Dr Emily Davenport Guerry

About

Dr Emily Davenport Guerry's research focuses on saints, relics and devotion in the medieval imagination.

Teaching spans medieval British, European and world history, as well as options related to visual culture, and she supervises dissertations on medieval art, architecture and devotional culture.

Dr Guerry is particularly interested in the way in which art and architecture shapes the devotional experience of relic cults – if the sacred object is like a battery, its miracle-working presence is the electricity and the surrounding visual culture is the machine that generates meaning.

Her research examines the relationship between religious devotion and artistic representation in the Middle Ages, retracing and unpacking how the veneration of relics influenced Christian iconography. She is also especially interested in the historical context surrounding changes in the representation of Crucifixion, as well as the patrons, theologians and artists who facilitated its reinvention.

Some of Dr Guerry's current projects focus on the Gothic wall paintings in Paris and Angers, royal patronage at Westminster, the role of diplomats in the collection of relics from Constantinople and the development of religious cults across the British Isles, Europe and the wider Mediterranean.