Dr Jack Avery

I am a Research Assistant with the Newton Papers Project, working on the digitisation of the Newton manuscripts held by New College Library. These include papers relating to Newton’s study of history, astronomy, and theology, as well as his work at the royal mint, often written over day-to-day correspondence.

Research Interests

My research examines the interaction of newswriting, state intelligence, and literature during the early modern period. My PhD with the University of Bristol, the National Archives, and the National Maritime Museum reconstructed the information networks and rhetorical techniques which underlay state newswriting during the Restoration, and showed how anti-regime satirists engaged in complex and imaginative ways with the strategies of regime propagandists. My work is highly interdisciplinary in nature, and synthesises historical and literary approaches through original archival research to offer a new account of seventeenth-century culture and politics.

My most recent work focuses on the transnational relationship between England and the Netherlands during the seventeenth century. I am interested in how the extensive information culture shared by the two countries did not always lead to greater comprehension, but, in a manner partially analogous to the modern internet age, could aggravate existing frictions and lead to significant misunderstandings.