Siragusa Tours

Our Tutors

Jackie Parry, MA, is an experienced lecturer and art historian who has led many gallery visits and study tours. She teaches art history at the University of Sussex and the Open University. She has also lectured for NADFAS, the U3A and the National Trust. Her interests are mostly based around 18th century art and culture and the development of modernism from 19th century to the present. Her MA research included issues of gender and critical theory.

 

 

Dalila Castelijn has a degree in foreign languages and literature from the University of Trieste, Italy, and BA in history of art and architecture from Birkbeck College, London. She specializes in art and architecture of the Renaissance in Europe and has taught for the OU and the WEA. Courses taught for the OU include A216, A354 , A424, and, currently, AA315. She has led many art study tours to Italy and Turkey.

 

 

 

 

Peter Murphy, BA, is a noted expert in the fields of Byzantine and Pre Renaissance Italian Art. Educated at Jacob Kramer College of Art and the University of East London, later trained with noted iconographer Guillem Ramos Poqui in London. Peter works using traditional techniques from medieval religious painting, including egg tempera paint and gold leaf. He was Vice Chairman of the Society of Tempera Painters and is a member of The British Association of Iconographers for whom he runs workshops. He runs courses in the UK, USA, Greece, and Italy teaching these techniques and in addition, leads groups on Sacred Art Tours to Italy and Sicily.

 

 

Cathy Mercer, MA, is an experienced teacher, lecturer, and tour manager. She has taught in London schools and for the Open University, Birkbeck College, LRAC, City Lit, and the WEA. She has led numerous study tours to Italy, Holland, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, Tunisia, Turkey and the UK.

 

 

 

Dr. George Nash is a specialist in contemporary and prehistoric art and is currently an Associate Professor at IPT (Tomar), Coimbra University, Portugal. Over the past 30 years, George has undertaken many field projects around the world including research in Chile, Israel, Norway, and Sardinia, resulting in the publication of many papers and books. George is currently involved in the research of a number of cave sites in South Wales. George also has extensive knowledge of the later prehistoric archaeology of Anglesey, having excavated several major sites on the island since 2012.

 

Dr. Ardle Mac Mahon is a long-standing Associate Lecture in Classical Studies with the Open University. He has a primary degree and research master’s degree in Greek & Roman Civilization from University College Dublin. He gained a Ph.D. in Roman Archaeology from the University of Durham. The topic of his thesis was on the retail establishments (tabernae) of Roman Britain. His research has broadened to include the examination of the shops and workshops of the rest of the Roman empire but with a particular focus on Pompeii, Herculaneum, and Ostia. More broadly Ardle’s interests are in the social history of the non-elite.