Keynote Presentations

‘Penallta Colliery: A Sonic Intervention’, paper presented online at CoDi Off-Grid, Tŷ Cerdd (April 4, 2022).

‘”The Hearing Ear and the Seeing Eye”: Transformative Listening to the Biblical Image’, paper presented at Morphe Arts, London, UK (October 19, 2019).

‘The Hearing Ear and the Seeing Eye: transformative listening to the biblical image’, paper delivered at ‘Visual Theology 1’, Chichester Cathedral, Chichester, UK (Oct. 19, 2018).

‘The Sounds of Sinai: A Sonic Intervention in the Book of Exodus’, paper delivered at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK (Nov. 1, 2017).

‘Image and Inscription: Sonification as an Interpretive Methodology in Biblical, Textual, and Visual Study’, paper delivered at ‘Transmedial Musics: Music Across Media’, University of Leicester, UK (Nov. 19, 2016).

‘”The Noise of his Voice” (Job 37.2): Re-articulations of the Evan Roberts Wax Cylinder’, delivered at ‘The Voice and Something Else’ conference, Aberystwyth University, UK (Jan 24, 2014).

‘The Retrieval of Revival: Recollecting and Revising the Evan Roberts Wax Cylinder’, [keynote speaker] paper delivered at the ‘Revival: Memory, Utopia, and Identity’ conference, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK (Nov. 23-4, 2012).

‘Revival, Restoration, and Revision: An Audio Interrogation of Evan Roberts’ Wax Cylinder’, [keynote speaker] paper delivered at the ‘Material Religion in Modern Britain and her Worlds’ conference, University of Glamorgan, Cardiff, UK (June 8-9, 2012).

‘The Art of Predestination: Textual-Visual-Aural Approaches to Imaging the Bible’, [keynote speaker] paper to be delivered at the ‘Calvinism and the Arts’ conference, Princeton Theological Seminary, USA (April 14-16, 2011).

‘An Anti-Icon: A Protestant Art Now’, [keynote speaker] paper to be delivered at the ‘Art and Spirituality’ conference, Liverpool Cathedral (Dec. 3-4, 2010).

‘Bogus or Bogey?: Photographic Anomalies and Spirit Entities’, [keynote speaker] paper delivered at the ‘Paranormal Cultures’ conference, University of Sussex, UK (June 4, 2010).

‘The Bible & Art in Wales: A Nonconformist Perspective’ [keynote speaker], paper delivered as the Inaugural Lecture of the Imaging the Bible in Wales conference, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK (Mar. 31, 2008).

‘The Homiletic Icon: Preaching & Pre-Raphaelites,’ [keynote speaker] delivered at Bible & Visual Culture IV: The Shadow & The Real: The Bible and Painting symposium organized by Centre for Contemporary Approaches to the Bible, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Wales, Lampeter, UK and the Centre for Studies in the Visual Culture of Religion, School of Art, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK, Manchester Art Gallery, Manchester, UK (Sept. 22, 2007).

‘The End of Vision: The Purpose and Limit of Religious Representation,’ paper delivered at the Theology, Religion & the Arts conference for students of theology, religion, and ministry, University of Wales, Lampeter (June 11–12, 2008).

‘ “Behold”: Representation, Exposition, and the Hermeneutics of Seeing,’ Inaugural Lecture delivered at The Bible & Visual Culture symposium, University of Wales, Lampeter, Wales, UK (Apr. 14–15, 2005).

‘Spiritual Photography,’ keynote paper delivered at Spirituality and the Creative Arts, University of Wales, Lampeter and Alister Hardy Society, University of Wales, Lampeter, Wales, UK (Oct. 29–31, 2004).


Conference Presentations 

‘The Spirit Cried (Mark 9.26): Sounds of the Dead, damned, and Demonic in the Landscape of Eighteenth-Century Wales’, paper delivered at ‘Soundscapes in the Early Modern World’, Society of Renaissance Studies/Liverpool John Moores University (July 7, 2021).

‘Noisome Spirits: An Audition of Apparitions’, paper delivered at the ‘Religion & Art’ symposium, Goldsmiths University, London (November 13, 2020).

‘Recalling and Forgetting the Past: A Sonic Transformation of Sermons, Using Digital and Analogue Technology and the Deficits of Dementia’, paper presented at ‘Digital Past 2018’, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK (February 7–8, 2018).

‘Archive to Archive: Recollecting and Collecting Memories’, paper presented at the ‘Explore Your Archive: Memory Archive’ event, Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales, National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK (Nov. 22, 2017).

‘One-to-One-to-Many: Sharing the Fruit of Individual Instruction with the Learning Community Using Social Media’, paper delivered at ‘The Aberystwyth University Learning and Teaching Conference’, Aberystwyth, UK (July 10, 2017).

‘Paranormal Visual and Material Culture: Fabrication and Fakery’, paper delivered at ‘An Evening of Communication’, The Serpentine Gallery/The Museum of Everything, The College of Psychic Studies, London, UK (Apr. 27, 2016).

‘Quiet Bell: Seeing Silence in Millet’s The Angelus’, paper delivered at ‘The Listening Art Historian’, Research Forum, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London, UK (May 30, 2013).

‘Capturing Ghosts: Modernity, Technology, and the Paranormal’, delivered at the Centre for Christianity and Culture, University of Oxford, UK (Nov. 6, 2012).

‘Evan Roberts: A Waxwork Revival’, paper delivered at the Drwm, The National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK (Nov. 16, 2011).

‘An ABC of Situating Chapels: Architectural, Biblical, and Cultural Perspectives’, paper delivered at the ‘Living Stones’ heritage day, Llanfyllin, UK (May 22, 2010).

An Anti-Icon: A Protestant Art Now’, paper delivered at the University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada (Sept. 18, 2009).

‘An ABC of Situating Chapels: Architectural, Biblical, and Cultural Perspectives’, paper delivered at the ‘Welsh Places of Worship’ conference, Abergavenny, Wales, UK (Nov. 12, 2009).

‘Re-membering the Departed: Reconstituting and Returning the Dead Through Photography’, paper delivered at the ‘Spiritualism and Technology’ AHRC project seminar, University of Westminster, London, UK (Jan. 30, 2009).

‘Bogus or Bogey?: Photographic Anomalies and Spirit Entities’, paper delivered at University of York, York, UK (Feb. 25, 2008).

‘The Ghost in the Machine: Spirit and Camera’, paper delivered at PhoCUS, Cambridge University, Cambridge, UK (Nov. 21, 2008).

‘An ABC of Situating Chapels: Architectural, Biblical, and Cultural Perspectives’, paper delivered at the Welsh Churches conference, Ecclesiological Society, London, UK (Oct. 4, 2008).

‘Something in the Air,’ chair of discussion panel to accompany the Seeing is Believing exhibition (Nov. 23, 2007­–Jan. 27, 2008), The Photographers’ Gallery, London UK (Dec. 5, 2007).

‘Works form The Pictorial Bible Series’, Lunchtime Lectures series, School of Art, Aberystwyth University, Aberystwyth UK (Nov. 28, 2007).

‘John Harvey’, in conversation with Lord Leslie Griffith, Lunchtime Lectures series, Wesley’s Chapel & Museum of Methodism, London UK (Nov. 1, 2007).

‘Visual Blasphemy: Defamations and Definitions,’ paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Academy of Religion, San Diego, USA (Nov. 17–20, 2007).

‘Protestant Portrayals of the ‘Poor in Spirit’: The Problem of Externalizing a Spiritual Disposition,’ paper delivered at the International Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Vienna, Austria (July 22–26, 2007).

‘The Written Image: A Visual-Textual Approach to Pictorializing Scripture,’ paper delivered at The School of Religious and Theological Studies, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK (Mar. 21, 2007).

‘Visual Typology and Pentecostal Theology: The Paintings of Nicholas Evans,’ keynote paper delivered at the Art, Artists and the Bible symposium, University of Wales, Lampeter , UK (Sepr. 21–24, 2006).

‘”Chambers of Imagery” (Ezekiel 8.12): The Gallery and the Bible’, paper delievered at the Bible and Visual Culture III: Painting and the Bible, a collaborative symposium organized by the Centre for Studies in the Visual Culture of Religion, School of Art, University of Wales, Aberystwyth and the Centre for Contemporary Approaches to the Bible, Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Wales, Lampeter, UK, The Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham (May 13, 2006) [Funded by the British Academy].

‘ “The Vision … as the Words of a Book” (Isa. 29.11): The Bible as Contemporary Art,’ ’ paper delivered at Centre for the Reception History of the Bible, Oxford University, Oxford, UK (Feb. 6, 2006).

‘Facing Death: Confronting and Portraying the Dead in Spirit Photography, 1861–1940,’ paper delivered at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Religion, Pennsylvania Conference Centre, Philadelphia, USA (Nov. 19–22, 2005).

‘Illumination & Transparency: Seeing through the Bible in Wales,’ Inaugural Lecture delivered for the Bible & Visual Culture in Wales Project (Arts & Humanties Research Council), Department of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Wales, Lampeter, UK (Oct. 19, 2005).

‘Formal Equivalence: Biblical Studies as an Approach to Visualizing Scripture,’ paper delivered for Bible and Visual Culture II, at the European Association of Biblical Studies meeting, Technische Universität, Dresden, Germany (Aug. 7–10, 2005).

‘The Paradise Paradigm: Evocations of Eden in the European Landscape Tradition,’ paper delivered at The Bible & Visual Culture symposium, University of Wales, Lampeter, Wales, UK (Apr. 14–15, 2005).
‘Christ and the Icon,’ Lent Series, Holy Trinity Church, Aberystwyth (Apr. 8, 2005).

‘Crossing Over: Nonconformist and Anglican Migration to Spiritualism since the Mid Nineteenth Century and its Relevance to Psychic Visual Culture,’ paper delivered at The Challenge of Pluralism – The Power of Interpretation, 12th Conference of the International Society for Religion, Literature, and Culture, Uppsala University, Sweden (Oct. 22–24, 2004).

‘Revival, Visions, and Visitations: The Resurgence and Imaging of Supernatural Religion, 1840–1930,’ paper delivered at the 1904 Revival Colloquium of the Ceredigion Historical Society and Llafur: The Welsh People’s History Society, Blaenannerch, Wales, UK (Oct. 2, 2004).

‘Seen to be Remembered: Presentation, Representation, and Recollection in British Evangelical Culture since the Late 1970s,’ paper delivered at the British Evangelical Identities: Past, Present, and Possible Futures conference, King’s College, London, UK (July 28–31, 2004).

‘The Agony in the Garden: The Visions of Evan Roberts and the 1904 Welsh Revival,’ paper delivered at Revival, Renewal and the Holy Spirit, Centre for the Advanced Study of Religion in Wales conference,  University of Wales, Bangor, UK (June 23–26, 2004).

‘The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come: Dickens and Spirit Photography,’ paper delivered to The Society for Psychical Research, London, UK (Dec. 11, 2003).

‘Old Wine in New Wine Skins: Medieval Iconography in Spirit Photography,’ Convivium Conference: Popular Culture: Then and Now, Siena College, Loudonville, New York, USA (Oct. 10–11, 2003).

‘The Photographic Medium: Reinventing the Ghost in the Visual Culture of Psychic Photography,’ paper delivered at the Twenty-Seventh International Conference of the Society for Psychical Research, Manchester, UK (Sept. 5–7, 2003).

‘ “The Appearance of Evil”: Visualizations of the Dead and Demonic in the Writings of Edmund Jones (1702–93),’ Convivium Conference: Soul and Psyche, Siena College, Loudonville, New York, USA (Oct. 11–12, 2002).

‘Seen to be Remembered: Image and Recollection in Evangelical Visual Culture,’ paper delivered at Situated Knowledges: Consumption, Production and Identity in a Global Context, The Design History Society Conference 2002, Aberystwyth, UK (Sept. 3–5, 2002).

‘Landscape and Iconography in Edmund Jones’s Collection of Spirit Narratives,’ paper delivered at the Twenty-Sixth International Conference of the Society for Psychical Research, Manchester, UK (Aug. 30–Sept. 1, 2002).

‘ “The Appearance of Evil”: Visualizations of the Dead and Demonic in the Writings of Edmund Jones (1702–93),’ paper delivered at the Fourth North American Conference on Welsh Studies, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, New York, USA (June 20–22, 2002).

‘The Art of Welsh Coal Workers,’ paper delivered at Green Mountain College, Vermont, USA (Oct. 12, 2001).

‘Ghosts, Spirits, and Edmund Jones’s Landscape of the Dead,’ paper delivered at the Welsh Harvest Festival, Green Mountain College, Vermont, USA (Oct. 13, 2001).

‘Representations of the Being of Spirits: Edmund Jones’s Landscape of the Dead,’ paper delivered at the School of Art Annual Research Colloquium, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, Gregynog Hall, Newtown, UK (June 11–13, 2001).

‘The Word is the Image, The Image is the Word: Resurrecting the Protestant Icon,’ Inaugural Lecture, School of Art, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK (Nov. 29, 2000).

‘ “See the Hammer Falling”: Visionary Manifestations of the 1904–5 Welsh Religious Revival,’ Marymont University conference on Visions, Dreams and Nightmares, Washington, DC, USA (Mar. 23–25, 2000).

‘Biblio-centricity and its Implications for the Form and Decoration of Meeting-Houses and Chapels,’ paper delivered at Meeting-House: An International and Interdisciplinary Conference on Protestant Dissenting Architecture and Culture, Centre for Studies in the Visual Culture of Religion, School of Art, University of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK (Apr. 14–16, 1999).

‘Word into Image; History into Practice: Towards a Pictorial Setting of the Psalms,’ Visual Culture Series, Colorado College/National Endowment for the Humanities, Colorado Springs, USA (Feb. 24, 1999).

‘Evident Guilt: Sin, Redemption, and Representation in the Protestant Tradition,’ paper delivered at the conference on ‘Guilt,’ Middlesex University, UK (Sept. 26, 1998).

‘Nicholas Evans: Paintings by a Mad Pianist,’ paper delivered at the Inaugural Conference of the Centre for Advanced Music Studies, University of Wales, Bangor, UK (Sept. 1995).

‘Defacing God: The Iconography of Profanity,’ paper delivered at the conference on Critical Interventions: Evil, John Hansard Gallery, University of Southampton, UK (May 9–10, 1998).

‘The Art of Piety,’ paper delivered at the conference on the Visual Culture of Wales, Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, Nineteenth Forum (June 24, 1995).

‘The Art of Dissent: A Sociology of Religious Artefacts in Wales,’ paper delivered at University of Manchester, UK (Mar. 1994).

‘Nonconformity and the Art of the Word,’ paper delivered at Greenwich School of Theology (USA), Liverpool, UK (July 1993).

‘Nonconformity and the Art of the Word,’ paper delivered at Department of Extra-mural Studies, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK (July 1986).