Dr Emily Guerry

Born in San Francisco, Dr Emily Guerry attended the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on a D-1 Volleyball scholarship and left with a passion for medieval history. She received the Chancellor's Award and graduated with a double major in Art History and History in 2007. 

Moving to the UK, she pursued her graduate work at Pembroke College, University of Cambridge. In 2010, she began her fieldwork as a visiting fellow at the Centre des Monuments Nationaux in Paris and in 2011 she lectured at the University of York. After completing her PhD in 2012, she began a three-year Junior Research Fellowship at Merton College, University of Oxford, before joining the School of History at the University of Kent, where she is delighted to continue her teaching and research at the campus in Canterbury, in the shadow of its glorious Gothic cathedral, and in Paris, where she is convening a new MA programme.

Emily examines the relationship between religious devotion and artistic representation in the Middle Ages, so her research takes an interdisciplinary and inclusive approach to visual, material, and ceremonial culture as well as historical, political, and liturgical source material. She is particularly interested in how the veneration of relics influenced Christian iconography. Some of her current projects focus on the iconography of Gothic wall paintings, royal patronage, pilgrimage and the development of religious cults. If you asked her to name her favourite saint, she would have to say Saint Louis; Saint Thomas Becket of Canterbury would be a very close runner-up.

Emily teaches modules on Gothic art and architecture, the 'Art of Death', and the history of the Crusades. She is also the convenor of the Medieval and Early Modern Studies MA in Paris.

Emily is currently supervising eight PhD students who are working on topics related to medieval visual culture. While it would be difficult for her to take on many more students at the moment, she would be happy to speak with enthusiastic MA and PhD candidates who are considering projects related to her current research interests.