Born in Italy, Dr. Laura Baffoni Licata earned her first doctoral degree from the Universita’ degli Studi di Bologna (Italy) with a concentration in foreign languages and literatures. She received her Ph.D. in Italian literature from the University of Connecticut. She combines a background in Italian literature, culture, and history with an interest in travel. At Tufts, she teaches upper-level Italian literature courses. Dr. Baffoni-Licata is an experienced faculty host who has accompanied our travelers on a number of Tufts Travel-Learn trips.
Cristelle Baskins taught Art History at Tufts from 1997-2020. Her courses included Renaissance and Baroque (especially in Florence, Rome, and Venice), as well as seminars in the Art of Travel. Her book on portraits of the King of Tunis was published in 2022 by Palgrave Macmillan press. Future projects involve the interaction of people, goods, and images in the western Mediterranean and North Africa. On this trip she will talk about how tapestries, murals, and prints commemorated militay conflicts, diplomacy, and migration between Iberia and the Maghreb.
Nancy Bauer is currently serving as Dean of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts and as Dean of Academic Affairs for Arts and Sciences—a position to which she was appointed in 2012. She earned her Ph.D. in philosophy from Harvard University. She is also a philosophy professor at Tufts University. She is a published author and has won a number of teaching awards, including the Leibner Award for Distinguished Advising and Teaching. Her areas of specialization include feminist philosophy, phenomenology, philosophy and film, and ordinary language philosophy.
Jeffrey Berry earned his Ph.D. from the Johns Hopkins University. Professor Berry holds the John Richard Skuse Class of 1941 Chair in the Department of Political Science at Tufts. His many books include The New Liberalism and Lobbying and Policy Change. His strong interest in European politics and economics and in the development of the European Union (EU) has led him to host many trips for the Tufts Travel-Learn program.
Steven Block earned his Ph.D. in Political Economy and Government from Harvard University. He is Professor of International Economics and Academic Dean at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. Specializing in international development, his work focuses on sub-Saharan Africa with a particular focus on issues relating to food policy, agricultural development, and political economy.
Dr. Sarah L Booth, PhD, serves as the Director of the Jean Mayer USDA Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging (HNRCA) at Tufts University and is a Professor of Nutrition at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. She has been named Chair of the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans Scientific Advisory Committee. Dr. Booth earned her BS from McGill University, her MS from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and her PhD from McGill. Dr. Booth is an expert in the role of fat-soluble vitamin metabolism in the prevention of chronic disease. Her doctoral research was focused on the use of indigenous plants in food and medicine.
On this trip she will talk about the truths and myths surrounding the Mediterranean diet and “anti-aging” diets.
Katrina Burgess is Professor of Political Economy and Director of the Henry J. Leir Institute of Migration and Human Security at the Fletcher School. She is the author of two award-winning books: Courting Migrants: How States Make Diasporas and Diasporas Make States(Oxford, 2020) and Parties and Unions in the New Global Economy (Pittsburgh, 2004). She has published numerous articles and book chapters on labor politics, remittances, migration, and diasporas. In 2019, she wrote and produced Waylaid in Tijuana, a documentary about Haitian and Central American migrants whose journeys to the United States are disrupted by shifts in U.S. policy. Her current research addresses how migrants on the move in the Americas assess risk and process information regarding their prospects for entering the United States. Burgess received a B.A. in political science from Swarthmore College, an M.A. in international relations from the University of Southern California, and a PhD in politics from Princeton University.
Gregory Carleton is Professor of Russian Studies and former Chair of the Department of International Literary and Cultural Studies at Tufts University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and his B.A. from the University of Virginia and has taught at Tufts for over 25 years. His specialties include Russian culture, literature, and history. He teaches on a wide range of topics, including courses for the Program in International Relations and in the general humanities. His current research focuses on how Russia looks to its past and uses that history to help shape national identity and situate itself in the world. He is the author of four books on Russian culture and numerous articles as well.
Dr. Sean Cash is the Bergstrom Foundation Professor of Global Nutrition at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts, where he chairs the Division of Agriculture, Food and Environment. He is an economist who teaches and conducts research on food policy, nutrition behavior, agriculture and the environment. He has previously served as a faculty host for trips to the Rhine River, Scotland, and Iceland, and was also recently in Scotland as part of the Tufts University delegation to the United National Climate Conference (COP26) in Glasgow. Dr. Cash will present on topics on food policy and production in Europe.
Professor John Cerone holds faculty appointments in International Law at the Fletcher School of Law & Diplomacy, American University Washington College of Law, and the University of London. He has been awarded fellowships at the Nobel Institute (Oslo), the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law (Heidelberg), and the Raoul Wallenberg Institute (Lund). He is an elected member of the International Institute of Humanitarian Law (IIHL) and has served on a number of expert groups for the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and for the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights.
He will discuss the role of international law in regulating international cooperation in the exploration and exploitation of Antarctica.
Steve Chapra is Professor Emeritus and Louis Berger Chair in Environmental Engineering at Tufts. He received his PhD in Environmental Engineering from the University of Michigan and has published over 200 technical publications including 11 textbooks. Steve’s research focuses on understanding and protecting the water-quality of rivers, lakes, estuaries, and oceans. Over his 50-year career, he has travelled extensively studying many of the world’s great waterways. He has special interest in how engineering, science, and computer modeling can be employed to reduce water-quality problems in a sustainable and cost-effective fashion. On this trip, he will present several lectures including his own research on the history of water quality, how climate will profoundly influence the world’s future water quality, and a close look at the Mediterranean Sea from the perspective of an environmental scientist/engineer.
Heather Curtis is the Warren S. Woodbridge Professor of Comparative Religion and Director of the Center for the Humanities at Tufts, where she also holds appointments in the Department of History and the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora. Professor Curtis earned her doctorate in the History of Christianity and American Religion at Harvard University. Her research explores how Christians have responded to humanitarian disasters, economic crises, disease and disability, and racial injustice. She has also published widely on the connections between religion and empire, the global expansion of pentecostalism, religion and science, and Christian spirituality. On this trip, she will discuss the spread of Christianity across and beyond the Mediterranean world, and the history of Christian spirituality.
Professor Dorfmann received an undergraduate degree from the University of Padova in Italy and advanced degrees from the University of California, Los Angeles. He has appointments in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and in the Department of Biomedical Engineering, both at Tufts University. Dr. Dorfmann has a high level of familiarly with Italy, having lived for many years in his country of birth.
Daniel Drezner earned his Ph.D. from Stanford University. He is a professor of international politics at The Fletcher School at Tufts, as well as a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Professor Drezner is a contributing editor at the Washington Post and has written several books.
Kevin Dunn earned his Ph.D. in Renaissance studies from Yale University. Since joining Tufts, he has served as the dean of academic affairs and dean of the College of Special Studies. Currently he is the vice provost of the University. He has published writing on a variety of topics in Renaissance poetry, prose and drama, and Biblical literature. His present book project, entitled Figures of Speech: The Representation of Counsel in Shakespeare and his Contemporaries, studies the intersection of drama and politics in Renaissance England.
Lee Edelman, the Fletcher Professor of English Literature at Tufts University, is one of the foundational figures in the field of Queer Theory. Working in conversation over many years with Judith Butler, David Halperin, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Jack Halberstam, José Estaban Muñoz, Leo Bersani, and Lauren Berlant, he helped to shape queer theory as both an academic discipline and mode of critical analysis that resonates beyond the “ivory tower.” His best-known book, No Future: Queer Theory and the Death Drive (2004), which has been described as “one of the most influential, if controversial, texts of queer theory,” has been a source of inspiration for painters, lesbian punk bands, classical musicians, avant-garde film-makers, and performance artists. His most recent book, Bad Education: Why Queer Theory Teaches Us Nothing (2022), won Honorable Mention for the James Russell Lowell Prize, awarded to the year’s best scholarly book, and it has been the subject of several recent webinars and podcasts.
Lewis Edgers, Professor Emeritus, Civil and Environmental Engineering, earned his BS in Civil Engineering at Tufts and his MS and PhD degrees at MIT. He has served as faculty host for several Travel-Learn trips including a 2016 trip to the Dordogne. A registered professional engineer and a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers, Prof. Edgers is especially interested in the relationship between people and their environment. The French countryside offers a unique opportunity to see beautiful landscapes and extraordinary architecture from prehistoric times to the present. Prof. Edgers will discuss the caves, castles, and cathedrals of the countryside, using many local examples (Lascaux, Beynac, Mont.-St.-Michel, Bourges). His presentations will consider the importance of climate, geology, technology, and social factors in the formation of these elements of urban architecture.
Lewis Edgers is Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Tufts University. He earned his BS in Civil Engineering at Tufts and his MS and PhD at MIT. He has served as faculty host for several Travel-Learn trips including trips to The Scottish Isles and Norwegian Fjords. For extended periods of time and on numerous occasions Prof. Edgers has lived in Norway and has traveled extensively through Scandinavia and Northern Europe. He is a registered professional engineer and a Fellow of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
During this program, Prof. Edgers will discuss natural hazards and energy resources of the region. He will focus on Norway’s unique twin roles as a major oil and gas producer and a strong global advocate of climate change mitigation. He will discuss developments in renewable energy, especially wind, and the threats posed by climate change.
Born in Germany, raised in France, and educated in California, Professor Ellmore earned his Ph.D. in botany at the University of California at Berkeley. His Tufts research combines basic and applied work in plant biology. His work on fluid flow rates in trees led to new injection methods for treating Dutch elm disease. In addition to teaching biology courses, Professor Ellmore manages annual student research trips to Hummingbird Tropical Field Station in the Bahamas, directs the Environmental Studies program, and teaches alpine botany in Talloires, France.
A native of Greece, Ioannis D. Evrigenis (Yannis) is Professor of Political Science and Director of the International Relations Program at Tufts University, where he also directs the Bodin@Tufts project. Evrigenis teachers courses in ancient and early modern political thought, popular sovereignty, ethics and international relations, as well as seminars on Plato, Machiavelli, and Hobbes. He is the author of Images of Anarchy: The Rhetoric and Science in Hobbes's State of Nature, of articles on a wide range of issues in political theory, and co-editor of Johann Gottfried Herders Another Philosophy of History & Selected Political Writings. On this trip, Professor Evrigenis will discuss the political history of the Aegean from antiquity to the present, as well as the politics of modern Greece.
Professor Fyler is on the faculty of the Department of English at Tufts, where he has served as the chair of English, and acting chair of Romance Languages. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. from U.C. Berkeley, and an A.B. from Dartmouth College. His areas of expertise are Chaucer and medieval literature, the Latin classics, and Renaissance literature. He has traveled extensively in Western Europe, lived in Provence, and has done a great deal of work with Latin and Old English. Dr. Fyler is a seasoned host of the Tufts Travel-Learn program.
Ken Garden is the Chair of the Tufts Department of Religion and co-director of its program in Middle Eastern studies. He received his PhD in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations from the University of Chicago in 2004. He teaches courses mainly on the Islamic tradition and has published on medieval Muslim religious thinkers in Persia and al-Andalus (Muslim Spain). He has lived in North Africa (Egypt and Morocco) for over 3 years, including during the Arab spring in 2011. On this trip, he will give talks on Islam and Modern Egyptian history.
Anne F. Gardulski earned her Ph.D. from Syracuse University. She is an associate professor and teaches oceanography, structural geology, sedimentology, and stratigraphy. Her research interests are focused on Triassic strata and environments in southwestern U.S. She has traveled to Australia, New Zealand, and England for geologic field trips, and to the Four Corners area of the U.S., including Navajo Nation land.
Nina Gerassi-Navarro is Professor of Latin American Literature and Culture, and Chair of the Department of Romance Studies. She has published widely on a variety of topics ranging from bandits and nation building to women writers, travel literature, and visual culture. Her current research is on the intersection of politics and scientific knowledge during the nineteenth century in South America. She has traveled broadly across Latin America, and regularly teaches a course on Latin America for Tisch Civic students spending their first semester at Tufts in Urubamba, Peru. On this trip she will address a broad variety of topics, from the history and myths of the Inca Civilization, Peruvian art, to the recent political crisis.
James M. Glaser earned his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Berkeley. He is currently the Dean of Arts and Sciences. His book, The Hand of the Past in Contemporary Southern Politics, received the Southern Political Science Association’s V.O. Key Prize Award for the year’s best book on southern politics. Glaser’s scholarship addresses issues of American electoral politics and political behavior.
Dr. Jeanne Goldberg earned her PhD in Nutrition from Tufts University. In her work she has combined research in nutrition and her love of food and cooking. Her international travels have taken her to many corners of the world and frequently to Italy. Here she seeks out local markets to learn about specialties among the regional foods. For many years she co-authored a nationally syndicated newspaper column, with former Tuffs president, Jean Mayer.
Professor of political science and Director of Tufts International Relations
Kelly M. Greenhill (BA, UC Berkeley; CSS, Harvard University; SM and PhD, MIT) is a professor of political science and Director of Tufts International Relations Program. Greenhill is a scholar of international security and foreign policy, and her areas of teaching and research include the politics of information; migration, refugees and security; and coercion, military operations and asymmetric instruments of statecraft. Among other works, Greenhill is author of the award-winning Weapons of Mass Migration: Forced Displacement, Coercion, and Foreign Policy, and she is currently revising for publication a new book on the influence of rumors, conspiracy theories and other forms of extra-factual information on international politics.
David Gute received his M.P.H. and Ph.D. from Yale University and is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Tufts University. He holds joint appointments with the Department of Public Health and Community Medicine at the School of Medicine and the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. His research is at the interface of engineering and public health. He has previously served as the Academic Director of the Tufts in Talloires Program in France and is a Fellow of the American College of Epidemiology. A multiple award recipient for service and teaching excellence, Gute also co-taught the first Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) produced at Tufts which featured global health content and enrolled over 12,000 participants from 175 countries.
Eulogio Guzmán is a Distinguished Senior Lecturer in the Visual and Material Studies Department at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. He earned a B.Arch. from the Southern California Institute of Architecture, has an M.A. in Latin American Studies in the fields of anthropology, history, and art history from the University of California, Los Angeles as well as a Ph.D. in art history from UCLA specializing in Mexica sculpture and architecture and minoring in Mudejar architecture.
His interests include visual manifestations of indigenous governance, Pre-Columbian architecture and urbanism, global interactions of the sixteenth and seventeenth century including colonial and post-colonial visual strategies, the Open Churches of Sixteenth Century Mexico, the Habsburg empire and museum studies. He has traveled extensively throughout the American and European continents and is an experienced Tufts Travel-Learn host.
Eulogio Guzmán is a Distinguished Senior Lecturer in the Visual and Material Studies Department at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. He earned a B.Arch. from the Southern California Institute of Architecture, has an M.A. in Latin American Studies in the fields of anthropology, history, and art history from the University of California, Los Angeles as well as a Ph.D. in art history from UCLA specializing in Mexica sculpture and architecture and minored in Islamic Art.
His interests include Pre-Columbian and Colonial architecture and urbanism, global trade of material goods across the Pacific & Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, the politics of gift exchange and its associated political interactions during the sixteenth and seventeenth century, colonial and post-colonial visual strategies, the Habsburg empire and museum studies. He has traveled extensively throughout the American and European sphere and is an experienced Tufts Travel-Learn host.
Raised in Germany and Ethiopia, Dr. Hasselblatt came to study in Maryland on a Fulbright Scholarship. Since earning a Ph.D. from Caltech, he has been a Professor of Mathematics at Tufts. Now a much-cited researcher, Secretary of the American Mathematical Society, erstwhile department chair and Associate Provost, he has lived in Somerville, Berlin, Addis Abeba, Pasadena, Göttingen, Stade, Washington, Zürich, Marseille, Paris, Tokyo and Strasbourg. His travels as lecturer, researcher, singer, tourist, and faculty host have taken him to Africa, Asia, the Middle East, the Americas, New Zealand, and across Europe.
Yannis M. Ioannides joined the Tufts faculty in September 1995 as the Max and Herta Neubauer Chair and Professor in Economics. He received his BS from the National Technical University, Athens, Greece, and his MS and Ph.D. both from Stanford University. A corresponding member of the Academy of Athens, Professor Ioannides has taught in several US universities and held visiting appointments at the London School of Economics. He teaches courses in economic growth, social economics, and the economics of the European Union. He also conducts research on the economics of housing and on ancient Hellenic urbanization (especially in connection with the invention of coinage and the development of literacy.) He has published several books and numerous scientific articles. He has had a side interest in Medieval and Modern Greek Studies throughout his career and has chaired the Greek Study Group, Center for European Studies, Harvard University. He has lectured widely on Greece and the European Debt crisis, and writes regularly in the Greek press on topics of general interest.
Shafik Islam is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Professor of Water Diplomacy at the Fletcher School. He is the Director of the Water Diplomacy Program and Director of Data-Driven Decision Making @ Tufts. His research group works on the availability, access, and allocation of water within the context of climate challenges, health, data-driven decision-making, and diplomacy. His research and practice have been featured in numerous media outlets including the BBC World Service, Voice of America, Boston Globe, Huffington Post, Nature, and Yale E360. More information is here and here. As we explore this diverse landscape, Professor Islam will delve into the intricate relationship between water and Indian society, discovering how rivers like the sacred Ganges shape both the physical and spiritual realms of this dynamic nation.
Dan Jay is Professor of Developmental Molecular and Chemical Biology and Adjunct Professor of Drawing and Painting at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. He recently served as the Dean of the School of Graduate Biomedical Sciences. Dan earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, was a junior fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows and a John L. Loeb Associate Professor of the Natural Sciences all at Harvard University. He has published extensively on neuroscience and cancer biology. He is also an active artist making works at the art-science interface and has exhibited and lectured internationally on the art-science interface. Byzantium/ Constantinople/ Istanbul is the center of the world. It was the Center of the Eastern Roman Empire, its capital when Rome became Christian and the major western terminus for the Silk Trade Route. On this trip, Dan Jay will explore the history, art and science of this great city from the perspective of the meeting of ideas from east and west.
Vida Johnson earned her Ph.D. in Slavic languages and literatures from Harvard. She was born in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, and came to the United States with her family. Professor Johnson currently serves as director of the Russian program. Her coursework includes Russian language, literature, and film. Currently the focus of her research is post-Soviet, post-colonial, Central Asian, and world cinema. A seasoned travel veteran, she has participated in a number of Tufts Travel-Learn journeys.
Born in New York City, Joel LaRue Smith attended The City University of New York where he earned his Bachelor of Music in classical music composition. He received a Masters of Music in jazz piano from Manhattan School of Music. His CD, September's Child is comprised of seven original Afro Cuban jazz compositions, and several Latin jazz standards. He is a contributing writer to JazzED magazine, with numerous published articles and essays on Latin jazz and jazz. Widely traveled, he was appointed a Cultural Envoy to Costa Rica and Guatemala, and has also led tours to Cuba, Costa Rica, Portugal, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic.
Sara Lewis is an ecologist and professor emerita of Biology at Tufts University with wide-ranging interests in animal behavior and ecology. An enthusiastic science communicator, she has given a TED talk and and wrote a popular book, Silent Sparks: The Wondrous World of Fireflies. She now works with the International Union for the Conservation of Nature to identify and protect threatened firefly species around the world. On this departure, Professor Lewis will discuss challenges and opportunities in conserving Africa’s spectacular wildlife diversity.
After earning her Ph.D. in geology from Brown University, Professor McCanta conducted research at NASA’s Lunar and Planetary Institute. In addition to volcanology, and geochemistry, Professor McCanta’s current study includes planetary geology. In order to evaluate rocks from planets throughout the solar system, she employs experimental techniques to simulate the high temperature and pressure under which these rocks may have formed. Professor McCanta’s terrestrial explorations include trips to Central and South America as well as Europe.
Former Dean of Academic Affairs for Arts & Sciences and Professor of Art History Andrew McClellan joined the Tufts faculty after earning his Ph.D. in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London. McClellan’s field of expertise includes 17th–19th century European art and the history of collecting and museums. As a member of the Tufts faculty and a former dean, Professor McClellan is a seasoned host of the Tufts-Travel Learn program.
Donald Megerle currently serves as the Director of the Tufts University President’s Marathon Challenge. Previously he served as the staff host for the Tufts Travel-Learn Iceland Reykjavik Marathon and Tufts University Men’s Varsity Swimming Coach. He was the Coach and Coordinator of the 2007 NOVA Marathon Documentary. A recipient of numerous awards as well as the National Collegiate and Scholastic Trophy, Don will accompany the 2016 Tufts Travel-Learn Reykjavik Marathon contingent to Iceland.
Gilbert E. Metcalf is the John DiBiaggio Professor of Citizenship and Public Service Emeritus at Tufts University where he taught economics for nearly 30 years. In addition, he is a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research and a University Fellow at Resources For The Future. Metcalf's primary research area is in the area of energy and climate change policy. He has extensive government engagement including serving in 2011-12 as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environment and Energy at the U.S. Department of Treasury where he was the founding U.S. Board Member for the UN based Green Climate Fund. On the Wild Iceland Escape voyage, Gib will give a talk titled “Climate Change: Insights from Iceland” where he’ll discuss the country’s unique advantages as a volcanically active island and how scientists and engineers there are exploring exciting new approaches to reducing our greenhouse gas emissions.
Anthony P. Monaco served as the thirteenth president of Tufts University from 2011-2023. Under President Monaco’s leadership, the university enhanced Tufts’ longstanding commitments to innovation, collaboration, civic life and global perspectives. Major initiatives of Dr. Monaco’s tenure included the 2016 acquisition of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, and university-wide initiatives on anti-racism, sexual misconduct prevention, student mental health, and sustainable operations. He also provided scientific leadership to guide higher education’s pandemic response and programs to assist our local communities.
Susan Napier is the Goldthwaite Professor of Rhetoric and Japanese at Tufts University. Previously she held the Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Chair at the University of Texas. She has also taught at the University of London and been a visiting professor at Harvard, University of Pennsylvania, the University of Sydney and a visiting scholar at Keio University in Tokyo. At Tufts she teaches a variety of courses including a seminar on Miyazaki Hayao, a cross cultural examination of apocalyptic and post- apocalyptic films, and a cross cultural comparison of Walt Disney Studios and Studio Ghibli. She is the author of many articles and five books, the most recent of which is Miyazakiworld: A Life in Art, published in 2018 by Yale University Press. Susan lived in Japan for eight years and is looking forward to sharing her passion for Japan and its culture with the group.
Elena N. Naumova earned her doctorate from Novosibirsk State Technical University, Russia and completed her postdoctoral training in artificial intelligence systems at the Baumann State Technical University in Moscow. Dr. Naumova is a recognized mathematician, Professor and Chair of the Division of Data Sciences of the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University. She is an Editor-in-Chief of Journal of Public Health Policy and an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI). Dr. Naumova is studying the effects of climate change, extreme weather and disasters on vulnerable communities. Her research is funded by the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Preventions, and the Environmental Protection Agency. Her international work and travels have taken her to several countries, including Ecuador, Japan, India, and Indonesia.
Felicia B. Nutter earned her Ph.D. in comparative biomedical sciences from North Carolina State University. At Tufts, she directs the International Veterinary Medicine Program at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. Her research has been published in a variety of scientific journals, magazines, and books. Dr. Nutter is a wildlife veterinarian and epidemiologist, working on health issues at the interfaces among wildlife, domestic animals, humans, and the environments they share.
Colin Orians, Professor of Biology and Director of Environmental Studies, is interested in global change biology, with particular emphasis on climate change, species invasion, and plant behavioral responses to herbivores. He did his graduate work in Costa Rica and views Costa Rica to be his second home. His research group at Tufts works on diverse topics, including climate impacts on coffee agroecosystems, sugar maple dynamics in New England, and the impacts of invasive species on hemlock. At Tufts he teaches courses in Global change biology, Tropical ecology and conservation, and Sustainable agriculture. He takes great joy in leading student groups to Costa Rica every other year. Every trip fills him, and his students with wonder.
Lynne Pepall earned her Ph.D. in economics from the University of Cambridge, England. She is a professor of economics at Tufts University and a dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. She has authored papers in microeconomics and industrial organization. She is the co-author of the leading textbook Industrial Organization: Contemporary Theory and Empirical Applications, and also of Contemporary Industrial Organization: A Quantitative Approach.
Elizabeth Remick earned her Ph.D. in government from Cornell University. She is an associate professor of political science at Tufts. She has been visiting and living in China regularly since 1985. Her books include Building Local States: China During the Republican and Post-Mao Eras and Regulating Prostitution in China: Gender and Local Statebuilding, 1900-1937.
James Rice earned his Ph.D. in history at the University of Maryland. He is a visiting professor of history at Tufts University. Professor Rice is the author of Nature and History in the Potomac Country: From Hunter-Gatherers to the Age of Jefferson and Tales from a Revolution: Bacon's Rebellion and the Transformation of Early America, as well as numerous articles and book chapters. He is currently writing an environmental history of Native America from the Arctic to southern Mexico and from the first human habitation of North America to the present.
Visiting Assistant Professor of Astronomy at Swarthmore College
Jesse Rivera is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Astronomy at Swarthmore College. He currently is co-teaching the first-ever Radio Astronomy course offered at Swarthmore College. Professor Rivera’s primary research interest lies in understanding how galaxies form and evolve. To better understand these processes, he is studying a sample of gravitationally-lensed, dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) detected with the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) in Chile.
Beatrice Rogers earned her Ph.D. in economics and public health from the Heller School at Brandeis. She is the program director of the Food Policy and Applied Nutrition program at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy, as well as an adjunct professor at the Tufts School of Medicine.
Dr. Romero received his PhD from Stanford and has been teaching in the Tufts Biology Department for over 25 years. He recently received an award for outstanding mentoring of undergraduate and graduate research students from the White House and the National Science Foundation. His research focuses on stress in wild animals, with both laboratory and field components, and on how understanding stress can help in the conservation of those species. On this departure Professor Romero will discuss how both natural events and human-induced changes can cause stress in animals, and how understanding animals’ responses to stress will inform conservation efforts.
Kelly Sims Gallagher, a Truman Scholar, earned her PhD in international affairs from The Fletcher School. She is Professor of Energy & Environmental Policy at The Fletcher School, Tufts University, where she also directs the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy. From 2014-2015 she served as a Senior Policy Advisor in the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, and Senior China Advisor to the Special Envoy for Climate Change at the U.S. State Department. Her most recent book is The Globalization of Clean Energy Technology: Lessons from China.
Patrick Skelly is a Professor in the Department of Infectious Disease and Global Health at Tufts University’s Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine. He earned his PhD in Biochemistry at the Australian National University and his Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology at University College Dublin. His NIH-funded, global health research focuses on a neglected tropical disease, caused by long-lived, parasitic worms. These parasites currently infect over 200 million people mostly in sub-Saharan Africa. In addition to his research and travel in global destinations, his wide-ranging interests include history, art, and music. Dr. Skelly will present talks on rhino biology and conservation and on the blood worms that are the focus of his research at Tufts.
Emese Soos earned her Ph.D. in French and Comparative Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she also studied Italian. At Tufts, she is a Senior Lecturer in the Romance Languages Department. Her area of expertise lies in the French Language, 20th Century, and Second Language Pedagogy. She has been a faculty host on a number of Tufts Travel-Learn programs.
Admiral James Stavridis (F83, FG84) is an Operating Executive of The Carlyle Group, following five years as the 12th Dean of The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University. A retired 4-star officer in the U.S. Navy, he led the NATO Alliance in global operations from 2009 to 2013 as Supreme Allied Commander with responsibility for Afghanistan, Libya, the Balkans, Syria, piracy, and cyber security. He also served as Commander of U.S. Southern Command, with responsibility for all military operations in Latin America from 2006 to 2009. The Admiral spent over half of his Navy career operating in the western Pacific and is a leading expert on the issues of the South China Sea. Admiral Stavridis earned a Ph.D. in International Relations and has published eight books and hundreds of articles in leading journals around the world. Admiral Stavridis is a monthly columnist for TIME Magazine and Chief International Security Analyst for NBC News.
Ichiro Takayoshi earned his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He is currently an associate professor at Tufts in the English Department. His scholarly book, American Writers and the Approach of World War II, 1935-1941: A Literary History, was published in 2015. Ichiro is a historian specializing in American literature and social thought in the modern period, with an interest in methodology and literary theory.
Jeffrey (Jeff) W. Taliaferro is Professor of Political Science at Tufts University and Lecturer at the Fletcher School. His research and teaching focus on security studies, international relations theory, international history and politics, the grand strategies of the great powers, United States foreign policy, intelligence, cybersecurity policy. He earned a bachelor's degree in history and political science from Duke University and a Ph.D. in government from Harvard University. His most recent book is Defending Frenemies: Alliance Politics and Nonproliferation in US Foreign Policy (Oxford University Press, 2019). Professor Taliaferro came to Tufts in 1997. He has held a research fellowship at the Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo, Norway in summer 2016 and a fellowship at the Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington, DC in 2017-2018. His current research examines how the United States and its allies negotiate crises of change in their relationships. On this trip, he will discuss current challenges for the United States and NATO.
Monica Duffy Toft is Academic Dean and Professor of International Politics and Director of the Center for Strategic Studies at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy. Before joining Fletcher, she taught at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government and Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. While at Harvard, she directed the Initiative on Religion in International Affairs and was the assistant director of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies. Professor Toft attended University of Chicago (MA and Ph.D. in political science) and University of California, Santa Barbara (BA.) Prior to this, she spent four years in the United States Army as a Russian linguist. Monica’s areas of research include international security, ethnic and religious violence, civil wars and demography. In addition she has published numerous books, scholarly articles and editorials on civil wars, territory and nationalism, demography, and religion in global politics. On this trip, she will discuss the nature of war and political violence in the 21st Century.
Florina S. Tseng is an assistant professor and associate chair at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, as well as the director of the Tufts Wildlife Clinic. She received her D.V.M. degree from the New York State College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University and a B.S. from Oberlin College.
Marten Vandervelde, an alumnus, is the strength and conditioning coach in the Athletic Department at Tufts. He has participated in the development of Tufts’ first National Championship teams in men’s lacrosse and women’s field hockey. He recently published a book about college athletics and health, studying the paradoxical dichotomy of the college lifestyle on one hand and the pursuit of athletic excellence on the other. He was a staff host for the Tufts Travel-Learn 2014 Reykjavik Iceland Marathon program, and will return again for the 2016 program, also in Reykjavik, Iceland.
Richard Vogel, Professor Emeritus, Civil and Environmental Engineering, has been on the Tufts faculty since 1984. With degrees from the University of Virginia and Cornell University, Prof. Vogel is a distinguished member of the American Society of Civil Engineers and a Fellow of the American Geophysical Union. He has an international reputation and has received many prestigious awards for his extensive scholarship relating to hydrology, hydromorphology, water resource engineering and hydroclimatology. His presentations will focus on watersheds, rivers, river restoration, green infrastructure, dam engineering, dam removal and the myriad of societal concerns surrounding the extensive water projects on the Columbia and Snake Rivers.
Professor Webb, a British citizen, is a 19th century explorer at heart. He has a PhD in geography from the UK and is a Fellow of the renowned Royal Geographical Society (RGS). Patrick has lived and worked in some of the world’s most challenging environments, including the Sahara desert in Niger, the Himalayas in Nepal and Tibet, and tropical jungles of East Timor and Uganda. Today, he holds an endowed chair at Tufts’ Friedman School of Nutrition and an appointment at the Fletcher School. He undertakes field research in a dozen countries of Africa and Asia, but also serves as Technical Adviser for the London-based Global Panel on Agriculture and Food Systems for Nutrition, and the World Economic Forum’s Global Futures Council on Food Security and Agriculture.
Jill Weinberg is an Associate Professor Sociology whose research and teaching lies in the areas of law/deviance, sports, and gender. She received a PhD from Northwestern University, MA from University of Chicago, and JD from Seattle University. Jill has spent extensive time in France. As a sociologist, her current work looks at monuments and how we memorialize people and events and what we learn about ourselves in the process. She plans to give lectures on her latest monuments project, as well as the history and sociology of the Tour de France.
Chris Whittier is an Assistant Professor and directs the Conservation Medicine program at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts, where he also received his veterinary degree (V'97). He earned his Ph.D. from North Carolina State University. He previously worked for Gorilla Doctors, the Smithsonian, and as a consultant with World Wildlife Fund. He has lived, worked, studied and traveled across much of Africa spanning 5 decades and more than 15 countries. He is an avid wildlife photographer, has appeared in a number of wildlife documentaries, and has had field and laboratory research and photographs published in a variety of scientific journals, magazines, and books. On this trip Dr. Whittier will offer talks on African wildlife, threats to their conservation, and tips for wildlife and nature photography.
Carol Wilkinson earned her Ph.D. from the University of Rochester. She is a lecturer in the Department of English at Tufts University. Her research interests include medieval literature, and she has recently completed a biography of Mary Silsbee, the poet and femme fatale who haunts the works of Nathaniel Hawthorne.
