The Silk Road: A Journey to Central Asia

Kristin Romey has been captivated by archaeology since she was a child visiting the Pyramids of Giza in Egypt. A trained underwater archaeologist and fellow of the Explorers Club, Kristin has worked on land and sea expeditions from Turkey to Yemen and Kyrgyzstan, and was one of the first westerners to survey for ancient shipwrecks in the Black Sea.

She is also a former senior editor at National Geographic and executive editor of Archaeology magazine, where her journalism brought the thrill of the dig to audiences around the world. She’s excited to share the stories and ancient cultures that archaeology has brought to light along the trade routes that linked the Mediterranean and Asia.

Kathy Parkison is a professor emerita of economics who spent most of her teaching career at the School of Business at Indiana University, Kokomo. She was in her PhD program when the Soviet Union fell apart, and witnessing that historic moment as a student of economics and political science inspired a lifelong fascination with the region. She was enthralled with learning about all the new countries that came into being and has continued to follow their histories and economic development as they have integrated with the world. While at Indiana University, Kokomo, Kathy won numerous teaching awards and served in a number of administrative positions.  

Kathy was a Fulbright scholar in the Republic of Georgia in the early 2000s and recently completed her second Fulbright fellowship in Turkmenistan. She has also led Fulbright trips throughout the Balkans, sharing her insights into the history and culture of the region. Along with leading economic education workshops in numerous countries within the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Kathy has lived and worked in Kazahkstan and been involved with election monitoring in the Balkans and the CIS region. 

David Scott Silverberg is an expert in earth sciences, geography, and conservation biology who has worked throughout Asia since the 1980s. Born in New York, David has lived most of his life abroad, working in more than 125 countries—including 16 years in Norway, seven years in Germany, 10 years in northern Italy, and four years in Morocco. He is an active mountaineer and has explored the Himalaya, Andes, Atlas, Alps, and beyond.

A fellow of the Explorers Club and the Royal Geographical Society, David is a passionate experiential educator who has designed and taught graduate and undergraduate field programs around the world for numerous universities. He served as executive director of Earthwatch Institute Center for Field Research, and helped launch Americorps as the associate director for environment programs at the White House. David received his PhD from MIT and his post-doc from Harvard University.

With support from the National Science Foundation, National Geographic Society, and the American Alpine Club, David has produced numerous peer-reviewed papers on the formation of mountain regions around the world. His current research investigates the geographic determinants of culture and history as well as the effects of biodiversity loss and changes in climate, land cover, and oceans. David has done extensive research into the network of trade routes that linked China and Europe and their role in dispersing ideas, religions, technology, science, art, architecture, and myths. His multi-layered narratives trace the rise and fall of nomadic confederacies, sedentary societies, kingdoms, and empires across the steppe, mountains, and deserts of Central Asia.

Hugh Shapiro is a professor of East Asian history at the University of Nevada. As a Smithsonian Journeys Expert, he has lectured in 15 countries in Eurasia. Hugh has enjoyed visiting appointments at Princeton University, at universities in China, Japan, and Taiwan, and at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton. His extensive archival and fieldwork regards the history of medicine, disease, and the body in comparative context. His recent work appears in volumes published by Harvard University Press, Brill, and Oxford University Press. Hugh has traveled extensively in Eurasia: China, Japan, Mongolia, Russia, the Baltic States, the Himalayas, and the Silk Road. He enjoys mountain sports and counts volcanic Kamchatka, Greenland, and Mount Kōya near Kyoto as among his favorite destinations. Hugh aims for what he terms “adventure pedagogy”: mindful immersion in the host culture combined with serious study of its history, literature, and geopolitics. Hugh’s other research and teaching interests include visual and performance art, Central Asia, and the history of de-colonization and authoritarianism. During his years of study and research in China, Japan, and Taiwan, he enjoyed diverse experiences, such as working on an innovative Sino-Japanese television series for NHK. He received the Li-Qing Prize for the History of Chinese Science and won his university’s highest teaching award. Hugh earned his B.A. from Stanford University and his Ph.D. from Harvard University.

Pamela L. Spratlen is a diplomat, public speaker, and consultant following a 30-year career with the U.S. State Department.  In the Senior Foreign Service, she served twice as U.S. Ambassador in the Kyrgyz Republic (2011-14) and Uzbekistan (2015-18).  In other tours she worked and traveled throughout Central Asia.

As Ambassador, Pamela worked tirelessly to highlight the importance of Central Asia in the USA and to improve relations with the five countries of the region.  She helped countries save architectural treasures though the Ambassador’s Fund for Cultural Preservation. She brought U.S. musical groups to perform in parts of Central Asia that had not seen American talent for years and helped talented Central Asian artists travel to the USA.  Pamela traveled to Karakalpak’stan to showcase the tragedy of the depletion of the Aral Sea.  At the end of her tenure, the president of Uzbekistan presented her with the Order of Dostlik (Friendship) to express appreciation for her contributions to bilateral relations.  Earlier tours included stints in Moscow, Vladivostok, Paris, Guatemala, Hawaii and Washington, DC.

Pamela now supports diplomacy and development through service on the boards of the American Academy of Diplomacy and the Eurasia Foundation.  She is a member of the Una Chapman Cox Policy Committee.

Pamela graduated from Wellesley College and received master’s degrees from the University of California at Berkeley, Goldman School of Public Policy, and the Army War College.  She looks forward to sharing her passion for Central Asia with the Smithsonian Journeys tours.

Dr. Suzanne Pilaar Birch is an archaeologist who works to advance our understanding of human resilience to climate and environmental change in prehistory. An associate professor anthropology and geography at the University of Georgia, she combines the study of animal bones and biogeochemistry to investigate changes in diet, mobility, and settlement systems from the last ice age to the early agricultural era. Her research has taken her from Turkey to Croatia, Kazakhstan, China, Italy, Cyprus, and most recently, Jordan. She has visited 27 countries across six continents over the course of her career.

Suzanne wrote and recorded the 20-episode series Early Humans: Ice, Stone, and Survival for The Great Courses and has published more than 35 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters. She has been awarded research funding from sources including the National Science Foundation, National Geographic, and the Arts and Humanities Research Council of the United Kingdom. She edited the book Multispecies Archaeology and is currently writing two popular audience books, Animal Bone Detectives and Life Before Agriculture.

Suzanne co-founded the non-profit organization TrowelBlazers, which highlights the contributions of women past and present in archaeology, paleontology, and geology. She was a Gates Cambridge Scholar at the University of Cambridge, where she earned a PhD in archaeology, and a postdoctoral fellow at Brown University’s Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World.

Sandy Jacobs is a former U.S. diplomat and post-Soviet specialist who has focused primarily on Central Asia and its broader region for the past two decades. She offers on-the-ground expertise drawn from Foreign Service roles in Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and Estonia, where she led cultural preservation and educational initiatives; advised U.S. and local leaders on history, society, and regional dynamics; and hosted a wide range of artists, academics, business leaders, and senior U.S. government officials. Sandy also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine immediately following the Orange Revolution.

Sandy’s work has taken her from the bazaars of Tashkent to the hiking trails of the Pamir mountains, from ancient Fergana Valley settlements to the mosques and minarets of Samarkand, Bukhara, and Khiva. She developed a deep understanding of Central Asia’s religious traditions, architectural heritage, and cross-cultural interactions. She immersed herself in artisan traditions and culinary history, knowledge she later brought into her work, co-authoring a cookbook that highlighted cultural storytelling and the migration of Central Asian dishes to Ukraine.

A Russian speaker and Central Asian art collector, Sandy understands that history is not confined to monuments. Instead, it lives in food, faith, hospitality, and daily negotiation with a past shaped by centuries of Silk Road exchange. She is passionate about helping travelers see beyond headlines to understand how Persian, Turkic, Islamic, and Soviet influences coexist in real communities today. 

Andrew Lawler covers history, archaeology, and cultural heritage in the Middle East and Central Asia for a host of publications. He is a contributing writer for Science, a contributing editor for Archaeology, and has written often for Smithsonian Magazine and National Geographic. His byline has appeared in The Atlantic, The New York Times, Scientific American, and many other newspapers and magazines. Author of four books, including the prize-winning Under Jerusalem, he has won numerous writing awards and fellowships. For more, see www.andrewlawler.com.

Photo credit: Scott Smith