Janetta Rebold Benton

Janetta Rebold Benton is the 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 speaker on trips worldwide for both institutions. A former resident of Paris, she was Visiting Professor in the graduate school of art history at European University in St. Petersburg, Russia, and in the graduate school of art history at China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, on two Fulbright Senior Scholar Awards in 2012 and 2018.

Dr. Benton is the author of eight art history books (with translations into French and Chinese), as well as numerous scholarly articles and reviews published in Austria, China, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, and the U.S. She holds degrees/diploma from Harvard University, Brown University, George Washington University, and Cornell University.

Ralph Nurnberger

Ralph Nurnberger is an acclaimed speaker who brings humor, historical background and current political insights to his presentations. He has spoken on a number of Smithsonian Journeys as well as at the Smithsonian Associates program in Washington D.C., where his presentations frequently “sell out”. He has appeared on radio and television programs as an analyst on political and international issues. Ralph earned his PhD in History from Georgetown University and subsequently taught as an adjunct at Georgetown for 38 years. He was named Professor of the Year by the Graduate School of Liberal Studies in 2003. He currently lectures on a wide range of historical and political subjects at Florida Atlantic University’s Life Long Learning Programs. Ralph has spoken at a number of universities and other venues in Europe, including in the Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Austria, France, Denmark and especially in Germany, where he has given presentations in East and West Berlin, Hamburg and Chemnitz. In addition to his public speaking and academic careers, Ralph has had positions in and related to the U.S. government (staff on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; US Department of Commerce; Director of “Builders for Peace”, which was established to assist the Arab-Israeli peace process); as a fellow at a prominent “think tank” (Center for Strategic and International Studies – CSIS); and as senior partner in a government relations firm for over 25 years.

Charles Ingrao

Charlie Ingrao, a popular Smithsonian Journeys Expert, is professor emeritus of history at Purdue University, where he has taught a wide range of courses on the European world.  Several of his thirteen books focus on German history, including The Hessian Mercenary State and The Germans & the East. Two Fulbrights and a fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation have enabled him to spend four years living and working in German-speaking Europe. 

Bertrand Patenaude

Dr. Bertrand Patenaude is an expert in modern European history and international relations at Stanford University, where he is a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. Dr. Patenaude has lectured throughout Europe and has led several study tours on the Danube, including his first trip for Smithsonian Journeys in 1991. He first came to the region as a student in Vienna, during his Junior Year Abroad in 1975-76, and he spent a year as a graduate student at the University of Vienna in 1977-78. He received his BA from Boston College and his MA and PhD from Stanford University. Dr. Patenaude is the author and editor of several books on European, Russian, and American history. His most recent book is Trotsky: Downfall of a Revolutionary, which was serialized for radio in Great Britain by the BBC. His first book, The Big Show in Bololand: The American Relief Expedition to Soviet Russia in the Famine of 1921 (Stanford University Press, 2002), won the 2003 Marshall Shulman Book Prize and has been made into a documentary film for Public Television. He taught for eight years in the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, where his outstanding performance as a classroom instructor was recognized with the Schieffelin Award for Teaching Excellence for two consecutive years.