Papers & Podcasts

“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). 

“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). 

“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).