Smithsonian Journeys Experts

Veronica Kalas is an art historian and archaeologist with special expertise in the ancient through Byzantine periods of Greece and the wider Mediterranean world. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in art history and archeology from New York University's Institute of Fine Arts and her B.A. in Classical Archaeology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Currently she teaches traveling study abroad classes with the Hellenic American University based in Athens, Greece, where she also lives part time as a bi-lingual, bi-cultural Greek-American. Veronica has conducted field work in Greece, Turkey, and Tunisia and has collaborated with the World Monuments Fund on developing an innovative, online visitors’ app for archaeological sites. She has worked with the Children’s Museum of Indianapolis on the blockbuster exhibit ‘Take Me There Greece!’ and with the Metropolitan Museum of Art on another blockbuster exhibit The Glory of Byzantium. Her doctoral research focused on the art, architecture and society of Byzantine Cappadocia, a volcanic region located in central Turkey about which she has published extensively. Her work has been supported by the American Research Institute in Turkey, the Program in Hellenic Studies at Princeton University, and Dumbarton Oaks Research Libraries and Collections in Washington, D.C. Veronica has taught courses on a variety of topics in ancient through medieval art, including early Christian, Byzantine, and Medieval Art, ancient Greek and Roman art, and architectural history at the University of Michigan, Albion College, Wayne State University, and the Middle East Technical University in Ankara, Turkey. She is very interested in cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approaches to the history of art and archaeology. Veronica has enjoyed working on programs on Greece for both the History Channel and the Smithsonian Channel, lecturing to the public, and leading archeological study tours.