Dr Geri Parlby, BA (Hons), MA (Courtauld), PhD

My first career was as a journalist working on a variety of Fleet Street newspapers before moving into entertainment PR.  In the 1980s I was head of Press for United International Pictures the distribution arm of Paramount, Universal, MGM & UA studios.  I then ran my own PR agency specially in film and video PR until retiring in the early 1990s to start a family.

Having grown tired of too many verses of ‘The Wheels on the Bus’ I decided to go back to school.  I then went on to gain a first-class honours degree in History and Theology from Surrey University, a Masters in History of Art with distinction from the Courtauld Institute and a Theology PhD from the University of Roehampton.  The subject of my PhD thesis was the early iconography of the Virgin Mary.

I have taught at the Universities of Exeter, Plymouth and Roehampton where I am an honorary research fellow.  I also run regular courses for the Arts Society South West Area and the Devon Archaeological Society, as well as travelling all over the UK and internationally as an accredited Arts Society Lecturer.

I would describe myself as a rather idiosyncratic art historian who studies history through art rather than the history of art and my lecture topics reflect the diversity of my interests.  I give talks on everything from prehistoric art through to the history of medicine in art, the story of the birth Fleet Street, the art of propaganda and fake news and the early days of the film industry, with a bevy of other topics in between.

I am happy to travel anywhere in the UK and internationally to lecture, but I can also provide courses and all my talks remotely via Zoom.  The video on the Home page shows me in action talking about the History of Medicine in Art.