Thomas Goodwin

Research Topic

The Social World of the Poligrafi and their Role in the Circulation of Disinformation, Obscenity and Slander in Sixteenth-Century Italy

Supervisor: Nicholas Davidson

I am a DPhil candidate at New College, Oxford, where I hold the Robert Oresko Memorial Scholarship.

My current research is on Pietro Aretino and the poligrafi, an amorphous group of writers, editors, and translators, and their role in the circulation of disinformation, slander, and propaganda in sixteenth-century Italy. More generally, I am interested in the history of communication, information, and censorship, particularly looked at through the lenses of social network analysis and the study of material texts and paratexts; public opinion and the evolution of the ‘public sphere’; the history of satire, especially of the pasquinade genre; humanist culture in the Italian Renaissance; obscenity and sexuality; collective memory, record-keeping, and the history of archives; and historiography from the late medieval period to the present. I am also interested in the application(s) of social theory to the study of the Renaissance and the early modern world.

In 2018, I am co-organising the conference 'Beyond Truth: Fiction and (Dis)information in the Early Modern World', which will take place from 17-18 September at New College, Oxford. For more information, please see our website: oxdisinfo.wordpress.com.

You can read more about my research and publications on my Academia.edu profile. I am on Twitter @T_S_Goodwin.