Lucy Donkin is a lecturer in History and History of Art. She studied Ancient and Modern History at Oxford, and gained her MA and PhD in Medieval Art History at the Courtauld Institute of Art. Before joining the University of Bristol in 2012, she taught Medieval History at St Catherine’s College, Oxford, and Medieval Art History at the Courtauld Institute and the University of Cambridge.

Research

Lucy Donkin’s research interests lie in the perception of place during the Middle Ages, with particular reference to Italy and the Mediterranean. Her work so far has focused on sacred space, especially the creation, use and decoration of holy ground. She is currently completing a book, Standing on Holy Ground, which examines themes such as the design and function of ecclesiastical floor mosaics, the liturgical shaping of consecrated space, and the phenomenon of holy footprints. She has a related interest in medieval cartography and recently co-edited with Dr Hanna Vorholt (University of York) a volume of essays on maps of Jerusalem: Imagining Jerusalem in the Medieval West. Her new research project focuses on the portability of place,  exploring the spiritual and political connotations of moving earth to and from Rome. She is a member of the University of Bristol Centre for Medieval Studies and of several research clusters, including Early Italian Studies, Materialities and Religion.

Research Supervision

Lucy Donkin is currently supervising an MPhil project on the Hereford World Map. She welcomes enquiries from students wishing to pursue research on the visual, religious, or urban culture of medieval Italy, or to investigate medieval attitudes to sanctity, materiality, or landscape more generally.

Teaching

Lucy Donkin’s interdisciplinary research interests inform her teaching for the History and History of Art departments. She contributes to team-taught units including Introduction to Medieval History, Introduction to Medieval Art, and Approaching the Past.  She teaches History of Art units on Landscape, Vision, and Religious Art and a History unit Rome after Rome on the post-classical city. She is currently designing a unit on Artistic Exchange in the Medieval Mediterranean.

Office: B.35, 9 Woodland Road

Telephone: 0117 92 87408

Email: lucy.donkin@bristol.ac.uk

Consultation hours