Dr. Bryan Babcock makes history fun, interesting and enriching for your guests. Bryan blends humor and storytelling bringing history from around the world to life. His engaging presentation style creates memorable experiences leading audiences to return to his presentations time after time.
Serving as the Viking Resident Historian on itineraries around the globe, Bryan has developed numerous lectures suitable for every continent and any itinerary. He sees himself as a brand ambassador for your cruise-line. To him, this means that the enrichment program is part of the larger entertainment plan and he enjoys mingling with guests, hosting forum discussions, holding office hours, and even leading travel trivia when needed.
Bryan holds a PhD in Ancient Near Eastern History, Languages, and Religion from the University of Bristol in the UK and conducted a post-doctoral fellowship at Cambridge University. His research explores how we experience and understand sacred space. Through his work as an Egyptologist, Bryan worked on archaeological digs and led numerous college study abroad courses exploring archaeological sites throughout Egypt. He is uniquely able to enrich his audiences understanding and experience while visiting the Mediterranean, Israel, and Egypt.
Dr. Babcock’s educational background includes a PhD from the University of Bristol in Ancient History, Language and Theology; Post-doctoral fellowship at Cambridge University, UK; an MA in Old Testament from Denver Seminary, Denver, CO; a ThM in Old Testament Theology and Ancient Languages from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (DA Carson Research Fellow), Deerfield, IL; an MBA/MA in Healthcare Administration from Trinity University, San Antonio, TX; and a BA in Zoology from The University of Texas, Austin, TX.
For his efforts in teaching and research, Dr. Babcock was presented the prestigious ACCESS course of the year award for his online teaching in 2014. In addition, he was named the young scholar of the year by the Institute for Biblical Research in 2012.
Bryan’s recent books include Trajectories and Sacred Rituals. He has also written multiple articles found in the Bulletin for Biblical Research Journal, Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament, and the Crucible Journal.
Beyond his academic life, Bryan is a serial entrepreneur and has been featured in Forbes, Inc., and Worth magazines. Bryan founded several businesses including one of the first stock day-trading companies in the USA (sold to Reuters and Schwab), donut shops, an agri-tourism bed and breakfast, a publishing company, a private hedge-fund, and an aviation supply company.
Bryan is also a commercial pilot having flown for Tropic Air in Belize and began his career as a hospital CEO for Hospital Corporation of America (Pueblo, CO), Rose Medical Center (Denver, CO), Charter Hospitals (Savannah, GA and Wichita, KS), and Universal Health Services (Greenville, TX). The breadth of these experiences allows him the ability to connect with audiences at multiple levels.
Currently, he leads teams providing international disaster responses for the DART team of Water Mission and Samaritan’s Purse (Disaster Assistance Response Team).
Bryan lives part of the year on the island of Antigua in the Caribbean and part of the year near their granddaughter in the Durham, North Carolina area.
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Experience with Viking. Enrichment lectures exploring several aspects of ancient Egypt while cruising through the Suez Canal and Mediterranean. Available lectures include:
Egypt and the Bible
The Clash of Two World Powers: Cleopatra and Antony
Pharaohs and their Temples (Exploring the Valley of the Kings)
Decoding Egyptian Mythology: Gods and Goddesses
The Greatest Women in Antiquity
The Secrets of King Tut.
Also available for lectures on Israel and the Bible including Old and New Testaments.
The following recent Cruise History has been recorded for this candidate.