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.

Adam Tanner

A writer who spent much of his career as a foreign correspondent, Adam Tanner has long studied the impact of colonialism, empire and globalization as a foreign correspondent, author and lecturer, with a special focus on the enduring impact of Europe on the rest of the world. He is an associate at the Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) at Harvard University, where he has been since 2011 as a fellow at the Nieman Foundation, then a fellow at IQSS.

He served as a Reuters news agency correspondent from 1995-2011, including as bureau chief for the Balkans (2008-2011), San Francisco bureau chief (2003-2008), and correspondent in Berlin, Moscow and Washington D.C.  He is one of America's leading experts on privacy and the commercialization of personal information and author of What Stays in Vegas: The World of Personal Data-Lifeblood of Big Business-and the End of Privacy as We Know It (2014) and Our Bodies, Our Data: How Companies Make Billions Selling Our Medical Records (Jan. 2017). 

He has appeared on CNN, Bloomberg TV, MSNBC, CNBC, NPR, the BBC and VOA; written for magazines including Scientific American, Forbes, Fortune, Time, MIT Technology Review, the Boston Globe and Slate; and has lectured in North and South America, Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia.