Cassandra Potts Hannahs

Cassandra Potts Hannahs is a historian with special expertise in Celtic, Viking, and Anglo-Norman studies. She has enjoyed traveling with Smithsonian Journeys on more than 50 tours and cruises, sharing her passion and knowledge of Great Britain, France, and Ireland.

With a Ph.D. in medieval history, she was a tenured professor at Middlebury College in Vermont, where she taught courses on a wide range of subjects, from ancient history through the Reformation.  A Fulbright scholar and recipient of several grants, she has also spent considerable time living in France pursuing research.  Her publications include a book exploring the Viking settlement of Normandy in northern France during the 10th and 11th centuries, and the revival of monasticism that took place as the new rulers encouraged monks to return to the region after the Viking raids. 

In her research and lectures, Cassandra explores the cultural and political exchanges that have historically linked Britain, France, Ireland, and Scandinavia. She looks forward to sharing her love and knowledge of these lands, their history, music, and literature, with Smithsonian Journeys travelers.

Stéphanie Jeanjean

Stéphanie Jeanjean is a professor of Art History at The Cooper Union and at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in New York; she also teaches French translation at The CUNY Graduate Center. Since 2007 she is a regular lecturer, in English and French, at The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Stéphanie is a French native, born in Langres, a small historic town in Champagne-Ardennes in North Eastern France. She graduated from Bourgogne University in Dijon and completed a Ph.D. at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York. She curated exhibitions involving French artists, most recently at A. A. Wallace Gallery at SUNY College of Old Westbury, at the Brecht Forum in Brooklyn, and at the Kitchen in New York. She presented on French Art at numerous conferences worldwide, including Tate Britain, London (UK); KAIST University, Daejeon (South Korea), Brown and Cornell Universities, at MIT, and CAA annual conferences in Philadelphia, New York, and Chicago (USA), among others. She is a specialist of contemporary France, early French video and new media art. Stéphanie has worked on translating and subtitling in English rare early French video materials. Her upcoming publications (December 2014) will appear in Hilary Robinson ed., Feminism-Art-Theory, by Wiley & Blackwell Editions, Oxford (UK) and in François Bovier and Adeena Mey eds., Exhibited Cinema an Anthology, by ECAL and JRP-Ringier Editions, Lausanne and Zurich (Switzerland).

Madeline Díaz

Madeline Díaz has expertise in art history and museum studies and more than 15 years of experience creating and leading programs for museums and cultural institutions. She has worked for The Metropolitan Museum of Art and Cloisters, the Frick Collection, the Cooper-Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum and the Smithsonian Latino Center for which she currently serves as consultant. She develops and leads education programs for several French cultural institutions, including the Grand Palais, the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, the Musée d’art et d’histoire du Judaïsme, and the Mona Bismarck American Center. She also teaches museum education and cultural mediation at the University of Versailles. Madeline has traveled extensively through Spain, Italy, and France and has a passion for art, photography, languages and flamenco. Madeline holds a BA from Brown University and an MA from Columbia University.