Her particular expertise is the social context of Byzantine religious practices, including hagiography, monasticism, and gender studies.
Her doctoral thesis was entitled The correspondence of Athanasius, patriarch of Constantinople (1289–1293; 1303–1309) with the emperor Andronicus II (two volumes).
[5] Talbot taught at several colleges in Ohio, as well as being a junior fellow of Byzantine studies (1966–1968) at Dumbarton Oaks.
This featured twenty-five contributions, and was edited by Denis Sullivan, Elizabeth A. Fisher, and Stratis Papaioannou.
[11] In his laureation address, Tim Greenwood commented on Talbot that 'in a career spanning more than fifty years, she has profoundly transformed the study of religious culture in the world of Byzantium, both through her own scholarly output and her selfless support of others.