Oren Margolis is Departmental Lecturer in Early Modern History at the University of Oxford.

Oren Margolis’s work is particularly concerned with the politics of Renaissance humanism, to which he applies a ‘diplomatic’ approach, viewing it as a medium for political communication between ‘hyper-literate’ European elites.  In his doctoral thesis, he explored the way that René of Anjou, French prince and exiled king of Naples (1409–1480), sought, by means of his transnational network of agents and allies, to assert his Italian political agenda chiefly through a programme of cultural politics. This work functioned as a case study of the way in which politics may be conducted through the infrastructure of cultural networks and even through cultural media, ranging from Latin orations to illuminated manuscripts of classical texts. Dr Margolis is now exploring his concept of the pan-European hyper-literate further, studying this class which was at the heart of humanist and diplomatic cultures as they grew up and then spread across Europe during the Renaissance.

Oren Margolis’s interests span the political and cultural history of Renaissance Europe; he is also interested in the history, geography and anthropology of art and art objects, in comparative history, and in historiography: he has edited an online collection of papers marking the 150th anniversary of The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy by Jacob Burckhardt.

Oren Margolis was organizer (with Graham Barrett) of the LBI conference on the theme of Latinity in the Post-Classical World.

He was member of the LB’s politics line until December 2015.