Headshot of Emanuela Vai

Dr Emanuela Vai

Senior Research Fellow

Head of the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments

Head of Research (Humanities)

Education

BA MMus MEd (Cambridge), MPhil PhD (St Andrews)

I am Head of Research (Humanities) and Senior Research Fellow at Worcester College, Hill Collection of Musical Instruments at the Ashmolean Museum; and I lead on all conservation, research and curatorial aspects at the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments at the University of Oxford. Previously, I have held positions at the University of Oxford as Scott Opler Fellow; at the University of Cambridge; at the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies at the University of York (CREMS); at the Centre d’études supérieures de la Renaissance de Tours (CESR); and at the Harvard Centre for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti, where I was Hanna Kiel Fellow.

My work has received the support of fellowships and grants from the British Academy, the Society for Renaissance Studies, the Royal Historical Society, the Renaissance Society of America, the Kress Foundation, the École Pratique des Hautes Études, the Academia Belgica and the Newton Trust at the University of Cambridge, among others.

I champion the public engagement of academic research, working across a diversity of cultural heritage and digital humanities projects, serving as consultant and advisor for international institutions and associations, with the aim of building and improving partnerships between academia, policy and industry for the study and preservation of tangible and intangible culture. I have appeared on several radio shows on these topics.

I also act as a mentor for early career researchers, and I serve as an advisory member for international cultural heritage projects in Europe and the US. At Oxford, I continue to serve as the Research Staff Representative for the Humanities Division and the Conference of Colleges, and I sit on the Humanities Research Committee and Divisional Board, as well as on Governing Body at Worcester College.

I am the Director in Humanities at AISUK, with the aim of promoting scientific collaborations between Italian and British academic institutions and research centres in the public and private sector, through scientific events and other initiatives such as mentoring and support for graduate students and junior researchers.

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