Specialising in Celtic, Late Antique and Early Medieval art, particularly of Britain and Ireland, Heather’s research draws on phenomenology, performativity, and eco-criticism. Her work focuses on word and image; colour and light; bodies and nature. 

Heather's first monograph, Word and Image in the Book of Kells, focused on the marginalia in the Book of Kells. In 2015, Heather was part of the curatorial team for The Celts exhibition at the British Museum and later at the National Museum of Scotland. She was awarded a Leverhulme-funded research fellowship, From 2D to 4D: Ireland’s Medieval Crosses in Time, Motion and the Environment in 2017. Drawing from phenomenology and the ecological turn, the project investigated how changing viewpoints, scale, light, weather and distances shape and animate these monuments. 'Between the Embodied Eye and Living World: Clonmacnoise’s Cross of the Scriptures' (Art Bulletin 2020) is a case study from the project.

After three years as Head of History of Art and a Paul Mellon Senior Fellowship, Heather published a monograph, Art, Nature and Body in Early Medieval Britain and Ireland (Cambridge University Press, February 2026 ). During this time, Heather collaborated with Adam Cohen, on a Leverhulme funded project, creating an interactive database Imaging the Psalter. A co-edited a book with Rachel Moss, Irish and Scottish Art, c. 900-1900: Survivals and Revivals (Edinburgh University Press, 2024), now available in paperback, received 'The Multi-Authored Book Award' from the Historians of British Art in 2026. With Professor Kathryn Rudy, Heather is Co-editor in Chief of Gesta, the leading English-language journal for medieval art (International Center for Medieval Art/University of Chicago).

A full list of Heather’s publications can be found at:

Edinburgh Research Explorer: Outputs