About Stories Abroad
Our Story
founding stories abroad (in our own words)
Our shared love of travel is one of the reasons why we’re together. In 2020 we were living together in Washington, DC, as the pandemic descended. Going from living in one of the great cities of the world, we were suddenly confined to a one-bedroom apartment. And we both dreamed of travel while stuck inside.
As restrictions lifted, we planned a big vacation: Arielle with a sabbatical from work, and Paul with a backlog of vacation days. We went to Portugal for a month. We had no agenda and no need to hit the “top 10 sites,” just to live (and enjoy the wood-fired hot tub in our rental).
And we fell in love with the place.
Paul was the first to pitch the idea. As an historian who lived in the UK for a decade, he said: “What if we moved here and opened a tour company together—giving people the study abroad experiences that made us who we are.” Arielle was on board right away; we realized how much we both needed a change.
And so we came to Portugal and founded Stories Abroad Tours, based on the core principle of offering top-tier educational experiences that go beyond the guide books for travelers of any age.
About Us
Paul B. Sturtevant, Ph.D.
Co-founder & Chief of Experiences
Paul is a medieval historian who has worked in the field for over 15 years. Prior to moving to Portugal, he worked in visitor research at the Smithsonian Institution for a decade, studying and improving on the experiences of the museum visitors. He has also taught at Universities in four countries in museum studies, public history, and medieval studies.
He is the author of two books: The Middle Ages in Popular Imagination (also available in Portuguese), and with Amy S. Kaufman, The Devil’s Historians. He has also published numerous articles both in print and online. His research focuses on how the public learns about the medieval past and makes it useful and meaningful in the present. He is currently a collaborating researcher at the Institute for Contemporary History at Universidade NOVA de Lisboa.
Paul also was the founder and Editor-in-Chief of an award-winning online magazine, The Public Medievalist. Find out more about him and his work at paulsturtevant.com.
In his words…
I care about history. But I care even more about what history means to people! I love being able to interpret current scholarship making it exciting and fresh so that everyone can learn from it.
Doing that is complicated. That’s especially true when a lot of the things you’ll read in guide books and on signs in historic sites were written upwards of 50 years ago (and, in Portugal, sometimes in service to Portugal’s then-fascist dictatorship). So a lot of this work is about talking through and challenging people’s preconceived ideas. It’s a whole lot more than just names and dates of dead kings!
Arielle Gingold
Co-Founder & Chief of Details
Arielle Gingold is a logistics maven who has loved to travel ever since she was a child. She has also always loved travel planning and is excited to now be doing for a living something that was once a hobby! In college, she spent four magical months studying art history in Florence, Italy, and is looking forward to creating the same kinds of life-changing experiences for our clients.
Prior to co-founding Stories Abroad Tours, she spent almost a decade creating and leading informal education programs for youth groups and summer camps, and worked for more than 15 years in progressive public policy and politics in Washington, D.C., and still serves as a consultant for progressive non-profits. This experience gives Arielle a keen sense of the modern-day issues that shed light on the meaning of historical events, helping our travelers draw connections between the “then” and the “now.”
Additionally, Arielle served as the National Conference Director for a non-profit in D.C., planning the organization’s first ever national conference which brought together more than 500 people from across the USA.
In her words…
I was raised with a passion for travel. My family believes in experiencing as much of this great wide world around us as possible first-hand, in order to truly understand it. And I have also long had a passion for experiential education—between my formative experiences at summer camp, and the transformative experience of studying frescoes not in the pages of books, but instead on the walls on which they were painted in Italy. I also know from experience (both good and bad!) just how important it is to get the details right when traveling. You just can’t stop my brain from thinking about logistics!
I’m excited to create new travel experiences for our clients…and see that their days flow as smoothly as possible!
Looking for a custom-built experience?