Worcester college is delighted to announce that Dr Emanuela Vai has been appointed as Head of the Bate Collection of Musical Instruments, leading on conservation, research, and curatorial aspects in the museum.

Dr Vai brings a rich international profile, having held positions at the Centre for Renaissance and Early Modern Studies at the University of York (CREMS); at the University of Turin, at the University of Cambridge, at the Centre d’études supérieures de la Renaissance de Tours (CESR); at the Harvard Centre for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti, and at the University of Oxford; as well as in a variety of museums across Europe. Her 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. Dr Vai’s research is situated at the interdisciplinary intersection of art history, music, and material culture studies. Her publications concentrate on musical instruments, soundscapes, space and the senses in Renaissance social life; and she is currently working on a book titled Fantastic Musical Instruments of the Global Renaissance.

Over the past year, Dr Vai’s achievements have been extremely impressive, leading two main research projects funded by the EU Commission and UKRI, and she has recently been awarded a SIF Innovation fund at the University of Oxford in collaboration with Professor David De Roure at DiSc, exploring how digital humanities tools can be applied to museum research and conservation.

Dr Vai said: ‘I’m very excited to help drive cutting-edge innovation and research around Oxford’s world-leading collections of musical instruments. The Bate Collection is a unique resource within the national and international landscape, celebrating the history and development of musical instruments in a global context. The collection represents a stimulating opportunity to advance research on musical instruments, while fostering interdisciplinary and methodologically rich approaches to object preservation. I am looking forward to expanding opportunities amongst students by introducing teaching on music, space, material culture, and historical musical instruments within GLAM environments. The museum is an incredible asset for the Faculty and the University, where one could merge teaching, research, education, and the creativity of exhibitions in a naturally interdisciplinary way. I am keen to collaborate with colleagues from a variety of disciplines, as well as heritage professionals, researchers, the creative industries, and the public alike by developing new exhibition possibilities, and to explore novel approaches to museum practice in the post-digital era.’

Dr Emanuela Vai is Senior Research Fellow and Head of Research (Humanities) at Worcester College. She is the founder and academic lead of the Digital Humanities and Sensory Heritage Network at TORCH, an interdisciplinary team of scholars exploring how digital humanities tools can be leveraged to reconsider heritage and the senses. Dr Vai is also a Director (Humanities) at AISUK, with the aim of promoting research collaborations between European and British academic institutions and research centres in the public and private sector. She is a Member of ICOM-CIMCIM (International Musical Instruments Museums), a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, American Musical Instruments Association and the Renaissance Society of America, and a trustee of many international music, architectural history, and museum societies.