Recent Work

Talks & Presentations

11.24.25 - University of Bologna

Cover slide for Helena Kansa's virtual talk at the University of Bologna

Proto-Writing and the Connection Between Image and Written Language - Helena Kansa

Invited by Professor Chiara Pizzirani from the Department of History, Cultures, and Civilizations at the University of Bologna, Italy to present a guest lecture, “Proto-Writing and the Connection Between Image and Written Language”, to her Iconography and Iconology (Laurea Magistrale) class. This lecture discusses the overlap between linguistic and iconographic analysis, a brief history of writing, and how proto-writing blurs the lines between writing and image.

WATCH HERE

11.12.25 - Unicode Technology Workshop

Kyra Ann Dawkins, Anushah Hossain, and Helena Kansa presenting their session at Unicode Technology Workshop 2025 Microsoft

Assessing a Script's Unicode Readiness - Anushah Hossain, Helena Kansa, and Kyra Ann Dawkins

Co-delivered the session “Assessing a Script's Unicode Readiness” at the 2025 Unicode Technology Workshop hosted by Microsoft in Mountain View, CA. This talk presented the results of a holistic evaluation process that aimed to classify scripts based on their “Unicode readiness” – their likelihood of getting included in the Unicode Standard based on factors such as stability, adoption, documentation, and more.

Events

10.27.25 - Cupertino, CA

Group photo of Unicode Techincal Committee attendees

Unicode Technical Committee #185

Attended the fall Unicode Technical Committee meeting at Apple Park in Cupertino, CA.

10.15.25 - Monterey, CA

Image of the Monterey conference center

Localization World 54

Represented the Script Encoding Initiative at the 54th Localization World conference in Monterey, CA.

9.16.25 - Berkeley, CA

Image of the SEI open house presentation

Script Encoding Initiative Open House

Hosted an open house event for the Script Encoding Initiative to kick off the fall semester at UC Berkeley.

Published Works

Image of the cover art on the book Archaeozoology of Southwest Asia and Adjacent Areas XIII

Archaeozoology of Southwest Asia and Adjacent Areas XIII (cover art)

My artwork is featured on the cover of Archaeozoology of Southwest Asia and Adjacent Areas XIII, published in 2022 by Lockwood Press.

Image of Figure 3.6, drawn by Helena Kansa, in the book chapter

Archaeological Interpretations: Symbolic Meaning within Andes Prehistory (Figure 3.6)

I drew a figure featured in the chapter “The Life Force Materialized in the Andean Religion” of Archaeological Interpretations: Symbolic Meaning within Andes Prehistory, published in 2020 by University Press of Florida.