Professor and chair of the Department of English at the University of Delaware, John Ernest is the author or editor of twelve books and more than twenty-five journal articles and book chapters. His recent books include Liberation Historiography: African American Writers and the Challenge of History, 1794–1861, Chaotic Justice: Rethinking African American Literary History, and A Nation within a Nation: Organizing African American Communities before the Civil War. Before arriving at the University of Delaware, he was the Eberly Family Distinguished Professor of American Literature at West Virginia University for seven years. He also taught for twelve years at the University of New Hampshire, where he received several awards for teaching and for his commitment to social justice.