Rowena studied History and Archaeology at Oxford. She is a specialist in Byzantine art and cultures of Late Antiquity with particular expertise in sculptures and mosaic, and has done 12 Research papers. She has been Head of e-learning at the British Museum and Visiting Research Fellow at King's College, London. Coeditor of the Bulletin of British Byzantine studies, and freelance writer, has written several books: Byzantine (British Museum paperback), Christian Art (Harvard Editions), The British Museum Christ, Ancient Greece seen through History, The Anglo Saxons (Fact Finding Series).