Hannah Williams studied with Dr. Shelley Zuraw and specialized in the art of the so-called “Northern Renaissance,” specifically the relationship of late medieval mysticism to the production of devotional images. She graduated from the University of North Carolina Wilmington in 2018 with a BA in English literature and art history as well as a certificate in professional writing, during which time she worked as both an intern for the Chief Curator at Cameron Art Museum in Wilmington, N.C. and as a writing tutor. Her MA thesis, titled “’Do you have eyes but fail to see?’: The Devotio Moderna and the Unfocussed Gaze in Hans Memling’s Devotional Diptych for Isabel la Católica,” focuses on a particular devotional image made for one of the most important female patrons of the fifteenth century, Isabel “La Católica” of Castile, by the great German-Flemish artist Hans Memling. With a research grant from the Lamar Dodd School of Art, Williams was able to travel to Spain and Belgium to view this painting and others in person. After her graduation in May 2020, Williams hopes to pursue a PhD in which she will focus on the senses and mysticism in religious art from the Low Lands, c. 1400 to 1600.

Williams investigates the effects of medieval devotional practices on private Northern European religious art from the fifteenth century, specifically the effect of the "devotio moderna" on Hans Memling's paintings.