Sarah Powrie's research investigates thresholds of medieval and early modern thought, specifically the revival of medieval metaphysics during the Scientific Revolution. In “The Celestial Progress of a Deathless Soul” and “Transposing World Harmony” she identifies medieval sources informing John Donne's metaphysical conceits, arguing that Donne transforms medieval metaphysics into an ornamental poetic architecture.  A more recent article, “Spenser's Mutabilitie and the Indeterminate Universe,” argues that the Mutabilitie Cantos represent Spenser's poetic response to the scientific debates generated by Giordano Bruno and Tycho Brahe. “The Importance of Fourteenth-Century Natural Philosophy for Nicholas of Cusa’s Infinite Universe” claims that Cusa's infinite universe is indebted to fourteenth-century discussions of incommensurability and infinite set theory. 

She also studies medieval dream visions and is currently writing about Chaucer’s Parliament of Fowls.