Paul Strohm is  Anna Garbedian Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University, and before that was J.R.R Tolkien Professor of Medieval Language and Literature at Oxford University.  From January 2012 he will be Leverhulme Visiting Professor at Queen Mary, University of London, co-appointed to the faculties of English and History. He is the author of seven books on medieval English literature, published by Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Oxford, Minnesota, and Notre Dame.  His book Social Chaucer is widely regarded as the standard introduction to the poet and his works, and it has been continuously in print with Harvard University Press for the past 22 years.  OUP recently published his short book, Conscience: A Very Short Introduction. He is working on a biography of Geoffrey Chaucer, which will be published by Viking Penguin in the US and Profile in the UK in 2015.