Claire Renkin has been teaching art history and spirituality at Yarra Theological Union (YTU) since 2001. Her teaching areas include the art and architecture of the Early Christians and Byzantium, and the art and spirituality of the late Middle Ages. In addition to these topics, Claire co-teaches units on death, dying and bereavement in art and spirituality, and the history of Mary in the Christian tradition.

In addition to teaching at YTU, she lectures regularly throughout Australia on the intersection of visual art, theology and spirituality. Her research and publications focus on the role of gender and devotion in depictions of female sanctity in European art from the late Middle Ages to the early modern period, c. 1350-1650. Claire together with Sr Angela Slattery ibvm is researching a little-known cycle of fifty paintings of the life of Mary Ward 1585-1645, the founder of the Institute of the Virgin Mary also known as Loretos.