Cruising the Greek Islands of the Southern Aegean

Peter Bobrowsky is an archaeologist and engineering geologist with a 40-year career working as a scholar, teacher, researcher, and consultant across the globe. His academic achievements include almost 500 publications, including 20 technical books such as the Encyclopedia of Natural Hazards; Encyclopedia of Engineering Geology; and The Landslide Handbook, which was  translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Japanese. He is an international fellow of the Explorers Club of New York and a fellow of the Geological Society of America, and has received numerous awards—most notably the Edward B. Burwell Jr. Award for Engineering Geology, the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal, and the James Harrison Outstanding Achievement Award.

Among his many prominent international positions, Peter served as secretary general of the International Union of Geological Sciences, an NGO representing some 1 million earth scientists around the world; president of the Canadian Quaternary Association; president of the Geological Association of Canada; and president of the International Consortium on Landslides.

His multi-disciplinary background and extensive travel to more than 120 countries have made Peter a popular lecturer for the Smithsonian since 2004. A born extrovert with an easy-going manner, he strives to understand and explain the crucial links between a diverse and dynamic Earth and the evolution of changing societies through history.

He divides his time between travel adventures and home life on Vancouver Island.

Allan Langdale grew up on Vancouver Island wondering what the rest of the world was like and has spent much of his adult life finding out. Allan is an art and architectural historian, photographer, filmmaker, and travel writer who received his Ph.D. in art history from UC Santa Barbara. He has taught courses in Italian Renaissance art, Greek, Roman, Byzantine (including Georgian and Armenian architecture), and Indian and Islamic art and architecture. He currently teaches art history at UC Santa Cruz as a lecturer.

Along with several articles, Allan wrote the definitive architectural field guide to the little-known region of Turkish Cyprus, In a Contested Realm (2012) and also made the award-winning documentary film The Stones of Famagusta: the Story of a Forgotten City (2008). His travel books include Palermo: Travels in the City of Happiness (2015) and The Hippodrome of Istanbul / Constantinople: An Illustrated Handbook of its History (2019).

A popular Smithsonian Expert, Allan has traveled extensively in the eastern Mediterranean, the Black Sea region, the Middle East—including Jordan and Egypt—and India.

Maria Christodoulou is a clinical herbalist exploring the wisdom and whimsy of ancient Greek herbal medicine. She offers plant walks and botanical tours throughout Greece and virtual courses inspired by her Greek ancestry. Maria attended ArborVitae School of Traditional Herbalism in New York after serving as a non-profit fundraising administrator for fourteen years with cultural and educational institutions in New York City and Washington, DC, including at the Smithsonian Institution. She holds a Master’s in Library and Information Science.

Maria has an endless fascination with ancient history and a deep commitment to teaching others about the beauty and botanical bounty of the Greek landscape. She has presented on a wide-range of topics, including ancient and modern Greek uses of medicinal plants, botanical mythology, and the landscapes of Greece, for both the academic and herbal communities. Her work has been featured in international media outlets. Maria’s book, “Herbs of Greece: Four Seasons of Ancient Plants for Modern Health” (Timber Press) is forthcoming in 2027.

Gillian Hovell is an ancient historian and an archaeologist.  She previously worked at BBC Television and is an award-winning writer, presenter on TV and radio, public speaker and lecturer, specialising in archaeology, ancient history and prehistory.  She graduated with Honours in Latin & Ancient History at UK’s Exeter University; prehistory and the Greek and Roman ancient worlds have remained at the heart of her life ever since.  Gillian is actively involved in digs at major sites, including Orkney's famous Ness of Brodgar Neolithic site and sites around the Roman Empire.  She also lectures internationally and across the United Kingdom, including at the British Museum’s Ancient Greek collections and for the University of York. Her extensive expertise in inspiring guests on countless tours and cruises stretches from the northern isles to the many eras and cultures of Ancient Greece and, indeed, every ancient civilisation around the shores of the Mediterranean (the subject of her next book).  Gillian looks forward to sharing  how archaeological finds and sites are full of human life and passion, and that history and archaeology are not just about the past, they’re everywhere, and they add color, depth and meaning to our lives today. 

Jodi Magness (JodiMagness.org) holds a senior endowed chair in the Department of Religious Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: the Kenan Distinguished Professor for Teaching Excellence in Early Judaism (since 2002). She is an archaeologist and Past President of the Archaeological Institute of America. She has published 11 books, including Masada: From Jewish Revolt to Modern Myth (Princeton University Press, 2019), and dozens of articles. From 1992-2002, Professor Magness was Associate/Assistant Professor of Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology in the Departments of Classics and Art History at Tufts University, Medford, MA. Professor Magness received her B.A. in Archaeology and History from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1977), and her Ph.D. in Classical Archaeology from the University of Pennsylvania (1989). Professor Magness specializes in the archaeology of ancient Palestine (modern Israel, Jordan, and the Palestinian territories) in the Roman, Byzantine, and early Islamic periods. Her research interests include Jerusalem, Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls, ancient synagogues, Masada, the Roman army in the East, ancient pottery, and ancient Diaspora Judaism. Since 2011, Professor Magness’ excavations at Huqoq in Israel’s Galilee have been bringing to light the remains of a Late Roman synagogue decorated with stunning mosaic floors (http://huqoq.web.unc.edu/).

Joanne M. A. Murphy is a professor of Ancient Mediterranean Studies and Archaeology at the University of North Carolina Greensboro, where she has worked since 2008 and serves as Department Head. She is also the current Director of the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies and President of The American Friends of the Irish Institute of Hellenic Studies (a 501c non-profit). She received her BA and first MA from University College Dublin, Ireland, and an MA and PhD from University of Cincinnati. Her research focuses primarily on religion and death and how they connect with identity, community, and political economies. As well as giving lectures both nationally and internationally, she has published over 30 papers and five edited volumes on these and related topics and has one monograph in press and two other volumes underway. She has led two major research projects: one, a legacy study, on the tombs around Pylos in southwestern Greece and one, an archaeological survey on the Greek island of Kea. She has received awards for her research and for initiatives at UNCG and non-profits from various foundations including INSTAP, the Mellon Foundation, the Onassis Foundation, the NEH, and the Loeb Foundation.  In 2023, she was awarded the Archaeological Institute of America’s Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. She has a great love of sharing the past and has led tours in Greece, Ireland, France, England, Italy, and Turkey, as well as running an annual archaeological field school in Greece.

Nina Papathanasopoulou is a Professor of Classical Studies specializing in Greek drama, mythology, and their reception. She earned her BA from the University of Athens in 2003 and her PhD from Columbia University in 2013. From 2013 to 2019 she was Visiting Assistant Professor of Classics at Connecticut College, where she taught Greek, Latin, Classics and Theater courses and was deeply involved in outreach programming for Classics. In January 2020 she joined the Classics faculty at College Year in Athens, where she teaches Ancient Greek mythology, religion, theater and literature courses and runs field trips all over Greece for US students who are studying abroad. Since January 2019 Nina also serves as the Public Engagement Coordinator for the Society for Classical Studies. There she oversees their initiative, “Ancient Worlds, Modern Communities”, which supports interdisciplinary and public-facing projects related to the ancient Mediterranean. A captivating speaker and passionate traveler, Nina leads field trips for many institutions and organizations, and has given lectures at numerous conferences and public venues in the USA, Greece, the UK, France, Portugal, and Italy.

Nina’s early research focused on Aristophanes’ treatment of space and use of myth, while her current research explores the role of Greek myth in the work of the revolutionary 20th century choreographer, Martha Graham. She has published on Martha Graham’s reimagining of the myths of Medea, Ariadne, Oedipus and Jocasta, and is currently working on a book project tentatively titled Martha Graham and Greek Myth: The Ancient World in Modern Dance. Nina’s book, under consideration by University of Michigan Press, explores Martha Graham’s Greek-inspired dances in comparison to the ancient literary texts, vase paintings, sculptures and other ancient material that served as her inspiration.

As part of her effort to make the study of the Ancient Greek World accessible and relevant to the broad public, Nina created “Martha Graham and Greek Myth,” a project combining classical philology and live dance to explore Martha Graham’s use of Ancient Greek mythology in her work. The project highlights the immense influence of the Ancient Greeks on American culture and the arts. More information can be found on her website at ninapapathanasopoulou.com. 

Sanjaya Thakur is professor and chair of classics at Colorado College and has held a number of national leadership positions in the field of classical studies. He  served as the director of the Classical Summer School at the American Academy in Rome from 2021 to 2023 and was the Elizabeth A. Whitehead Scholar at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens from 2022 to 2023. Sanjaya has published numerous articles, primarily on the literature and history of the age of Augustus, Rome’s first emperor. He teaches a wide range of courses on Greek and Roman history, Latin literature, ancient athletics, and Greek and Roman art and archaeology. He also co-directed and organized an Associated Colleges of the Midwest faculty seminar entitled Mediterranean Trivium that was based in Italy.

Sanjaya earned two master's degrees in classical studies and classical art and archaeology as well as a PhD from the University of Michigan. An avid traveler, he has led many study tours through Greece, Italy, and Spain.