Janetta Rebold Benton

Janetta Rebold Benton is Distinguished Professor of Art History at Pace University, New York. She has lectured for many years at the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and has served as the lecturer on trips worldwide for both institutions. As a Fulbright Scholar, she is currently lecturing in the graduate school of the China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, and was previously a Fulbright Senior Scholar in St. Petersburg, Russia, in the Graduate School of Art History at European University. A former resident of Paris, she taught art history courses at the American Embassy there.

Dr. Benton is the author of eight art history books (some with translations into French and Chinese), as well as numerous scholarly articles published in France, Italy, Austria, Germany, and elsewhere. She holds degrees/diplomas from Harvard University, Brown University, George Washington University, and Cornell University.

Hamish Scott

Hamish Scott is a Senior Research Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, and Wardlaw Professor Emeritus of International History at the University of St Andrews. A Fellow of the British Academy and of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, he has published extensively on seventeenth- and eighteenth-century international relations, on enlightened absolutism and on nobility. Among his publications are The Emergence of the Eastern Powers 1756-75 (Cambridge, 2001) and The Birth of a Great Power System, 1740-1815 (Harlow, 2007); most recently he edited The Oxford Handbook of Early Modern European History, c.1350-1750 (2 vols.; Oxford, 2015). Hamish is currently completing a major study entitled Forming Aristocracy: The Reconfiguration of Europe’s Nobilities, c.1300-1750.

Charles Ingrao

Charlie Ingrao, a popular Smithsonian Journeys Expert, is a professor emeritus of history at Purdue University, where he has taught a broad range of courses on the European World. He has published twelve books and given over a hundred public lectures to academic, governmental, and military audiences across North America and Central Europe. Charles has also been a regular commentator for print, radio, and television media, including The News Hour with Jim Lehrer (PBS).