Marie Clausén
Contract Instructor
Marie Clausén is an architecture historian and religious studies scholar who specialises in historic sacred architecture, with a particular focus on the interpretation and preservation of English medieval churches and cathedrals.
She holds a doctorate in Religion from the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa and a master’s degree in the History and Theory of Art and Architecture from Uppsala University (Sweden), as well as an assortment of other degrees in political science, sociology, and international relations from universities in Sweden and the United Kingdom.
Her doctoral dissertation, titled “Sacred Architecture in a (Post-) Secular Age: Dwelling in the Norfolk Churchscape” is a philosophical exploration of a new way of framing historic churches at risk in an attempt to improve their fortunes in a potentially post-Christian but ostensibly also post-secular future. Her research has been supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and been nominated for the Laberge Prize, the De Konick Prize and the Governor General’s Academic Medal. She is also the author of the popular book Sacred Architecture in a Secular Age: Anamnesis of Durham Cathedral (Routledge 2016/17).
An adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa, she also teaches at the School for Studies in Art and Culture at Carleton University, including ARTH2202: Architecture and Art of the Middle Ages and ARTH2510A: Architectures of the 18th and 19th Centuries.
In her spare time, of which there is not as much as she would like, she is a church crawler, a Norman font hunter, a collector of rare and otherwise vintage books, a passionate tea drinker, and a published poet. As a global nomad, she has (so far!) lived in England, France, Italy, Sweden, Finland and Japan and now lives, loves, reads, and runs in Ottawa, but dreams of a thatched cottage in a small village in England…
Selected Publications
Books
Sacred Architecture in a Secular Age: Anamnesis of Durham Cathedral 2016/2017, Routledge Research in Architecture, Taylor & Francis (hb: 9781138125582; pb: 9781138088702; ebook: 9781315647388)
Articles
“’At the Still Point of the Turning World’: In Search of the Right Reason for the Preservation of Churches,” Ecclesiology Today vol. 63 (2024)
“Campus as Sacred Ground: Laying the Foundations for Well-being” in Anne Vallely (ed.) “Religion and Medicine: Expanding Understandings of Human Flourishing,” Special Issue of Religions 13:11 (2022)
“Vitrum Resurgentium: A Transatlantic Illumination,” Ecclesiology Today vol. 61, 2022
“Delving for the Apocryphal Roots of England’s ‘Green Men,’” Apocrypha vol. 32, 2022
“’But the fountain sprang up and the bird sang down’: Heidegger’s Gathering of the Fourfold and the Seven-Sacraments Font at Salle, Norfolk,” in Tammy Gaber (ed.), “Sacred Spaces: Designing for the Transcendental,” Special Issue of Religions 12:7 (2021)
Selected Presentations
“The Medieval Churches of Gotland: A Baltic Axis Mundi?” (2022): Wycliffe College, Oxford University
“The Medieval Churches of Gotland: A Baltic Axis Mundi?” (2022): a CCT (Churches Conservation Trust) Lunchtime Lecture
“Cleanliness Is Next to Godliness – Or Is It? Contemporary Conservation Practices Inspected” (2020): lecture sponsored by ICOMOS Sweden and Riksantikvarieämbetet (the Swedish National Heritage Board)
“Cleanliness Is Next to Godliness – Or Is It? Contemporary Conservation Practices Inspected” (2019): single lecture presentation at the Life-long Learning Program, Carleton University
“What Is ‘Clean Enough’? / Vad är ‘rent nog’?” (2019): a podcast conversation with conservator and art historian Anna Henningsson of Disent AB about cleaning as preservation praxis in the context of historic churches:
“Con-templating Sacred Architecture” (2017): Guest lecture at the Faculty of Theology, St Paul University (sponsored by the Centre for Vatican II and 21st Century Catholicism)
“Writing (about) Architecture: A Case for Ekphrasis” (2016): Guest lecture at the Azrieli School of Architecture & Urbanism, PhD Colloquium, Carleton University:
“The Erotics of Sacred Architecture” (2014): Conference presentation at the Forum for Ecclesiastical Cultural Heritage, Uppsala University: