Dr Ingeborg van Vugt

Ingeborg van Vugt is a postdoc in the SKILLNET project and focuses on the social dynamics structuring the conduct and behaviour of the citizens of the Republic of Letters. Using tools and insights from graph- and game theory, she aims to investigate the ways in which early modern scholars constantly monitored their interactions with one another in making decisions that could result beneficial to the ethos of the Republic of Letters. She received a BA in Italian Studies followed by a MA in Book and Digital Media Studies from Leiden University. Inspired by the field of digital humanities, she did her PhD in early modern history in a joint degree programme between the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and the University of Amsterdam. Her doctoral research focuses on the application of network analysis to study the epistolary relations between the Dutch Republic and the Grand Duchy of Tuscany, with particular focus on the network of the Florentine librarian Antonio Magliabechi (1633-1714). During her PhD, she has contributed to several digital humanities initiatives, including the Six Degrees of Francis Bacon project at the Carnegie Mellon University and the research summit ‘Early Modern Digital Agendas: Network Analysis’ at the Folger Shakespeare Library. She has published articles on aspects of her research in the fields of epistolography and network analysis, including an article on the use of multi-layered visualisations of epistolary networks in the Journal of Historical Network Research.