Walter D. Mignolo is the William H. Wannamaker Distinguished Professor and director of the Center for Global Studies and the Humanities at Duke University. This book is the third of a trilogy that includes "The Darker Side of the Renaissance: Literacy, Territoriality, and Colonization" and "The Darker Side of Western Modernity: Global Futures, Decolonial Options". He is also the author of "The Idea of Latin America".
Arturo Escobar is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. His most recent book is "Territories of Difference".