Lily Callender (2023) studies the complex decisions that went into the design and decoration of early Christian spaces, and the way that religious shifts and doctrinal disputes influenced the adaptation of art and architecture in Late Antiquity. She earned her B.A. in Art and History of Art from UC Berkeley in 2022, before working as an educator at the Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego.
Her most recent research focuses on the complete sensorial experience of baptistries, and recovering how iconography, materiality, and ritual performance worked together to curate a specific understanding of the divine. Sixth-century baptismal fonts from Northern Africa are one of her particular interests, and her undergraduate research was dedicated to an especially well-surviving font from Kélibia. She is also more broadly interested in multisensory experiences, female patronage, and digital humanities.