Laurent Dubois is John L. Nau III Bicentennial Professor of the History & Principles of Democracy and the academic director of the Karsh Institute of Democracy at the University of Virginia. From 2007 to 2020, he was professor of romance studies and history at Duke University, where he founded and directed the Forum for Scholars & Publics. He is the author of eight books, including Avengers of the New World: The Story of the Haitian Revolution (2004), A Colony of Citizens: Revolution and Slave Emancipation in the French Caribbean, 1787-1804 (2004), Haiti: The Aftershocks of History (2012), and The Language of the Game: How to Understand Soccer (2018). His writings have appeared in The Atlantic, The Nation, The New Republic, The New Yorker, and The New York Times. He is currently writing a history of France and the Americas, under contract with Basic Books, titled Seven Rivers & a Sea.