Dr Emily Guerry

About

It's such a joy to return to Oxford and join the thriving College community at St Peter's. Having completed my PhD at Cambridge and a fellowship in Paris, I came to Merton as a JRF in 2012. I moved to Canterbury in 2015 to join the School of History at the University of Kent, where I was a Senior Lecturer and co-Director of MEMS (Centre for Medieval and Early Modern Studies). After a decade at Kent, where I loved working with my colleagues and students, I made the difficult decision to leave after the closure of our History of Art Department. I am incredibly lucky to have found a new intellectual home at St Peter's, covering for Prof Stephen Baxter's sabbatical, and I am keen to get involved in College life as I navigate this new chapter of my career.

Teaching

I teach papers on the history of the British Isles from 300 to 1330, European and World History from 1000 to 1300, as well as the historiographical and methodological papers known as Disciplines and Approaches. I also give lectures in the History Faculty on the medieval history of the British Isles in addition to further teaching on various medieval special subjects. I am immensely proud of the success of my students, having supervised 13 fully-funded PhDs: 7 of my students have already finished and I am pleased that I will continue to act as an external supervisor to my remaining 6 doctoral candidates at Kent.

Research 

My 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. I am 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. My first book, Crowning Paris (forthcoming 2025), explores the cultural history of the Crown of Thorns, retracing its veneration and translation between Jerusalem, Constantinople, Venice and Paris. Some of my recent research has focused on the representation of the Crown relic in the stained glass windows of the Sainte-Chapelle, royal patronage of the Holy Blood relic at Westminster, and the diplomatic role of Dominican friars in the translation of relics from Constantinople.

Public engagement

I love sharing my research in the media. Some recent examples include my BBC History Magazine cover story on the cult of Thomas Becket and the accompanying History Extra podcast as well as multiple radio shows on Notre-Dame and the relationship between fires and new projects at Gothic cathedrals for the BBC, NBC, CBS, The New York Times, etc (e.g. this article), most recently for Talking History on Newstalk in June 2024. I enjoy working as a presenter and writer for TV history documentaries, including 'Mysteries of the Faith' on Netflix (November 2023), 'Notre-Dame Eternelle' (RMC Découverte, 2021), and 'Danny Dyer's Right Royal' (BBC One, 2019), where I had the immense privilege of introducing the actor to Saint Louis and guiding him around Notre-Dame and the Sainte-Chapelle. I was the PI of a AHRC cultural engagement project, Illuminating the Past: The lost paintings of Canterbury Cathedral, working with conservators and a post-doctoral research assistant, to showcase a new understanding of the medieval polychromy and murals that once filled the site with vivid decoration. With support from the British Academy, I co-organised the Saint Thomas Becket: Life, Death, and Legacy conference and its associated cultural engagement activities to coincide with the 850th anniversary of Becket’s martyrdom and the associated exhibition, 'Thomas Becket: Murder and the Making of a Saint' at the British Museum (2021),where one of my PhD students was the project curator. I also enjoy reviewing exhibitions, and this includes Musée du Louvre's extraordinary show, Le Trésor de Notre-Dame, and my account of this visit for Apollo in 2023.