[3] In 1909 she joined St Hugh's as a tutor, where she developed a close relationship with the college's principal, Eleanor Jourdain.
Jourdain felt that Ady had leaked information to the staff about her plans for introducing a vice-principal to the college.
The matter became of wider public interest, and Lord Curzon (the chancellor of the university) was asked to investigate.
[6] In 1938 she was awarded the degree of Doctor of Letters (DLitt), after she published a monograph titled The Bentivoglio of Bologna: a Study in Despotism (1937).
Following her death, her colleagues and former research students compiled a memorial volume of donated essays, titled Italian Renaissance Studies (1960).