Cord J. Whitaker works on the development of racial ideology and its relationship with medieval rhetorical theory as well as popular and scholarly medievalisms and modern racial politics. His award-winning Black Metaphors: How Modern Racism Emerged from Medieval Race-Thinking (2019) examines the close relationship between race, medieval rhetoric, and modern politics. He is currently writing books on African-American writers’ radical uses of the Middle Ages and the intersections of fascism and racism. Whitaker is the editor of the acclaimed postmedieval special issue ‘Making Race Matter in the Middle Ages’ (2015). He has received fellowships and grants from the Institute for Advanced Study, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and other organizations. He serves on the boards of the most revered journals in medieval studies and literary studies, consults on diversity strategy, and is Associate Professor of English at Wellesley.