FORTHCOMING
"The Queen of Sheba as Sexual Spectacle in Medieval Islamic and Christian Sources." Rice University Symposium: Across Two Seas: Black Lives and Visual, Literary, and Archival Histories in the Medieval to Early Modern Mediterranean and Indian Ocean, Houston. (10/8-10/26)
“Imaging the Unconquerable: Visualizing Yemen in Portuguese Colonial Manuscripts of the Sixtenth-Century.” Middle Eastern Studies Association Conference, Boston. (11/21-23/26)
Invited Talks and Conference Papers
“Between Sanctity and Subterfuge: The Sufi Pilgrimage Landscape of Yemen in the Sixteenth-Century Itinerary of Ludovico de' Varthema.” Yemen: History, Religion, Culture and Conflicts. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. (4/9-10/26)
“Reading Skin: Civility, Blackness, and the Representation of Elite Yemeni Women.” Renaissance Society of America Conference, San Francisco. (2/20/26)
“Medieval Legacies of Race in Varthema’s Itinerary and the Visual Archive of San Marco.” Medieval Times in Early Modern Texts Conference, Bratislava. (12/2/25)
“Visualizing the Tahirids: A New Identification in the Codex Casanatense.” Middle Eastern Studies Association Conference, Washington D.C. (11/23/25)
“From Rada’a to Rome: Elite Tahirid Women in the Codex Casanatense (MS 1889).” Feminist Art History Conference, American University (9/27/25).
“Animating the Divine Automata of the Villa Pratolino: Water, Magic, and Knowledge in the Automata of Villa Pratolino.” 25th Annual Then & Now Fanfare History & Politics Lecture Series, Southeastern University of Louisiana (9/23/25). Watch a clip below:
“The Arch through Time: Shaping Space through Strength.”
HIPS Society Invited Lecture, Southeastern University of Louisiana (9/23/25).
“Water, Magic, and Knowledge in the Automata of Villa Pratolino.” Sensory Histories of Water Conference, Museu Maritim de Barcelona, Spain (4/2/25).
“A Medici Feast for the Senses and the Sciences: An Occult Court Ceremony in the Orti Oricellari, 1578 C.E.” Sixteenth-Century Society Conference, Baltimore (10/26/23).
“The Monumental Clock in Europe and its Automata: Embodied Animation of the Ptolemaic Cosmos.” Scientiae Conference, Prague (6/7/23).
“Integrating Yemen to the Global Canon of Art History.” Teaching Yemen in American Universities and Under Blockade, American Institute of Yemeni Studies Virtual Webinar (4/26/23).
“Black Identities in Sixteenth-Century Yemen: An Early Modern European Itinerary in Historical and Literary Context.” Renaissance Society of America Conference, San Juan (3/10/23).
“An Unnamed Tahirid Sultana's Legacy in Yemeni Tradition and the Early Modern Western Male Gaze.” Women and Agency: Transnational Perspectives, c. 1450-1790, Oxford University Virtual Symposium (6/24/23).
“Ludovico de’ Varthema’s Itinerary of Yemen in the 1515 C.E. Woodcuts of Jörg Breu.” Renaissance Society of America Virtual Conference (4/14/21).
“Documenting the Destruction of Yemen’s Islamic Heritage: the Case of the Omar Mosque and School of Ibb.” Seminar for Arabian Studies Conference, Leiden (7/11/19).
“The Practical Side of Francesco I de’ Medici’s Villa Pratolino: Water and its Workers in the Service of a Late-Renaissance Ruler’s Microcosmos.” Renaissance Society of America Conference, Toronto (3/18/19).
“The Urgent Case for Teaching Yemeni Art History,” The Material Collective Blog (2/19/2019).
“Reformation England and the Performance of Wonder: Territory, Politics, and Performance in Tudor England.” Territory, Politics, and Performance in Tudor England, Northumbria University (6/23/17).
“Medicean Florence and Rudolphine Prague: Two Artificial Grottoes and the Transfer of Technology.” Entangled Histories, Multiple Geographies, Belgrade (10/14/15).
“‘Magical’ Mannerist Automata: Ficino, Art, and Technology in Late Sixteenth-Century Florence.” Renaissance Society of America Conference, Berlin (3/27/15).
“From Magic to Mechanics: Late Renaissance Automata.” Scientiae Conference, Vienna (4/26/14).
Podcasts
"Dr. Lily Filson living in Yemen and exploring Renaissance innovation and Arabian History,"
The Travel Addict (2026).
“Henry VIII and the Italian Renaissance,”
All Things Tudor with Deb Hunter (2023).
“Teak Column of Al-Qalis, Mecca (6th Century),”
Empire Lines (2021).