Paul B. Sturtevant joined SOAR full-time in 2017, after working as a contractor since 2013. His expertise is as an audience and visitor researcher, with a particular specialty in the use of qualitative research to better understand informal learning. He has contributed his expertise to a wide range of evaluations over the years, including evaluations of the programs and visitors at many of the Smithsonian museums, the US Capitol Visitor's Center, and the Museum of Jewish Heritage. Dr. Sturtevant is also an historian, and is the author of multiple academic and popular articles on visitor research, informal learning, the crisis in the humanities, and medieval history. He is the author of two books that address how people learn about history and use it to shape their worldview: The Middle Ages in Popular Imagination (published 2018, Bloomsbury Academic), and The Devil's Historians: How Modern Extremists Abuse the Medieval Past (with Amy S. Kaufman, published 2020, University of Toronto Press). He holds a PhD in Public History and Medieval Studies from the University of Leeds (UK), and has taught at the George Washington University, University of Leeds, Leeds Trinity University, and Leeds Beckett University.

Areas of Special Expertise

• Qualitative Research 
• Visitor Studies 
• History 
• Informal Learning 
• Teaching and Training