Cord J. Whitaker, Ph.D. (Duke University, 2009; M.A., Duke, 2005; B.A., Yale University, 2001), is Associate Professor of English at Wellesley College, where he focuses on late medieval English literature, the history of race, religious and cultural conflict in the Middle Ages, and the modern literary and political uses of medievalism. He previously taught at the University of New Hampshire, and has been a Member of the School of Historical Studies in the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and Fellow at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem.