Hugh Neighbour

Hugh Neighbour brings many years of experience as a diplomat for the U.S. and an officer in the U.S. Navy, mostly working overseas.  Specialized in political and economic affairs, he was posted in Latin America, Asia/Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and North America.  Hugh was awarded the Secretary of State’s Career Achievement Award as well as a number of Department of State awards for distinguished service. 

Since retiring from the U.S. State Department in 2010, Hugh has worked as a consultant in both Washington and overseas, served as an official observer for several elections overseas, and lectured aboard high-end cruise ships. Several times a year, Hugh directs a course in advanced foreign area studies to select groups in the Washington region.  Hugh will offer a fresh, up-to-date perspective on the history, culture, and current affairs of the fascinating peoples and places you will visit.

Hugh Agnew

Hugh Agnew has been fascinated by the lands and peoples of Russia and Eastern Europe since he first walked into a Russian language class in 10th grade. Having decided as an undergraduate to major in History and focus on the region, he pursued doctoral study at Stanford and became a history professor. He has taught graduate and undergraduate courses on the history of Eastern Europe and the Balkans, the Russian Revolution, Europe from Cold War to Detente, the Habsburg Empire, and nationalism at Queen's University in Canada, the National University of Singapore, and (since 1988) at the George Washington University, where he is a member of the Institute for Russian, European, and Eurasian Studies at the Elliott School of International Affairs. He has also served as Senior Associate Dean for Academic and Faculty Affairs at the Elliott School. Agnew has published books on Czech history and many articles on aspects of East European history, the Habsburg Empire, and European history. His insightful talks on past Smithsonian Journeys throughout Eastern Europe have made him a favorite with Smithsonian travelers.

Christopher Brennan

Christopher Brennan, guest researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and lecturer at Masaryk University in Brno in the Czech Republic, is a historian specialized in Central and Eastern Europe with a particular interest in the former Austro-Hungarian Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, Germany and the history of the Czechs. Though British, he grew up in south-western France. He obtained a BA in Modern Languages (German and Russian, plus Czech) at the University of Bristol and a Master’s in Slavonic Studies from Oriel College at the University of Oxford.

Dr. Brennan studied for a PhD at the London School of Economics on the subject of the disintegration of the Habsburg Empire and the degree of responsibility of its last monarch, Emperor Karl I. He taught undergraduates there for four years, with a one year hiatus in Paris lecturing American undergraduates on French history and on the history of Eastern European Communism. He has written on the memory of World War I and of the Habsburg Dynasty, on the Balkan Wars, on the author Joseph Roth, and on interwar Austria. He has authored chapters to several volumes on the collapse of Austria-Hungary and its aftermath, and is now working on a biography of Karl I. Returning to his first love (French History), he also plans to research Franco-Austrian relations before and after the Great War. He publishes in English, French and German.

David Silverberg

David Scott Silverberg is an expert in Alpine geology, geography, and conservation biology. Born in New York, David has lived most of his life abroad, working in more than 125 countries—including seven years in Germany and 10 years in northern Italy. He is an active mountaineer and has explored the Swiss, Italian, French, Austrian, German, and Slovenian Alps extensively.

David is a fellow of the Explorers Club and the Royal Geographical Society and a passionate experiential educator, designing and teaching 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 Ph.D. 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 the Alps and Himalaya. His 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. He has published numerous articles and books about the Alps, covering topics ranging from Alpine Stradivarius forests to road and bridge engineering to wine and cuisine.

Thomas Emmert

Thomas Emmert, professor emeritus at Gustavus Adolphus College, is a historian of Central and Eastern Europe with a research focus on the former Yugoslavia. Professor Emmert has also had visiting appointments at the University of Zagreb, the University of Minnesota, and Stanford University. He received his B.A. in history from St. Olaf College and his Ph.D. in Balkan and Russian history from Stanford University. A member of Phi Beta Kappa, he has been awarded research fellowships from the Fulbright Program, the Woodrow Wilson Foundation, the Ford Foundation, and the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research. His publications include Serbian Golgotha: Kosovo, 1389 (1990) and, most recently, The Scholars' Initiative: Confronting the Yugoslav Controversies (2009), a collaborative project of scholars from around the world dedicated to providing an objective analysis of what happened to Yugoslavia at the end of the 20th century. Professor Emmert has taught American undergraduates in semester programs in Zagreb and Berlin and has accompanied several educational trips to southeastern Europe.

Tim Blanning

Tim Blanning is Professor Emeritus of Modern European History at the University of Cambridge. A Fellow of the British Academy since 1990, Tim has published extensively on the political and cultural history of Europe in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Among his publications are The Culture of Power and the Power of Culture (2002), The Pursuit of Glory: Europe 1648-1815 (2007), The Triumph of Music (2008) and The Romantic Revolution (2010).  Tim's books have been translated into Japanese, Korean, Chinese, Hungarian, German, Polish, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Croatian and Arabic. His most recent book is a best-selling and prize-winning biography of Frederick the Great King of Prussia, published by Penguin/Random House. For his current project on the exciting if notorious Augustus ‘the Strong’ of Saxony and Poland he has expanded his area of expertise to include the Baltic countries and Eastern Europe.

Kenneth Ledford

Kenneth F. Ledford is Associate Professor of History and Law at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH, where he has taught since 1991.  A specialist in the history of modern Germany, his scholarship has focused on the history of German law, legal professions, and legal professionals since 1815.  He has published From General Estate to Special Interest: German Lawyers 1878-1933 (Cambridge University Press, 1996), numerous articles and reviews, and he was Editor of the scholarly journal Central European History from 2004-14.  His current research is on the Prussian judiciary from the Revolution of 1848 to 1914.   He holds a BA in history and a JD from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and an MA and PhD in history from Johns Hopkins University.  He has lived and researched in Germany, particularly in Göttingen and Berlin, and traveled broadly in western, central, and southern Europe.  He regularly teaches in the Senior Scholars program at CWRU, an adult continuing education program, and he has led educational travel in Europe.  Before coming to Case Western Reserve, he served as Research Fellow at the German Historical Institute, Washington, DC and continues to serve there as a member of its Academic Advisory Council.

Janetta Rebold Benton

Janetta Rebold Benton is the Distinguished Professor of Art History at Pace University, New York. She has lectured for many years at the Smithsonian and the Metropolitan Museum of Art and has served as the speaker on trips worldwide for both institutions. A former resident of Paris, she was Visiting Professor in the graduate school of art history at European University in St. Petersburg, Russia, and in the graduate school of art history at China Academy of Art in Hangzhou, on two Fulbright Senior Scholar Awards in 2012 and 2018.

Dr. Benton is the author of ten art history books (with translations into multiple languages), as well as numerous scholarly articles and reviews published in Austria, China, Croatia, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Russia, and the U.S. She holds degrees/diploma from Harvard University, Brown University, George Washington University, and Cornell University.

Peter Bobrowsky

Peter Bobrowsky is a professional archaeologist and geologist with 40 years of experience working as a consultant, scholar, teacher and researcher across the globe. His academic achievements include almost 500 publications - 20 technical books such as the Encyclopedia of Natural Hazards, Encyclopedia of Engineering Geology and The Landslide Handbook - the latter written for the general public has been translated into Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, and Japanese; induction as an International Fellow of the Explorers Club of New York and Fellow of the Geological Society of America. He is the recipient of numerous awards including most notably the Eugene Shoemaker Communications Award for Best Book (2009), the Edward B. Burwell Jr. Award for Engineering Geology (2011), the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012) and the James Harrison Outstanding Achievement Award (2020).

Dr. Bobrowsky has a prominent history of international positions and appointments in particular 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.

A popular global public speaker for the past 25 years he remains a much sought after and well-liked lecturer for the Smithsonian since 2004. His multi-disciplinary background and extensive travel to over 110 countries contribute to his unique, informative and enthusiastic speaking style. A born extrovert, with an easy going manner, Peter strives to understand and explain the crucial links between a diverse and dynamically changing Earth and the evolution of changing societies through history.

He divides his time between travel adventures and home life near Sidney by the Sea on Vancouver Island.

Carola Stearns

Carola Stearns is a field geologist and geophysicist with over 40 years of experience enthusiastically sharing her fascination with the Earth and how it works.  She earned a Ph.D at the University of Michigan, has worked in exploration for major oil companies, taught at universities, and maintains a research affiliation with the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology at the University of Michigan.  She has worked with archaeologists on both prehistoric and classical sites around the Mediterranean and in the southwest of the US.  Her diverse research interests include tectonics as well as climatic geomorphology, especially as it relates to human history.  She has lectured as a park ranger at the Grand Canyon, on trips for the UM Alumni Association, and in Ann Arbor training docents for the botanical gardens, arboretum and the public school’s environmental education program.  Currently she works part-time as an interpretive guide in Santa Fe. 

Rafael Chacón

Hipólito Rafael Chacón is Bruce and Suzanne Crocker Director of the Montana Museum of Art and Culture and Professor of Art History and Criticism at the University of Montana-Missoula where he lectures on a broad range of art historical subjects. He received his Ph.D. in art history with honors from the University of Chicago, having been awarded numerous research fellowships to study in Europe and the Mediterranean basin, including an award from the Spanish Ministry of Culture for his dissertation on Michelangelism in renaissance art. He has written on a range of topics related to renaissance and baroque art, both in Europe and in the Americas, and is especially interested in the Trans-alpine diffusion of cultural ideas in the 15th and 16th centuries. Most recently, his publications have focused on architectural history in the U.S. during the late 19th century and he has also been awarded the top national and international prizes for his research in the field of vexillology or flag studies. Rafael has been an expert for many Smithsonian Journeys programs in Cuba, Egypt, Europe, Morocco, and Russia.