃 #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #histsci #histmed #18thCentury #politics #HAMH 1/🧵

events.tulane.edu/content/publ...

Book open to title page, which reads: Humans: A Monstrous History / Surekha Davies / University of Caifornia Press. On facing page: Also by Surekha Davies / Renaissance Ethnography and the Invention of the Human: New Worlds, Maps and Monsters

Alt: Book on a book chair on the left open to the table of contents. On the right is a row of copies of HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY, red spines with yellow and black lettering visible. Text on table of contents includes: Title-page and TOC. Chapters:
Introduction
1. On the Ecology of Monsters
2. Human or animal?
3. Race-nations I
4. Race-nations II
5. Gender, Sex, and Monstrous Births
6. Monstrous Performance and Display
7. Gods, Magic, and the Supernatural
8. Machines
9. Extraterrestrials
10. Monstrofuturism
Epilogue 4/6

Bright red book cover showing: an oval, silver-coloured mirror with a black frame comprised of sci-fi and fantasy monsters, with yellow lettering for the title, “HUMANS”, around the top of the mirror, in a stylized font with details that resemble whale-tails and bats’ wings. Subtitle just inside the mirror: A Monstrous History. Inside the bottom curve of the mirror: Surekha Davies. Along the left-hand edge of the cover crawls a xenomorph: a humanoid creature with an insect-like head and a long, sinuous, menacing, pointy tail.

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Emanuela Vai @emanuelavai.bsky.social · Mar 26

[The Other Place]

Architectural walks down memory lane, meeting old colleagues & friends, and trying out our sister college @stcatharines.bsky.social (courtesy of Worcester College, Oxford). Nice to be back at work in my favourite libraries @trincolllibcam.bsky.social @stjohnscollege.bsky.social

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Emanuela Vai @emanuelavai.bsky.social · Mar 20

[#AnOxfordDiary]

Great to be part of this wonderful volume! My contribution introduces the concept of ‘sensoryscapes' in Early Modern Venetian Bergamo (with DH components and GIS mapping) @oxmusicfaculty.bsky.social @oxhistoryfaculty.bsky.social @torchoxford.bsky.social
brill.com/edcollchap-o...

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Emanuela Vai @emanuelavai.bsky.social · Mar 11

[#AnOxfordDiary]

Architectural walks at night - The Sheldonian Theatre showing off, as usual... @ox.ac.uk

Reposted by Emanuela Vai

Alex Burchmore @alexburchmore.bsky.social · Dec 1

Author copies of Material Selves have just arrived and they look so good!😍

You can pick up a copy of your own now at www.bloomsbury.com/au/material-...

Or, alternatively, at one of the stockists listed on my website: alexburchmore.com/material-sel...

Keep reading for more info on what's inside 👇🏽🧵

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Emanuela Vai @emanuelavai.bsky.social · Mar 4

[#AnOxfordDiary]

It has been a pleasure to meet such engaged and participative students and teach on material culture, musical instruments and museums - I look forward to expanding the provision on Renaissance Art, Architecture and Music with DH @oxmusicfaculty.bsky.social @torchoxford.bsky.social

Melchior Lorch, A kettledrum player riding a camel, woodcut on paper (ca. 1576), from a series of 127 woodcuts, © Trustees of the British Museum

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Reposted by Emanuela Vai

Society for Renaissance Studies @srsrensoc.bsky.social · Mar 2

Conference: The Future of Sound Studies: Remembering Bruce R. Smith

24 May in Cambridge
deadline for registration 17 May -- attendance is free

all info: www.rensoc.org.uk/event/the-fu...

The Future of Sound Studies: Remembering Bruce R. Smith
GR06/07, English Faculty, West Road, Cambridge, May 24, 2025 - May 24, 2025
Deadline for submission/application: May 17, 2025

Photo of Bruce SmithSound studies, sensory approaches and phenomenology are now so established in the contemporary practice of Shakespeare and early modern studies that it is hard to imagine the discipline without them. But for the pioneering work of Professor Bruce R. Smith (1946-2024) over the past three decades and more, our field would be far narrower, and its future less bright. Through his scholarship in books including The Acoustic World of Early Modern England (1999), The Key of Green (2009), and Phenomenal Shakespeare (2009), and through his tireless championing of colleagues and scholars at all career stages, Bruce was at the heart of a vibrant critical conversation that will continue for years to come. This day is a celebration of Bruce R. Smith’s contribution to sound studies and his generosity to the scholarly community, and an opportunity to reflect on future directions his work has made possible. Speakers will include Oskar Cox-Jensen (Newcastle), Katherine Hunt (UEA), Sophie Read (Cambridge), Jennifer Richards (Cambridge), Olivia Smith (Cambridge), Simon Smith (Shakespeare Institute), Tiffany Stern (Shakespeare Institute), Rachel Willie (Liverpool John Moores) and Richard Wistreich (Royal College of Music). Colleagues at all stages of career – and postgraduates especially – are invited to join us, sharing reflections on how Bruce’s research has shaped their work, and the future of sound studies.

This event is a collaboration between the Shakespeare Institute and the Universities of Cambridge, East Anglia, Newcastle, and the Soundscapes in the Early Modern World network. We are delighted that Bruce’s husband, Gordon Davies, will join us.

Thanks to a Judith E Wilson Small Grant Award, attendance is free. We do need to know numbers, though, so if you would like to join us…

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Reposted by Emanuela Vai

Dr Surekha Davies (she/her) @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social · Feb 27

Chatted about HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY,
@ucpress.bsky.social, with Jenn Jordan on
@splturnthepage.bsky.social, the #Syosset Public Library #podcast! 1/4

#books 🧪 #history #SFF #politics #histsci #ancient #medieval #earlymodern #18thC #politics #HAMH

Turn The Page! - Syosset Public Library 🎤 @splturnthepage.bsky.social · Feb 27

Episode 339A is here! Jenn talks to Dr. Surekha Davies about her brilliant HUMANS: A MONSTROUS HISTORY, which charts the very human phenomenon of monster-making from antiquity to the present. @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social @ucpress.bsky.social

https://buff.ly/41lK7Zk

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