Cruising the Lower Danube: Gems of Southeast Europe

Tim Blanning is professor emeritus of modern European history at the University of Cambridge in England. A fellow of the British Academy since 1990, Tim has published extensively on the political and cultural history of Europe in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Among his publications are The Culture of Power and the Power of Culture (2002), The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815 (2007), The Triumph of Music (2008) and The Romantic Revolution (2010), Frederick the Great King of Prussia  (2015), and George I (2017). In writing his most recent book, Augustus the Strong (2024), Tim expanded his area of expertise to include the Baltic countries and Eastern Europe. His books have been translated into Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hungarian, German, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Croatian and Arabic.

John S. Micgiel is a historian who specializes in the modern history of East Central Europe. Having received his PhD from Columbia University, he spent nearly three decades teaching at Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs where he was, among other administrative assignments, long-time director of the Institute on East Central Europe.  For many years, he has been recurring visiting professor at Warsaw University’s East European Centre. John has authored or edited more than a dozen books on the region and is a frequent visitor to its academic institutions. His most recent monograph is on U.S.-Polish intelligence cooperation during World War II and is entitled Project Eagle: The Top Secret OSS Operation That Sent Polish Spies Behind Enemy Lines.

Peter Bogucki is an archaeologist who studies the prehistoric societies of Europe with a particular interest in the spread of farming and its consequences. In addition to many visits to sites and museums throughout Europe, Bogucki has conducted excavations at Neolithic sites in Poland and participated in research that identified the earliest evidence for cheese production. He has written several books, including The Origins of Human Society and Forest Farmers and Stockherders: Early Agriculture and its Consequences in North-Central Europe, and published many articles and chapters in both scholarly and popular books and journals. His most recent book, Lost Civilizations: The Barbarians, was recognized with the 2018 Society for American Archaeology book prize in the Popular category and the 2021 Felicia A. Holton Award from the Archaeological Institute of America.

Peter is a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London. He earned his PhD from Harvard and served as associate dean for undergraduate affairs of the School of Engineering and Applied Science at Princeton University until he retired in 2025.

Hugh Neighbour brings many years of experience as a United States diplomat and an officer in the U.S. Navy, mostly working overseas. He specialized in political and economic affairs, and was posted in Latin America, Asia/Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and North America. Hugh was awarded the Secretary of State’s Career Achievement Award as well as a number of Department of State awards for distinguished service. 

Since retiring from the U.S. State Department, Hugh has worked as a consultant in Washington and internationally, served as an official observer for several elections overseas, and lectured aboard high-end cruise ships. Several times a year, Hugh directs a course in advanced foreign area studies to select groups in the Washington region. Hugh will offer a fresh, up-to-date perspective on the history, culture, and current affairs of the fascinating peoples and places you will visit.

Nadieszda Kizenko is a professor of history at the State University of New York at Albany. She received her BA from Harvard University and her PhD from Columbia University and has held fellowships in Budapest, London, and Munich. Her research, lecturing, and writing interests include the Russian empire; Eastern Europe; and religious culture, including ritual, architecture, hagiography, and iconography. 

Nadieszda’s first book, A Prodigal Saint: Father John of Kronstadt and the Russian People, won the Heldt Prize for Best First Book in Slavic Studies and was translated into Russian. Other books include Orthodoxy in Two Manifestations? The Conflict in Ukraine as Expression of a Fault Line in World Orthodoxy and Good for the Souls and A History of Confession in the Russian Empire. She has published extensively and has lectured at venues including the Hillwood Museum in Washington, D.C.; the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York; the New York Public Library; the Museum of Russian Icons; the Center for Historical Truth and Reconciliation; and a variety of educational institutions.  

Her research has been supported by grants including the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Social Science Research Council, the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, and the American Councils Research Scholar Program.

Benjamin Sutherland writes for The Economist, reporting on military and defense issues as well as energy, business, science, and political culture. He edited Modern Warfare, Intelligence and Deterrence, an Economist book on how advances in weaponry and spycraft are reshaping global security, and wrote a chapter on the future of warfare for the book Megatech: Technology in 2050. He also contributes to Economist podcasts.

Benjamin periodically teaches undergraduate, graduate and MBA courses in geopolitics and international business as an adjunct. In recent years, he has taught at HEC-Paris; the Paris School of Business; the Zagreb School of Economics and Management; and, in Italy, H-Farm College and Scuola Holden. Earlier in his career, he wrote for Newsweek and was a senior editor at COLORS magazine. He also served as a staff screenwriter with Cinemarket Productions in Paris, and co-directed the Sundance Channel documentary Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man.

As an expert for Smithsonian Journeys, Benjamin has focused on Europe, the Persian Gulf, and the broader Middle East. His lectures cast light on a broad range of geopolitical topics, from Central Europe’s reemergence as a geopolitical pivot in the struggle between authoritarian states and free societies to Russia’s grand strategy and its geographic roots, to clashes in civilizational visions for world order. His lectures are richly illustrated with insights from his reporting for The Economist in more than a dozen countries. An avid traveler, Sutherland speaks French and Italian fluently and is proficient in Spanish.

Chris Ketcherside is a professor at the Missouri University of Science and Technology, where he has had the opportunity to turn his lifelong passion for military history into his profession.  Among his publications, he has co-authored a book on the U.S. Rangers in World War II. He attained his PhD at Saint Louis University, focusing on U.S. military history and civil relations.  

Chris previously served in the Marine Corps, where he became a practiced expert in amphibious operations and conducted several battlefield staff rides.