Dr. Lydia M. Walker is an assistant professor of history and religion. She completed two masters degrees at Western Michigan University in Medieval Studies and in Comparative Religion. She completed her doctorate at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, during which time she was a Fulbright Scholar based at Ghent University, Belgium. Her dissertation focused on Latin Christian polemics through the works of crusade preacher and Bishop of Acre, Jacques de Vitry. She completed an Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, Toronto in 2020.
Dr. Walker was a visiting professor at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette before joining Barton College in 2021. She has enjoyed teaching courses in history, religion, and Latin. She serves as the Communications Chair for the Hagiography Society, and her recent publications and presentations investigate connections between war propaganda, gender, and religious identity in the thirteenth century.