Italy's Apulia: A One-Week Stay in Polignano a Mare

Paolo Squatriti is professor of history and Italian at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, and also teaches in the university’s Program in the Environment. Though he was born and grew up in Rome, Paolo studied history at Boston College and received a PhD in medieval European history from the University of Virginia. While he has lived and taught in a variety of places, he currently spends most of his time in Ann Arbor, teaching and researching medieval and environmental history. He has produced numerous articles, translations, and books; the paperback version of his most recent book, Weeds and the Carolingians: Empire, Nature and Culture in Carolingian Europe, AD 750-900, was released in 2024. Over the past half-century, Paolo has crisscrossed the Mediterranean region on foot, by plane, and by other forms of transport, and he looks forward to sharing his unique insights on the area’s history and natural heritage.

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.

Valerie Hedquist is a professor of art history at the University of Montana. She earned her PhD with honors at the University of Kansas and has been teaching and writing for nearly 30 years. Her research focuses on the arts of the 17th and 18th centuries and includes articles on the religious paintings of Rembrandt and Vermeer. Of special interest is the influence of Italian cultural attitudes on the visual output of these Dutch artists and others. Her book on the changing reception and meaning of Thomas Gainsborough’s Blue Boy was published in summer 2019.

Luca Zavagno is an associate professor in the Department of History and the Department of Archaeology at Bilkent University in Ankara, Turkey. He has authored many articles and essays on early medieval and Byzantine Mediterranean, covering topics such as urbanism, Cyprus from late antiquity to the early Middle Ages, and the history of cross-cultural encounters in the medieval and early modern eras.

A graduate of the University of Venice, Luca obtained his PhD at the University of Birmingham with a dissertation on the society, economics, and politics of Byzantine cities in the early Middle Ages. He was twice awarded the Dumbarton Oaks Summer Fellowship as well as the prestigious Stanley Seeger Fellowship of the Hellenic Studies Center at Princeton University. He was also recently appointed one of Notre Dame University’s Andrew Mellon Fellows.

Holly Flora is a professor of art history at Tulane University and a specialist in Italian medieval and early Renaissance art. Her research focuses on the intersection of art, devotion, and sensory experience, with particular expertise in Franciscan visual culture and artists such as Cimabue and Giotto. A former curator at the Museum of Biblical Art and Mellon Fellow at The Frick Collection in New York City, she has extensive experience bringing works of art to life for broad audiences.

Holly has lectured widely at museums and universities across the United States and Europe, including the Louvre, and spent over two decades leading tours and teaching in museum settings such as The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cloisters. She has taught in Siena, Italy, since 2009 and has directed Tulane’s Summer in Italy program since 2017, guiding participants through the art and history of cities such as Florence, Rome, and Siena. Her engaging approach connects historical works of art to their original cultural and spiritual contexts.

Dr. Ross King is the bestselling author of books on Italian and French art and history, including Brunelleschi's Dome (2000), Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling (2002), and Leonardo and The Last Supper (2012). His study of the origins of French Impressionism, The Judgment of Paris, was published in 2006, and Mad Enchantment: Claude Monet and the Painting of the Water Lilies in 2016. He is the co-author with Anja Grebe of Florence: The Paintings & Frescoes, 1250-1743 (2015), the most comprehensive book ever undertaken on the art of Florence. His current project is a two-volume history of Italy, The Shortest History of Ancient Romeand The Shortest History of Italy, covering some 3,000 years of history from Romulus and Remus to the present.

Ross has also appeared in a number of television documentaries, such as The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance (PBS, 2003), Raphael: A Mortal God (BBC, 2004), The Great Cathedral Mystery (Nova, 2014), Florence's Invisible City (BBC, 2016), and, most recently, Ken Burns's Leonardo da Vinci (2024).

Ross serves on the Council of Academic Advisors for Friends of Florence, a fundraising charity ensuring the survival of Florence's art and architectural treasures. He has participated in numerous Friends of Florence tours throughout Italy and Sicily, and is a regular participant in Italian Renaissance seminars at the Aspen Institute, including programs on Giotto, St. Francis, and Dante. He has lectured in many American museums, including the Smithsonian, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Frick Collection, and the National Gallery of Art. When not traveling for work or pleasure, Ross lives near Oxford, England, with his wife Melanie.

Sara N. James combines her passion for art, architecture, archaeology, gardens, and photography with her sense of adventure, love of travel, and enjoyment of people. She specializes in Italian Renaissance art with a particular passion for narrative fresco and stained-glass programs, but over her 30-year teaching career, Sara taught courses in Renaissance (Italian and Northern), Baroque, Greek, Roman, Medieval, and English art and architecture, as well as interdisciplinary honors courses. She is Professor Emerita of Art History at Mary Baldwin University, where she also served as director of the Renaissance Studies Abroad Program, teaching students on site in Italy and Northern Europe. In addition to teaching, she is a respected scholar and author of three books: The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Medieval Italy: Art, Devotion, and Liturgy in Orvieto (Cambridge University Press, 2025); Art in England from the Saxons to the Tudors: 600-1600 (Oxbow/Casemate, 2016) ; and Signorelli and Fra Angelico at Orvieto: Liturgy, Poetry and a Vision of the End-time (Ashgate, 2003), as well as numerous chapters, articles, and book reviews. Her speaking engagements include the Renaissance Society of America, the College Art Association, the Chief Executives Organization, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts and the Chrysler Museum. Sara holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Virginia and is a member of Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society. She has spent three sabbaticals at the American Academy in Rome and one at the Paul Mellon Centre in London. An avid gardener and garden lover, Sara is a certified Master Gardener as well as a member of the Garden Club of Virginia, which has awarded her for her daffodils, and the Garden Club of America, which has awarded her for her photography.