Conferences Organized
Water in Anglo-Saxon England
IHR Colloquium, 25 October 2015
Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, University of London, UK
Lead organizer
Religion and Public Life
Boston College Biennial Conference on the History of Religion, 1-2 April 2016
Boston College, Chestnut Hill, MA
Co-organizer and panel commentator
Invited Talks
2023
“Beneath the Surface: Water and Sacrality in the Early Middle Ages,” keynote for Surface Tension: Water, Waterways, and Art, 49th Annual Cleveland Symposium, Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Museum of Art
2022
“Living Waters: Baptism in the Landscape of the Early Middle Ages,” Colgate University
“Living Water, Living Stone: Material Histories of the Middle Ages,” Bowdoin College
“Living Stones: Baptismal Fonts and Social Memory in the Middle Ages,” keynote for Remembering and Reimagining in the Middle Ages, The Catholic University of America
“Living Water, Living Stone: Material Religion in Early England,” Purdue University
“Active Learning in the History Classroom,” Southeastern Oklahoma State University
2021
“Manuscripts, Materiality & Making,” State University of New York, Potsdam
“The 1918 Influenza Pandemic: Making Global and Local Histories,” Princeton University
“Othering Blackness: Ideas of Racial Difference in Medieval and Early Modern Europe,” College of William & Mary
“Casting Pilgrims: Experiencing Medieval Material Culture at Canterbury,” lecture and hands-on workshop, The Catholic University of America (postponed due to COVID-19)
“Baptism in Early Europe,” The University of Houston-Clear Lake
2020
“COVID-19 and the Black Death: Medieval and Modern Pandemics,” St. Lawrence University Public Health Department
“Wells, Pools & Springs: Places of Baptism in the Irish Landscape,” Foothill College Archaeological Field School, Ballintober Castle, Co. Roscommon, Ireland (cancelled due to COVID-19)
2019
“Living Water and Living Stone in Early England,” Texas A&M University–San Antonio
2018
“Living Water, Living Stone: The History and Material Culture of Baptism,” School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies, Arizona State University
"Baptism from Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages," Boston College School of Theology & Ministry
"Art of Devotion: Medieval and Modern Stained Glass," Public lecture, Church of the Redeemer, Chestnut Hill, MA
2017
“Photogrammetry in the Classroom,” Digital Pedagogy Spring Showcase, Boston College
2016
"Excavating the Past with 3D Printing" Boston College Libraries, Digital Studio Open House
“Medieval Material Worlds” Guest lecture HI319: Material Culture, Worcester State University History Department, Prof. Erika Briesacher.
“3D Modeling and Printing Medieval Baptism” Digital History Initiative Seminar, Boston College
2015
“Baptism in the Anglo-Saxon World” Earlier Medieval Seminar, Institute of Historical Research, Senate House, University of London, UK
Panels Organized
2023
Landscapes of Change in the Medieval Environment, American Society for Environmental History Annual Conference, Boston, MA
2022
Teaching Plague: Medieval and Early Modern Pandemics in the Classroom, American Historical Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA
2020
Anti-Racism in the Classroom I and II, Committed to Action for Racial Equity (CARE), St. Lawrence University, NY
2019
Inclusive, Active, and Experiential Learning in the Premodern Classroom, New York State Association of European Historians Annual Conference, SUNY Canton, NY
The Parish Church and Community in Medieval and Early Modern England, American Catholic Historical Association & American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL
2017
Disciplinary Approaches to Baptism in Medieval Europe, American Academy of Religion, Boston, MA
2016
The Past as a Thing: History, Memory, and Objects in the Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman World, The 51st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI.
Let the Waters Bring Forth: Conceptualizing Water in the Early Middle Ages, International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, UK.
2015
Ritual and Conversion in the Early Medieval West, International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, UK.
Papers
2023
“Lives and Afterlives of Early Medieval Stone Sculpture,” The 42nd International Charles Homer Haskins Society Conference, University of Richmond, VA
“Healing and the Holy: Fontwater as Liturgical Material and Medical Cure in the Early Middle Ages,” International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, UK
“Converting the Landscape: Medieval Transformations of the Natural World,” American Society of Environmental History Annual Conference, Boston, MA
2022
“Ritual and Reuse: Early Baptismal Fonts of the Medieval West,” Worked in Stone: Early Medieval Sculpture in its International Context, Corpus of Anglo-Saxon Stone Sculpture, Durham University, UK
“Teaching Pandemics in a Pandemic: Immersive Learning in the History Classroom,” American Historical Association Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA
2021
“Archaeology of Initiation: Early Baptismal Fonts in Medieval England,” European Association of Archaeologists Annual Meeting, Kiel, Germany
“The Old Minster, Winchester, and its Baptistery,” International Society for the Study of Early Medieval England, Winchester, UK
“Flipping the Font: Turning Early Medieval Baptismal Sculpture Upside Down,” Medieval Academy of America Annual Meeting, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
2020
“Baptisms and Baptisteries in the Insular World,” Baptême et baptistères: regards croisés sur l’initiation chrétienne entre Antiquité Tardive et Moyen Age - Colloque international, Sorbonne Université, Paris
“Pandemic Pedagogy: Active Learning Outside the Classroom,” New York State Association of European Historians Annual Conference
“The Baptismal Font at Wilne: A Material History of Early Medieval Recycling,” American Historical Association Annual Conference, New York, NY
2019
“Cooking, Casting, and Creating: Experiential Learning in the Medieval Classroom,” New York State Association of European Historians Annual Conference, SUNY Canton, NY
“Materialities of Initiation: Living Water and Living Stone,” International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, UK
“Materializing the Baptismal Ritual in the Early Middle Ages,” 39th Annual Conference of the Center for Medieval Studies, Ritual and Religion in the Medieval World: A Conference in Honor of Richard F. Gyug, Fordham University, NY
"The Place and Patron of the Baptismal Font in the Early Medieval Parish," American Catholic Historical Association & American Historical Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL
2018
“Baptism ad sanctos: Remembering the Saints in the Liturgy and Objects of Baptism in Early Medieval England,” International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, UK
“Digital Material: Photogrammetry, 3D Modeling, and Medieval Objects,” What is Medieval History Now? Harvard Medieval Workshop Roundtable, The 53rd International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
2017
“Baptism in the Great Rebuilding: The Origins of Medieval Fonts in England,” American Academy of Religion, Boston, MA
2016
“Material and Digital Approaches to Early Medieval Baptism,” The Material World of the Early Middle Ages, Pacific University, Forest Grove, OR
“‘Mighty and Barbaric’: Baptismal Fonts and Social Memory in Norman Yorkshire,” The 51st International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
2015
“Translating the Baptistery: Baptismal Places and Things in Anglo-Saxon England,” The Ecclesiastical History Society 54th Summer Conference, University of York, UK
“Water and Oil in the Age of Bede,” International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, UK
“Marking Baptisms and Burials in Stone in the Central Middle Ages,” A Thing of the Past: Material Evidence and the Writing of Medieval England’s Past, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI. Co-presented with Aleksandra McClain
“Font as Church: Norman Baptismal Fonts of the Yorkshire East Riding,” The 50th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
“Bathing Susanna: The Gender of Baptism in Late Anglo-Saxon England,” American Historical Association & American Catholic Historical Association Annual Meeting, New York, NY
2014
“Basins and Baptisms: The Material Culture of Water in Early Medieval Britain,” International Medieval Congress, University of Leeds, UK
“Baptismal Vessels in Early Medieval Britain before the Font,” Boston College and Durham University Medieval Studies Post-Graduate Conference, Boston College Theology Department
2013
“The Conversion of Edwin: Bede’s Concern for Easter,” American Catholic Historical Association Spring Conference, Stonehill College, Easton, MA
2012
“Kings as Catechumens: Royal Conversion Narratives and Easter in the Historia ecclesiastica,” The 31st International Charles Homer Haskins Society Conference, Boston College
2010
“Bede and the Devil: Baptismal Exorcism in Anglo-Saxon England,” The 45th International Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, MI
2008
“Baptismal Instruction in the Age of Bede,” Approaching Theology and Religion Colloquium, Department of Theology, University of Birmingham, UK
“From Nave to Chancel: The Metamorphic Implications of Anglo-Saxon Altar Placement,” Cambridge Colloquium in Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic, University of Cambridge, UK