Oscar Schiavone

After his studies at the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (Laurea, 2005), University of Florence and University of Bonn (PhD, 2009) and UCL (PhD, 2015), Oscar Schiavone became a Teaching Fellow first at UCL and then at Durham University. His research aims to understand how early modern civilisation articulated its identity and self-perception through cultural systems (e.g., the system of the arts; the relationship between social and cultural change) and the manipulation of information (e.g., political communication; cultural propaganda; reception / translation). Oscar’s first book, which received the ‘Giuseppe Giusti / Opera Prima’ award in 2014, looked at Michelangelo’s artistic and literary productions aiming to define the inner nucleus of his imaginative world in a neuro-aesthetic framework. Through the reconstruction of Luca Martini’s career as a polymath and a bureaucrat stationed in Pisa, Oscar’s second book (forthcoming) will connect literature, art, and politics looking at how culture contributed to creating the image of Medici power while shedding light on the ‘Florentinisation’ of Tuscan cultural identity. Future research will investigate migration to highlight how ideas of belonging, cultural identification, and difference emerged in early modern Tuscany. Oscar’s recent scholarly work includes an edited volume on Michelangelo’s sculpture, a chapter in Brill’s Companion to Cosimo I de’ Medici as well as entries in exhibition catalogues and articles in international refereed journals (e.g., International Journal of Maritime History, Studi Rinascimentali, Modern Language Review). Finally, Oscar is the editorial coordinator of Albertiana, the journal of the Societé Internationale Leon Battista Alberti.