Pearls of Croatia and Slovenia

Christopher Brennan, guest researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and lecturer at Masaryk University in Brno in the Czech Republic, is a historian who specializes in Central and Eastern Europe with a particular interest in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, Germany, and the history of the Czechs. Though British, he grew up in southwestern France. He obtained a BA in Modern Languages (German and Russian, plus Czech) at the University of Bristol and a master’s in Slavonic Studies from Oriel College at the University of Oxford.

Chris studied for a PhD at the London School of Economics on the subject of the disintegration of the Habsburg Empire and the degree of responsibility of its last monarch, Emperor Karl I. He taught undergraduates there for four years, with a one-year hiatus in Paris lecturing American undergraduates on French history and on the history of Eastern European communism. He has written on the memory of World War I and of the Habsburg Dynasty, on the Balkan Wars, on the author Joseph Roth, and on interwar Austria. He has also authored chapters for several volumes on the collapse of Austria-Hungary and its aftermath, and is now working on a biography of Karl I. 

Vesela Sretenović is a curator of modern and contemporary art with special interests in cross-disciplinary art practices and in bridging theoretical knowledge with hands-on experience. During more than a decade at The Phillips Collection in Washington, D.C., she served as senior curator of modern and contemporary art and then as director of contemporary art initiatives and academic affairs. While at The Phillips, she initiated and oversaw a series of ongoing art projects called Intersections, which invited contemporary artists from around the world—both emerging and established—to engage with the museum’s permanent collection and architecture and create new work. In addition, Vesela organized monographic exhibitions of prominent artists including Robert Ryman and Ellsworth Kelly, as well as the first museum retrospective of Cuban artist Zilia Sanchez.

She is currently working on independent curatorial projects, including a group exhibition for the Georgetown University Art Galleries called “Around the Table,” centered on the theme of food as a metaphor for shared human experience and for coming together over differences; and another for the Grey Gallery at New York University entitled “Anonymous Was a Woman: The First 25 Years.” Since 2024, she is also visiting faculty at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCUarts).

Prior to moving to Washington D.C., Vesela was a curator at Brown University’s Bell Gallery and taught contemporary art and art theory at the Rhode Island School of Design. Earlier in her career, she worked for the University at Buffalo (SUNY), and the Brooklyn Museum of Art. She holds a BA in Art History from University of Belgrade, Former Yugoslavia, an MA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and a Doctoral degree in Humanities from Syracuse University.

Stephen Clancy is an art and architectural historian with expertise in ancient, medieval, and Renaissance art and architecture. He recently retired as professor of art history at Ithaca College in New York, where he taught for 27 years. He received his PhD from Cornell University, and his research career began with a focus on 15th-century French and Flemish illuminated manuscripts, for which he received a Fulbright scholarship in Brussels, Belgium. Stephen also received grants from the Hewlett and Keck foundations to investigate how technology can open up new avenues for understanding the architecture of the distant past. This culminated in his work with a team from the University of Melbourne in Australia on an interactive tool entitled “Virtual Chartres Cathedral.” As a visiting fellow at the Australia National University in Canberra, he focused on interactions between Muslims, Jews, and Christians in the Mediterranean basin during the Middle Ages.

The academic pursuit he has enjoyed above all others is teaching and sharing his knowledge of art and architecture. A popular Smithsonian Journeys Expert, he has led more than 20 tours and cruises through the Mediterranean region and northern Europe.

Rebecca Darley is a historian and writer who has traveled the world studying the eastern Mediterranean and the western Indian Ocean in ancient and medieval times. Since completing her doctorate in Byzantine studies at the University of Birmingham, she has taught at King’s College London; Birkbeck, University of London; and the University of Leeds. She is currently a senior research fellow at Koç University’s Research Center for Anatolian Civilization in Istanbul.  Rebecca has won numerous awards for her teaching as well as research grants to study at Dumbarton Oaks in Washington, D.C., and to undertake research in India and Sri Lanka.

As part of her research, Rebecca has been fortunate to spend considerable time in Italy, Turkey and Greece, and to visit Jordan, Israel and northern Europe. She was part of a Getty program dedicated to the art and material culture of the Crusades and served as a lecturer for the John Hall Venice course. She has a long history of working with museums to curate or consult on exhibitions of ancient material, especially coins. A scholar of the Byzantine Empire, Rebecca is fascinated by places like northeastern Italy, Sicily, and the Adriatic coast, where the empire met other influences, creating unique expressions of Mediterranean culture steeped in millennia of shared traditions and competing identities. She has presented her research globally and published internationally in fields ranging from archaeology and classics to museology.

Rebecca is drawn to the power of the past to help us connect with places and people, to make sense of the world, and to relate to different lives and cultures. The opportunity to engage directly with sites, objects, and landscapes and to think with other interested people about the everyday minutiae and the huge connecting forces of history is her greatest passion.

Thomas Bremer is an expert on the history, culture, and contemporary situation of Central, Eastern, and Southeastern Europe. He is professor emeritus of Church History and Eastern Churches Studies at the University of Münster in Germany, where he also earned his PhD. Thomas has been awarded research grants and fellowships from institutions including the Kennan Institute in Washington, D.C., and the Jordan Center at NYU. His publications include many articles and a dozen books, including Churches in the Ukrainian Crisis and Cross and Kremlin: A Brief History of the Orthodox Church in Russia, which has been translated into five languages. In addition to his academic career, he has served as a consultant on questions dealing with Eastern and Southeastern Europe. During the Yugoslav wars, he was active in reconciliation initiatives in the successor countries which involved religious communities as well as civil society groups.

Thomas has widely traveled is Central and Eastern Europe and is fluent in several of the local languages. He is especially interested in the significance of historical heritage for the contemporary situation in the countries he studies, and he is eager to share his fields of expertise on regions he knows intimately with Smithsonian Journeys guests.

David Burger served as a Foreign Service Officer for the U.S. Department of State for 32 years before retiring in 2025. He was deputy chief of mission (second in command) at U.S. embassies in Iraq, Greece, and Slovenia; and was also posted to Afghanistan, North Macedonia, Turkey, Finland, Singapore, and Pakistan—in addition to four tours in Washington.  He has studied a range of languages, including Macedonian, Turkish, Finnish, and Urdu.

Over the span of his career, David developed expertise in the Balkan peninsula, European integration, NATO, and counterterrorism.  While serving as deputy director in the State Department office responsible for the Balkans, he successfully led a significant U.S. push for the European Union to accept Croatia as a member.  As chargé d’affaires (acting ambassador) in Slovenia, he secured generators from the U.S. military and USAID to provide relief when a freak ice storm left half the country without power in the dead of winter. In North Macedonia in the late 2000s, David led the effort to ensure peaceful elections following significant violence during voting in 2008.  He also played a major role in completing the demarcation of the Kosovo-North Macedonia border, helping North Macedonia become the first former Yugoslav country to achieve fully recognized borders.  David received the prestigious Presidential Rank Award and is a six-time recipient of the State Department’s Superior Honor Award. In addition to his public service, David is a huge fan of tennis and word games.

Dr. Lawrence Butler is an art historian whose teaching and scholarly interests range from medieval Europe and the Islamic world across pre-modern Eurasia—including the Silk Road connections between the Mediterranean world and East Asia. While teaching at George Mason University, Larry served as director of the art history program and as coordinator of the Ancient Mediterranean Art and Archaeology minor. 

Larry received his BA and MA from Oberlin College and his PhD from the University of Pennsylvania. He was a Fulbright Research Fellow in Turkey in 1982-83, and has been an active participant in the Semester at Sea program, taking students on academic study tours around the world. He also taught at Hiram College and held research positions at a number of museums.

In 2004, Larry was awarded George Mason University’s Teaching Excellence Award and in 2005 he was elected to Phi Beta Delta, the honorary society for international education. He lectures frequently for the Smithsonian Associates on the arts and cultural history of Spain and Portugal, Turkey, China, and many other places in between.