Conferences & Workshops

Hosted Conferences 2024

Past Workshops

Presentations & Guest Lectures

IN REVERSE CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

2023

  • Traveling the Ancient Silk Road remote lecture for the Silk Road Program at Berkeley University, Berkeley, California

  • Ecological Theory in Archaeology: A Critical History at the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology Jena, Germany

  • The Cotton Road for the Silk Road Program at Berkeley University, Berkeley, California

  • Traveling the Ancient Silk Road remote lecture for the Archaeology Department at the University of Munich, Munich, Germany

  • Ongoing Lab Research for the Central Asia Initiative in Jena, Germany for the Ancient Mobile and Sedentary interactions in Central Asia workshop, Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology Jena, Germany

2022

  • Insularity and Ecological Release in Early Plant Domestication at the University of Faro in Faro, Portugal

  • Rethinking Early Plant Domestication: Seed-dispersal-based Mutualism at the University of Faro in Faro, Portugal

  • Insularity and Ecological Release in Early Plant Domestication for the International Working Group for Paleoethnobotany (IWGP) in Ceske Budjewiche, Czech Republic

  • Research in the Spengler Lab for the London Seed Conference at the French Embassy in London, UK

  • Wittfogel to Watson: Rethinking the role of Central Asia in grand narratives at the First Millennium CE crop diffusion in the Middle East and Mediterranean conference at Cambridge

  • Ongoing Domestication Research in the Spengler Lab at Sheffield University, UK

2021

  • Fruits from the Sands at the World Expo 2020, Dubai, UAE

  • New Ideas in Domestication Studies at the World Expo 2020, Dubai, UAE

  • Rethinking Central Asia as Plant Domestication Center remote lecture for the CAAL Program’s Silk Road lecture series at University College London

  • Ongoing Archaeobotanical Research in Central Asia remote lecture at Durham University, Department of Archaeology

  • Anthropogenic Seed Dispersal: Rethinking Plant Domestication Origins remote lecture for the Botanical Research Network, Innovative Science Lecture Series at Montpelier

  • The Dispersal of Crops through Central Asia remote lecture for a special symposium organized to discuss the spread of millet through Central Asia at Kashmir University, India

2020

  • Anthropogenic Evolution Under Early Plant Cultivation remote lecture for the Evolutionary Biology Department at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology, Saudi Arabia

  • Ancient Crop Dispersals Through Central Asia lecture to explore the potential for biomolecular methods in millet detection on ancient ceramics at Nara University, Japan

2019

  • Fruit of the Silk Road lecture as part of the Spread of Agriculture into Tibet and Neighboring Regions conference at Northwest University in Xian, China, where I was also a discussant

  • Fruit from the Sands: The Silk Road Origins of the Foods We Eat at the Arnold Arboretum at Harvard University

  • Progress of research in the Archaeobotany Laboratories for the SAB at the Max Planck Institute in Jena, Germany

  • Rethinking Agriculture: The Evolution of Crops Under Cultivation as part of the Bison Seed-Dispersal Project at Washington University in St. Louis

  • Role of Seed Dispersal Shifts in Early Crop Domestication at the International Workgroup on Paleoethnobotany (IWGP) in Lecce, Italy

  • Fruits of the Silk Road: The spread of Agriculture through Central Asia for the Silk Road series at the Institute for Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing, China

  • Keynote speech on the Spread of Agriculture along the pre-Silk Road at the SIDRR2019: Paleoenvironmental Change and Disaster along the Silk Roads conference at the Beijing International Convention Center in Beijing, China

2018

  • Farming Under the Crescent Moon: Agriculture in the Medieval Islamic World, Archaeobotanical Studies at the Tashbulak Archaeological Site during the Qarakhanid Period at the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA), Barcelona, Spain

  • Water Management in Ancient Central Asia, Using Archaeobotanical Data to Discuss Irrigation Systems in Ancient Central Asia at the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA), Barcelona, Spain

  • Archaeobotany of the Silk Road at the Conference of the Society for East Asian Archaeology, Nanjing, China

  • Stretching North East Asian Prehistory: Integrating Linguistics and Genetics with Archaeology at the Conference of the Society for East Asian Archaeology, Nanjing, China

  • Early Arboriculture in Eurasia at the Comparative Pathways to Agriculture Symposium, sponsored by the ComPAg ERC project and the Domestication, Human Niche Construction, and the Anthropocene Research Network of the UCL Institute of Archaeology, University College London

  • Redefining Interaction and Mobility in Prehistoric Southern Central Asian Archaeology, Archaeobotany of the Silk Road at the International Congress on Archaeology of the Ancient Near East (ICAANE)

  • Fruits of the Silk Road for The Oxford Centre for Asian Archaeology, Art & Culture School of Archaeology, University of Oxford

  • How Nomadic were the Eurasian Nomads? for The Oxford Centre for Asian Archaeology, Art & Culture School of Archaeology, University of Oxford

2017

  • Ongoing Research and Laboratory Facilities at the Jena Max Planck Branch for the Paleontology Department at Free University, Berlin, Germany

  • Breadth of Dietary Economy in the Central Asian Prehistory at the Central Asia Workshop co-organized for the Max Planck Institute, Jena, Germany

  • Millet Dispersal for the Graduate School Human Development in Landscapes and the CRC 1266 Scales of Transformation lecture series at Kiel University, Kiel, Germany

  • Fruits of the Silk Road for Friends of the Archaeological Institute of America, New York Branch, New York City

  • Fruits of the Silk Road for Global Issues, Critical Topics, and Expert Lectures at New York University School of Professional Studies

  • Chenopodium Seeds in the Archaeobotanical Record of Central Asia for the Society for American Archaeology (SAA), Vancouver, Canada

  • Revisiting the Topic of Dung Burning in the Archaeobotanical Record of Central Asia at the Fryxell Award Session for Naomi Miller, Society for American Archaeology (SAA), Vancouver, Canada

  • Fruits of the Silk Road at the Max Planck Institute, Jena, Germany

  • Fruits of the Silk Road for The Archaeological Institute of America, Westchester Society, Westchester, New York

2016

  • Fruits of the Silk Road: The Spread of Agriculture through Central Asia at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW), New York University, New York City

  • Looking Back to the Origins of the Silk Road at New York University, New York City

  • The Globalization of Crops along the Ancient Silk Road at the International Workgroup for Palaeoethnobotany (IWGP), Paris, France

2015

  • Anthropogenic Landscapes of Prehistoric Central Eurasia: Archaeobotanical studies of agricultural niche construction for the Friday Archaeology lecture series at Washington University, St. Louis

2014

  • Experience of Turkmenistan in Research and Museumification of Archaeological Findings at the Turkmenistan Ministry of Culture’s conference on Paleoethnobotanical Methods for the Study of Early Agriculture and Cuisine in the Prehistory of Central Asia in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan

  • Spread of Agriculture into Central Eurasia and the Third Millennium B.C. Corridor of Exchange for the Geokolloquium Series in Earth Sciences at Free University, Berlin, Germany

  • Contrasting Patterns of Collecting, Treatment, and Use of Stems and Fiber for Crafts in Hunter-Gatherer versus Horticultural and Agropastoral Groups, Textiles as an Early Silk Road Commodity: Mobile Pastoralists in Central Asia for the Society for American Archaeology (SAA)

  • Late Third Millennium B.C. Agriculture in the Foothills of Central Asia: A Mixing Zone for East and South Asian Crops for the Society for American Archaeology (SAA)

2013

  • Late Third Millennium B.C. Agricultural Innovations in Central Asia at the Economic Botany Meetings in Plymouth, England

  • The Central Eurasian Corridor of Exchange and the Spread of Agriculture: Late Third and Second Millennia B.C. in the Food Globalization in Prehistory session at the International Workgroup in Palaeoethnobotany (IWGP) in Thessaloniki, Greece

2012

  • The End or Beginning of Nomadism: The Spread of Agriculture and Community Diversification in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages in Eastern Central Asia at the Eurasian Archaeology Conference at Cornell

  • Ecotopes and Herd Foraging Practices in the Bronze and Iron Age, Steppe and Mountain Ecotone of Central Asia for the Southwest Asian session at the Society for American Archaeology (SAA)

  • Central Eurasian Crop Corridor: Tracking the Path of Wandering Crops for the Friday Archaeology lecture series at Washington University, St. Louis

2011

  • Paleoethnobotanical Studies in Eastern Kazakhstan: The Bronze and Iron Age Interface for the Eurasian Steppe Archaeology session at the Society for American Archaeology (SAA)

  • Mountain Pastoralism: Working Agriculture into the Diversity of Archaeological Central Eurasian Pastoral Economies for the Friday Archaeology lecture series at Washington University, St. Louis

2010

  • Agriculture in Bronze and Iron Age Central Asia at Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

  • Plants and Mobile Pastoralists: A Case Study from Kazakhstan, during the Bronze Age at Buffalo State College, New York

  • Plants in the Diet of Mobile Pastoralists: Begash, Kazakhstan, during the Bronze Age at the International Ordos, Inner Mongolia Conference

  • Plants in the Diet of Mobile Pastoralist: Semirech’ye, Kazakhstan during the Early Iron Age at the Society for American Archaeology (SAA)

2009

  • Floating Some Models for the Role of Agriculture: Results from a Summer of Flotation in Kazakhstan for the Friday Archaeology lecture series at Washington University, St. Louis

2008

  • Some Food for Thought: Preliminary Results from Begash, Kazakhstan for the Friday Archaeology lecture series at Washington University, St. Louis

2006

  • Presented completed research on palynological analysis of archaeological sites in Western New York and northern Denmark at the University of Buffalo Celebration of Academic Excellence

2005

  • Presented data from palynological analysis on archeological sites in Western New York and northern Denmark at Annual Honors Research Forum

2004

  • Presented data from a palynological analysis of archeological sites in Western New York at the University of Buffalo Celebration of Academic Excellence

  • Presented a preliminary study of the acetolysis technique at the Annual Honors Research Forum