The Emerald Isle: Ireland from East to West

Katryn Wiese is a professor of geology, paleontology, and oceanography with 30 years of experience in research, teaching, field explorations, and community outreach. She studied at Caltech, Oregon State University, and Stanford University, and focused her early research on volcanic processes in Iceland, Hawaii, the seafloor around the Azores and the Galápagos Islands, and the tablelands of Eastern Australia. She has journeyed around the world as a scientist and field guide including the Americas, Antarctica, the Arctic, Australia, Europe, and the islands of the Pacific.

Katryn’s primary focus is engaging students of all ages and backgrounds in exploring natural phenomena, from reading the stories in the rocks to evaluating the impact of the Earth and its oceans on our climate, culture, and society. She shares that work through her Earth Rocks! YouTube video channel, her library of open-source earth science lessons and lab manuals, and also through the “Story of Time and Life”—a four-floor exhibit of dinosaurs, fossils, and meteorites that she installed and curates at City College of San Francisco in collaboration with the California Academy of Sciences. She recently joined the faculty at the College of San Mateo, near her home on the edge of the San Francisco Bay. Katryn is an avid hiker and kayaker, and is most at home outdoors exploring erupting volcanoes, glacially carved fjords, fossil and mineral sites, and natural spaces off the beaten path.

Dr Killian Driscoll is an archaeologist who specializes in prehistoric archaeology. He studied archaeology and history at the National University of Ireland, Galway and completed his Ph.D. at University College Dublin in 2010. Killian has been a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Barcelona, the Université de Montréal, and University College Dublin. His research focuses on Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, and Neolithic archaeology, particularly on studying stone-tool raw materials and manufacturing techniques, as well as landscapes. Killian looks forward to sharing his love of Ireland's culture, landscapes, history, and prehistory on this expedition.

Miriam Davis is an expert in medieval history and archaeology. After graduating from Emory University, Miriam studied history and archaeology at the University of St Andrews on a Bobby Jones Scholarship. She went on to earn an MA in medieval archaeology from the University of York on a Fulbright grant, and a Ph.D. in medieval history from the University of California, Santa Barbara. She has participated in archaeological excavations in Mississippi, Alabama, England, and Scotland. Currently, Miriam is a freelance writer. She has written for the popular press on archaeology, history, and travel and has lectured throughout the U.S., Great Britain, and Israel. Her work has also been featured on The Travel Channel. As a history professor at Delta State University for 16 years, she taught a wide variety of courses, including ancient and medieval history, the Renaissance and Reformation, English history, and the history of Christianity. Miriam is the author of Dame Kathleen Kenyon: Digging Up the Holy Land and The Axeman of New Orleans: The True Story. She has served as a Smithsonian Journeys Expert for trips since 2011.

Carol Ann Lloyd is a popular historian with expertise in Shakespeare, 16th century Europe, women’s lives, and leadership. She speaks for Smithsonian Institution, Agecroft Hall, Royal Oak Foundation, and other organizations, online and on stage. She holds graduate degrees from the University of Virginia and University of Utah and is doing additional postgraduate work with Oxford University. Carol Ann delivers programs for business audiences about leadership in history, focusing on how today’s leaders can use leadership principles found in Shakespeare and history to achieve success in the modern world. She is a member of National Speakers Association and is President of the Washington, DC chapter in 2023-2024. Carol Ann is the host of the popular “Royals, Rebels, and Romantics” podcast and is the author of The Tudors by Numbers, which was published in 2023. Her next book, Courting the Virgin Queen: Elizabeth I and Her Suitors is scheduled for publication in summer 2024.

Sally O’Driscoll has a doctorate in Comparative Literature from the Graduate Center of the City University of New York (CUNY) and was a professor for thirty years at Fairfield University before retiring. Her research and publications have focused on forms of ephemeral popular literature in Britain from the 18th century onward, and have drawn attention to the complex ways that texts and images complemented one in another in once-common printed works like broadsides and pamphlets. She has published several edited volumes or journal issues on print culture and public space. Sally has taught courses in 18th-century and modernist British literature along with contemporary World Literature, with an emphasis on setting the stories in their cultural contexts. In addition, she works as an editor with the authors of popular and scholarly books, articles, and catalogues, helping to bring inspired first drafts to the publication stage, in fields ranging from American art history to nonfiction books on current issues.

In addition to Great Britain, Sally’s research has taken her to Continental Europe, where she travels frequently, including to hike the Camino de Santiago. She has also lectured on ephemeral print and gender studies internationally, most recently in China, and in Turkey where she was a keynote speaker at Koç University, Ankara. Sally has received many research grants, has been a fellow at the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute, and has taught at the CUNY Graduate Center.