Cultural Specialists

Cultural

Some of our voyages bring us deep into other cultures, where we have the chance to take part in local traditions and get a firsthand view of another way of life. In those places, we rely on our cultural specialists to interpret everyday customs and help us make meaningful connections with people we meet in our destinations. They may be archaeologists or anthropologists who can illuminate ancient civilizations in the Mediterranean or island cultures in the South Pacific.

Others are art historians or ethnomusicologists who give us a closer look at the rich artistic heritage of a destination through informative talks, guided tours, and concerts. All of them have spent time immersed in the regions they are exploring—and some of them were born and raised there.  

Often, we will welcome a local expert on board to offer insights and a personal perspective—such as a resident artist or a Tlingit cultural interpreter who sheds light on Alaska’s Indigenous traditions.  

Cultural Specialist

Jennifer Kingsley

Jennifer Kingsley is a journalist and writer from Ottawa, Canada who specializes in personal stories from around the world. In 2015, she founded Meet the North, a three-year storytelling journey to six Arctic nations. Her work then expanded to islands of the South Pacific and beyond. Jennifer is a National Geographic Explorer, a National Outdoor Book Award recipient, a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, and an award-winning radio documentary producer. She has reported for the New York Times, National Geographic, the BBC, and other outlets around the world. Topics of interest to Jennifer include listening, resurgence, community-led storytelling, and the roles of outsider journalists. Jennifer holds degrees in biology and fine arts. She has spent months canoeing in the Canadian north, and she worked as a guide in the Canadian Rockies and on sailboats in British Columbia and Alaska for several seasons. Lindblad Expeditions has sponsored Jennifer’s work since 2015.

Cultural Specialist

Jacob Edgar

Jacob Edgar is an Ethnomusicologist, world music tastemaker and global explorer with an insatiable curiosity for the diverse ways in which people express themselves through music. Jacob’s adventures have taken him to dozens of countries, and hundreds of the world’s greatest international music festivals, showcases and performance venues in search of exceptional musical talents. Since 1998, Jacob has been the main music researcher for the acclaimed world music compilations label Putumayo World Music , contributing songs and liner notes to over 300 Putumayo collections that combined have sold over 15 million copies. In 2006, Jacob founded the record label Cumbancha , whose artists include some of the top names in international music. In 2009, Jacob embarked on a new adventure as host of a new music and travel television program Music Voyager . The series invites viewers to discover the exciting sounds of the planet and broadcasts on PBS and other stations around the world. While pursuing his undergraduate degree at Oberlin College, where he was a double major in History and Latin American Studies, Jacob conducted field research on music and society in Central America. His love of music took him to the West Coast where Jacob was awarded the Mellon Fellowship in the Humanities and graduated from University of California, Los Angeles in 1994 with a Masters in Ethnomusicology. For a time, Jacob was a professional trumpet player performing primarily salsa and Afro-Cuban music. He has written for The Beat , Global Rhythm Magazine , The LA Times Book Review and other publications, and was the host of the radio program “Uncompass” on the San Francisco radio station KALW. Jacob lives in the small town of Charlotte, Vermont with his wife Deirdre and daughters Simone and Schuÿler. He runs his enterprises from an antique refurbished barn nestled amidst the picturesque Green Mountains. Also on the property is Cumbancha’s partner company, Lane Gibson Recording and Mastering, one of the most revered recording studios in New England. The studio has attracted artists from near and far to craft their music in a unique and magical setting.

Cultural Specialist

Tua Pittman

Internationally acclaimed as a traditional master navigator, Tua has navigated canoes across the great oceans of our planet from the coastlines of Asia through to the shores of the Americas for more than 30 years, without the use of modern instruments. This Cook Islander, also of New Zealand Maori and Tahitian bloodlines, uses an ancient navigational system based upon careful observation of celestial bodies—sun, moon, and stars—as well as using ocean swells, flight patterns of birds, and other natural markers. Tua’s efforts to adopt and promote the sailing arts of the ancients have been recognized throughout the Pacific. In 2008 he was designated a Pwo navigator on the island of Satawal in Micronesia and inducted by sacred ritual into this rarefied society of master navigators by Grand Elder and Master Navigator Mau Piailug. In addition to earning prominence among traditional voyaging societies, Tua is known throughout Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia for his mentoring of young islanders in the traditional cultures and languages of their ancestors. Tua is a respected chieftain of his island homeland, a dancer, drummer, athlete, and gifted speaker. His lecture topics, accompanied by excellent visual materials, include the origin and migration theory of the Pacific people; ancient traditional voyaging and navigation; traditional voyaging in this modern day; open-air star presentation and identification—navigating Pacific skies; and Pacific Ocean traditions and cultures.

Cultural Specialist

Stefan Thorgeirsson

An avid hiker and outdoor enthusiast with a passion for languages and culture – Stefan is a Viking with a twist. Born in Reykjavik, to a family from the Westfjords of Iceland, Stefan’s upbringing has allowed him to experience the best of both worlds. During most of the wintertime, he lived in Reykjavik and got to know the city. When the summertime came, however, he would go hiking, camping and fishing in the beautiful nature of Iceland. Stefan lived in Japan for one year during his high school studies and speaks fluent Japanese. After high school, he took a year off to explore another part of the world – Costa Rica – where he worked as a volunteer at a wildlife reserve. Stefan got to know the locals and experience the biodiversity of Costa Rica as well as its culture and language. His Spanish is still pretty good. Stefan holds a BSc degree in Industrial Engineering from the University of Iceland as well as a BA Acting degree from Iceland University of the Arts. Right out of university Stefan moved with his family to Japan where they have been living for the past two years. Before joining Lindblad Stefan was working as a tour guide in Iceland and he has been around the island multiple times, both on land and sea.

Cultural Specialist

Amy Loewen

After studying anthropology and music at the University of Toronto, Amy promptly left for Japan and found herself teaching English to over 12,000 junior high school students across Kanazawa. This overseas immersion uncovered her fascination with Japanese culture, and kickstarted her lifelong study of Nihongo (Japanese language). After returning to North America, Amy worked as a museum exhibit designer and project manager in Hawai’i and San Francisco before finding her way back to travel and education. Amy has worked both backstage, as an operations manager of educational trips to Japan, and on the front lines, lecturing on expedition ships all over Japan and managing her own tour company. Amy holds her master’s degree in language teaching, and when she’s not in Japan, she teaches English language learners at community colleges in the San Francisco Bay Area. Amy is invited back to Niigata every summer as a visiting faculty member at the International University of Japan, and she also delivers regular training workshops to Japanese tour guides. Amy has a boundless enthusiasm for Japanese culture and food, and her lectures focus on everyday life in Japan and the interplay between language, thought, and behavior. While cultural explorations are her specialty, her curiosity also extends to the natural world. Amy recently moved from Point Reyes National Seashore, home to over 400 species of birds and thousands of Northern elephant seals, to Lassen Volcanic National Park. She shares her new heavenly habitat with her park ranger husband, three cats, boiling mud pots, and four types of volcanoes.

Cultural Specialist

Julia Esteve

Julia Estève got her PhD in History of Religions at the EPHE in Paris. Her research encompasses the spectrum of the different components of the pre-modern Khmer religion for which she uses Archaeological and Epigraphical tools as well as Art History. After teaching for six years at Mahidol University in Thailand, she now devotes herself to her various research projects in Cambodia as well as to the dissemination of the latest discoveries concerning Khmer history and religions to a wider audience.

Cultural Specialist

Kura Happ

Kura Happ is a gifted Rarotonga born songwriter, performer and eco warrior with a deep passion for caring for nature and the environment. Her knowledge of the reef, ocean and environmental conservation is innate - handed down verbally and through practical teachings from her grandparents and long line of ancestors before them. As a child she spent most of her time with her grandparents who shared their traditional knowledge on conservation and sustainability. This includes traditional fishing and conservations techniques which Kura continues to practice today. Kura is the owner and tour guide of Ariimoana Walkabout Tours on the island of Rarotonga where she shares her knowledge with her reef explorers in a hands-on adventure of learning. Kura has spent over 15 years learning about this fragile ecosystem and the importance of protecting it for the future as it was protected by her ancestors for the generation today. She has also worked closely with local authorities on several marine protection projects that have been vital for the health of the local reef and marine ecosystem. Kura is an experienced free diver, scuba diver, spear fisherwoman and it is not uncommon to see her on days off walking in from the reef passage with her catch of the day that she gifts for the elders of her family as is traditional custom. Her passion for ocean conservation and cultural heritage saw Kura become a traditional voyager and navigator with internationally acclaimed traditional master navigator Tua Pittman also of Cook Islands lineage. In 2012 Kura embarked on a 6-month voyage at sea on traditional double hulled sailing canoe "Marumaru Atua" that spent 18 months voyaging the Pacific and beyond promoting ocean conservation and traditional knowledge. When not entertaining on land - this self-confessed mermaid can be found in her element, exploring and learning more about the ocean.

Cultural Specialist

Claudia Hossbach

Claudia grew up near the Harz Mountains in Germany but has also lived in Sweden and Finland. She studied Scandinavian, British and American Studies at university and has acquired a deep knowledge of these regions through both the academic lense and extensive travel. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge, where her research focused on medieval Icelandic literature and the Vikings. Claudia is delighted to share her passion for the vibrant cultures that thrive in the cold and invites audiences to explore a region through its past. The combination of history, language, archaeology, and literature allows us to create vivid images of what life was like centuries ago. As a tour guide since 2017, Claudia has introduced travelers to the culture of various regions, including Scandinavia, the British Isles, southern Italy, and the Azores - on foot, by bike and in kayaks. While cultural exploration is her specialty, she has a strong taste for adventure and the great outdoors.

Cultural Specialist

Ante Skracic

Ante was born in Rijeka, Croatia (back then it was a country named Yugoslavia), a port town in the Northern Adriatic coast in 1983. Living there through his childhood and formative years, he was exposed to various cultures that are tangled in this area, namely Slavic, Italian, Hungarian, Austrian. After finishing high school, Ante went to Zagreb, where he lived for six years studying Sociology as his major, and Croatology (studies of Croatian culture) as his minor. His special interests in formal education, as well as private life, were focused on cultural issues, sociology of religion and politics, ethnology and anthropology. Ante started travelling from a young age, and by the end of his studies had already travelled most of Europe, and became a trip leader, mostly leading programs for field trips for Croatian school children. From there he started a career in tourism and has more than 15 years of field experience. Ante is grateful for an opportunity of having a job than combines his passions of profession, culturology and sociology with tourism. As a father of two daughters, a husband, and a tour guide all in one, he gets to meet many people and to spark interest for topics of history and places around the region, which he cherishes deeply.

Cultural Specialist

Holly Smith

Holly Smith is an archaeologist that lives in the Yukon Territory of Canada. She is passionate about archaeology because it showcases the variability of what people are capable of. No matter where you travel or how far you go back into the archaeological record - humans are adaptable, creative, and resilient. Holly loves conducting remote fieldwork, getting to experience special places firsthand, and sharing these experiences with others. She enjoys multidisciplinary research and collaborating whenever possible. Her research interests include archaeology of the subarctic and arctic, hunter-gatherers, human/environmental interaction, ice-patch archaeology, disaster responses, faunal analysis, raw material sourcing, and landscape use. Holly currently works for the Yukon Government's Archaeology Program and holds a master's degree from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. She enjoys any time spent outdoors, traveling to new places, and sharing her enthusiasm for human history and culture.

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Cultural