Biography
Before arriving in my current areas of early modern literature and digital humanities, I spent time in a number of other fields: physics, atmospheric science, American literature, and modernism, in particular. I studied some of these things at Harvard University and Brandeis University, and worked on others at the Smithsonian Institution and Brown University, before coming to King's in 1998, to what was then called the Centre for Computing in the Humanities. Since 2009 I've been a member of the King's Department of English as well; I've also spent some time as a visiting scholar at the National University of Ireland in Galway and at Tsuda College in Tokyo.
Research Interests and PhD Supervision
- early modern drama
- textual scholarship
- literary reception
- digital approaches to literature
My current work focuses on early modern drama from 1580 to 1642, and in particular its reception since the closing of the theatres in 1642: while Shakespeare's works have always been popular on stage and in print, the reputations of other playwrights of the era have had enormous swings from fame to oblivion and back, and I'm working to trace this history and its driving forces in more detail.
Earlier in my career, I was one of the general editors of The Collected Works of Thomas Middleton, a vast collaborative project to publish the writings of the great Jacobean playwright; it won the Modern Language Association’s Prize for a Distinguished Scholarly Edition in 2009. More recently I've been one of the creators of the Catalogue of English Literary Manuscripts 1450-1700, a free online guide to the manuscripts of major authors from Skelton to Congreve, published in 2013.I welcome applications from prospective doctoral students planning to work on early modern drama in English, textual scholarship, reception studies, and digital approaches to literature.
For more details, please see John's full research profile.
Teaching
In the Department of Digital Humanities, my teaching areas are open cultures and digital textuality; in the Department of English, I teach modules on seventeenth-century literature.
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Lavagnino, J., 17 Dec 2020, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Literary Theory. Frow, J. (ed.). Oxford Univerity Press; Oxford, 18 p. Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding - Chapter. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190201098.013.972
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Lavagnino, J., 30 Oct 2020, In : The London Journal. 45, 3, p. 346-347 2 p. Research output: Contribution to journal - Book/Film/Article review. DOIs: https://doi.org/10.1080/03058034.2020.1770999
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Lavagnino, J., 10 Mar 2016, Monstrous Little Voices: New Tales from Shakespeare's Fantasy World. Meadows, F., Heartfield, K., Newman, E., Tchaikovsky, A. & Barnes, J. (eds.). Oxford: Abaddon Books, p. 289-293 5 p. Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding - Chapter
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Lavagnino, J., 1 Jan 2016, The Cambridge Guide to the Worlds of Shakespeare. Smith, B. R. (ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge UP, p. 1641-1649 9 p. Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding - Chapter
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Lavagnino, J., 2014, Women Making Shakespeare: Text, Reception and Performance. McMullan, G., Orlin, L. C. & Vaughan, V. M. (eds.). London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, p. 89-98 10 p. (The Arden Shakespeare). Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding - Chapter
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Lavagnino, J., 2014, Shakespeare and the Digital World: Redefining Scholarship and Practice. Carson, C. & Kirwan, P. (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge UP, p. 14-23 10 p. Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding - Chapter
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Lavagnino, J., Dec 2013 Research output: Non-textual form - Data set/Database
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Lavagnino, J., 2013, A Year of Shakespeare: Re-living the World Shakespeare Festival 2012. Edmondson, P., Prescott, P. & Sullivan, E. (eds.). London: Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare, p. 58-60 3 p. Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding - Chapter
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Lavagnino, J., 2010, Electronic Publishing: Politics and Pragmatics. Egan, G. (ed.). Tempe, AZ: Iter/ACMRS, p. 205-214 10 p. Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding - Chapter
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Lavagnino, J., 2010, Text Comparison and Digital Creativity: The Production of Presence and Meaning in Digital Text Scholarship. van Peursen, W., Thoutenhoofd, E. D. & van der Weel, A. (eds.). Leiden: Brill, p. 99-111 13 p. (Scholarly Communication: Past, present and future of knowledge inscription; vol. 1). Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding - Chapter