Dr Vincent Roy-Di Piazza
I am a historian of science and religion, political economy, and the Northern World. I recently obtained my DPhil at Oxford (2022) in history of science, medicine, economic and social history, and subsequently served as an AHRC funded postdoctoral research fellow at Oxford.
I am currently an associate postdoctoral member at Linacre College, Oxford, a postdoctoral Hagströmer fellow in history of medicine at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, and an associate fellow of the Royal Historical Society.
Research Interests
• History of science, medicine, and religion (1500-1900)
• Natural science and environmental history
• History of the body, race, and sexuality
• History of political economy, colonialism, and slavery
• History of literature and satire
• European, Atlantic, and Nordic history
My research currently focuses on three main projects:
• The first centres on the interplay between natural science, political economy, and religion in the long Enlightenment period. My writings in this area range from the evolution of Swedish climactic science in times of war (Etudes Germaniques, 2021) and debates over African superiority, colonization, and slavery (Intellectual History Review, 2023), to the history of entomology, sexuality, and religion (forthcoming in Revue de Synthèse, 2024). My latest research focuses on a new history of Linnean human taxonomy, bringing together history of medicine, natural science, and political economy.
• Based on my doctoral dissertation, I am also working on a new monograph about the Swedish parliamentarian, philosopher and mystic theologian Emanuel Swedenborg (1688-1772) centered on his lifelong interest for the soul-body problem. I have written and lectured about various aspects of Swedenborg's life and thought, and I have a broader interest in currents related to his ideas and posterity.
• My third project centres on the history of astronomy and literature. I am interested in the links between cosmology, the afterlife, and the plurality of worlds (Annals of Science, 2020), extending to the history of literature, travelogues, and satire. My first article on the subject has become one of the most-read published in the Annals of Science, and you can read more about this research on my latest popular blogpost (Voltaire Foundation, 2023).
Contact
You can find out more about my research on my Personal webpage and reach out via X/Twitter: @RoyDiPiazza