I enjoy figuring out ways to teach complicated subjects in pieces, making them more simple. I have been trained as a historian of the Italian Renaissance, and concentrate on the Republic of Venice, which some popular accounts claim lasted for a thousand years, from 797 to 1797. I think old-fashioned political and diplomatic history is the cat's meow! I disagree profoundly with the view that it is not relevant to the study of history today. I also like to mold and fashion Renaissance people among my students, drawing for them the connections e.g. between mathematics and other disciplines, such as philosophy and music.