Roma Infelix: Popular Reactions to Urban Renovation in Times of Hunger
My doctoral project investigates how famines affected Romans' responses to sixteenth-century urban projects. While the sixteenth-century was a critical period of architectural development in Rome, few scholars have appreciated that this was also a period of nearly ceaseless food shortages. Given the importance of alimentary abundance to Rome, my project investigates how these food shortages impacted Romans' perception of urban projects that demolished countless homes, increased local taxes, and dramatically changed their relationship with their environment.
My research generally studies the interaction between hunger, urban spaces, and socioeconomic inequality. My MPhil dissertation at the University of Cambridge investigated the 'Rice Renaissance' of the sixteenth century, namely: the growth and decline of local and trans-class consumption of rice in the Italian peninsula.
Supervisor: Filippo de Vivo
