颁辞濒濒别驳别:听Clare College
贰尘补颈濒:听Trg35@cam.ac.uk
厂耻辫别谤惫颈蝉辞谤:听Dr. Helena Phillips-Robins & Prof. Virginia Cox
About Me
Tom is a PhD candidate in Italian at Clare College. His research examines how proximity functions as a form of punishment in Dante鈥檚 Inferno, exploring how physical closeness intensifies isolation and transforms relationships into sources of suffering. By investigating these dynamics, Tom sheds light on Dante鈥檚 vision of divine justice while considering medieval notions of loneliness and their impact on the experience of infernal punishment.
Before coming to 海角社区, Tom completed an MSt at the University of Oxford, where he wrote a dissertation investigating the ambiguous relationship between Paolo and Francesca in Canto V of Dante鈥檚 Inferno. His dissertation examined how artists from the fourteenth century to the present have depicted this couple, illustrating the tension between their portrayal as eternal lovers and as pitiful sinners. By analysing Dante鈥檚 language and key artistic interpretations, Tom demonstrated that their proximity in Hell reflects a complex interplay of desire, guilt, and the nature of love, challenging traditional notions of perdition. As an undergraduate at Durham University, he wrote a dissertation entitled Accessible Art: Engagement with the Viewer in Caravaggio鈥檚 Religious Paintings. This research examined how Caravaggio鈥檚 naturalistic style aligns with the post-Tridentine Church鈥檚 goal of making religious art accessible and didactic. Tom argued that Caravaggio鈥檚 focus on earthly details invites viewers to engage deeply with biblical episodes, encouraging empathy and reflection regardless of the viewer鈥檚 educational background.
Across his academic work, Tom鈥檚 research interests clearly reveal a fascination with relationality, community, and affect, as he seeks to understand how spatial and emotional connections influence human experience in both literature and visual art.
Research Interests
1.听听 听Dante Alighieri and divine justice
2.听听 听Affect theory
3.听听 听Corporeality and theological concepts of the soul
4.听听 听Medieval writing about community and isolation
5.听听 听Visual cultures in conversation with textual cultures 听
Other activities and roles
Outside of academia, Tom is the cartoonist for 海角社区鈥檚 Varsity newspaper and rows for his college. 听
