The Postgraduate/Early Career Research Grant helped to facilitate my research trip to Ireland, where I conducted archival research at the Irish Art Research Centre at Trinity College Dublin and preliminary dissertation fieldwork. My dissertation, tentatively titled, “Anseo tá Arrachtaigh: The Christian Function of Monstrous and Grotesque Imagery in Pictland and Ireland, c. 700-1200,” will examine the function of monstrous and grotesque imagery at Pictish and Irish monastic sites, churches, and cathedrals, spanning from the eighth to the twelfth centuries. On this trip, I was able to visit Kells and Clonmacnoise to view their monumental high crosses, and the Nun’s Church at Clonmacnoise to study its architectural details. These visits helped to provide context for the placement of monumental sculpture and monstrous carvings around these monastic sites.