Lucy Potter's main research area is Early Modern English drama, in particular the plays of Shakespeare and his contemporary, Christopher Marlowe. Her focus is very much on the ways in which these plays interact with and develop classical ideas about tragedy, especially Aristotle's concept of catharsis, and are influenced by Virgil's Aeneid. Most recently, her attention has turned to the the representation of Virgilian ekphrasis in Marlowe's plays, and the relatively new area of Classical Receptions studies.

Lucy was a joint winner of the internationally competitive Calvin and Rose G Hoffman Prize for a Distinguished Publication on Christopher Marlowe in 2017 for her essay 'Ekphrastic Catharsis: Marlowe's Mural of Troy's Fall in the Tragedy of Dido, Queen of Carthage', and the sole winner of the Prize in 2022 for her essay 'Suspending Ekphrasis: Christopher Marlowe’s ‘Brazen World’ in Part 2 of Tamburlaine the Great and its Influence on Shakespeare’s Dramatic Practice'. She is one of only three Australian scholars to win this prestigious prize since it was first awarded in 1988 (https://theshakespearean.com/the-hoffman-prize/), and the first Australian scholar to win it twice.

At the invitation of Routledge Press, Lucy has published is currently her highly successful Shakespeare Matters MOOC as a book, Shakespeare for Everyone: The Emotional Worlds of Shakespeare's Plays (2025).

https://shorturl.at/909ql

In response, one reader says that 'this book has given me access to a hidden room called Shakespeare in an old library.’ Another says that the book is 'quite unlike any I have encountered in over forty years of teaching Shakespeare. Whilst very simply expressed it succeeds in taking the reader beyond mere plot and to a better understanding of Shakespeare’s craft, which can be applied to any of his plays. Language that may seem difficult at first soon becomes understandable.'