Southern Italy and Sicily

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.

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.

Sheri Shaneyfelt is an art historian of the Italian Renaissance and a professor in Renaissance art at Vanderbilt University, where she is also director of undergraduate and graduate studies for the History of Art and Architecture department and director of the master’s program in liberal arts and science. An award-winning lecturer, Sheri also teaches courses in Northern European Renaissance and baroque art at Vanderbilt. She earned her PhD at Indiana University-Bloomington, with a master’s from Vanderbilt, both in the history of art. Sheri specializes in Central Italian art, particularly that of Umbria and Tuscany. She lived and worked in Italy for long periods of time, teaching for study abroad programs in Perugia and Florence. Her research has been published in top art history journals and in her book Renaissance Painting in Perugia: Perugino, Raphael, and their Circles. A seasoned Smithsonian Journeys expert, Sheri loves leading groups and lecturing on site, and emphasizes the role of art and architecture in context. 

Dr. Andrew Becker was born in Burma (Myanmar), spent part of his childhood in Indonesia, and has continued to travel ever since—mostly Europe and Asia.  He has been lecturing in Italy since 1997, first as a professor teaching students abroad, then since 2015 with Smithsonian Journeys.  Andy is an associate professor in the Department of Modern and Classical Languages and Literatures at Virginia Tech (with stints teaching in Switzerland and London), and has won numerous local and national awards for teaching. He earned a BA from the University of Michigan, a master’s from Cambridge University, and a PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Andy’s scholarly specialties are ancient: specifically the cultures, literatures, and languages of Ancient Rome and Greece, as well as the constant, recurring re-engagement of many later civilizations with Ancient Rome and Greece.

Rebecca K. Schindler is Professor of Classical Studies at DePauw University in Greencastle, IN. She teaches courses in Classical art and archaeology, Latin, Greek and Roman Mythology, and Classical literature. Rebecca has chaired the Department of Classical Studies at DePauw University and has served as the co-editor of the book reviews for The American Journal of Archaeology. Her research interests include the archaeology of Greek colonization in South Italy and Sicily, Greek religion, applications of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in archaeology, and the ethics of cultural heritage. She received her B.A. from Wellesley College in Classical and Near Eastern Art and Archaeology and her PhD from the University of Michigan in Classical Art and Archaeology. She has also studied at the American School for Classical Studies in Athens and worked as a visiting scholar at the American Academy in Rome. Rebecca's archaeological field experience includes projects in Tunisia, Cyprus, Turkey, and Italy. Since 2015 she has been working with Umbra Institute in Perugia on a field project at Castiglione del Lago on Lake Trasimeno in Umbria, Italy. She is finishing a book on sanctuaries of Aphrodite in Italy and Sicily. She currently serves as the president of the Central Indiana Society of the Archaeological Institute of America and the co-PI of the Collaboratory for GIS and Mediterranean Archaeology. Outside of her professional life, Rebecca is passionate about Italian food and enjoys exploring traditional markets and learning new recipes.