I trained as an art historian at the University of Oxford (MSt, DPhil), where I recently completed a doctorate in the Department of History of Art and am currently a postdoctoral associate member in the Faculty of History. I specialise in nineteenth- and twentieth-century aesthetic theory in Europe, and am broadly interested in questions around the nature, value, materiality, meaning, and context of art, at the intersection of art history, art theory, intellectual history, literature, and philosophy.
I previously trained as a neuroscientist at the University of Cambridge (MPhil) and at Columbia University (MA, MPhil, PhD), where I focused respectively on the antigenic characterisation of glial cells, and on the neural correlates of consciousness, sensory perception, and neural adaptation. I also studied law (Laurea, Università degli studi di Roma “La Sapienza”), and am a qualified (although currently non-practising) veterinary surgeon (Laurea, Università degli Studi di Perugia), with clinical and research interest in anaesthesia.
Beyond my current appointment at the University of Oxford, I have held research positions at the University of Cambridge, Columbia University, the University of Geneva, King’s College London, and have been awarded research fellowships by the Wellcome Trust, the European Union, as well as institutes for advanced studies in New York, Paris, London, Delmenhorst, and Amsterdam. Some of my work has been published.