Russ Castronovo is Tom Paine Professor of English and Director of the Center for the Humanities at UW-Madison where he teaches courses on American literature, political theory, and popular culture. His most recent book, American Insecurity and the Origins of Vulnerability is forthcoming later this year from Princeton University Press. He is also the author and editor of 9 other books, including Propaganda 1776: Secrets, Leaks, and Revolutionary Communications in Early America; Beautiful Democracy: Aesthetics and the Anarchy of Global Culture; Necro Citizenship: Death, Eroticism, and the Public Sphere in the Nineteenth-Century-United States; Fathering the Nation: American Genealogies of Slavery and Freedom. In addition to publishing scores of academic articles, he writes for public audiences more broadly at outlets such as Public Books, Public Seminar, the Capitol Times, and the Wisconsin State Journal. He is the recipient of the Chancellor’s Distinguished Teaching Award and the University of Wisconsin system-wide teaching award.