Laura J. Mitchell is Associate Professor, Vice-Chair and Director of Graduate Studies in the History Department at UC Irvine. She teaches African history, world history, and theory and method in undergraduate and graduate classes. Professor Mitchell works on making sense of early-modern societies in a digital age, and on making history accessible to diverse audiences. Her research on colonial Southern Africa has been supported by grants from Fulbright, the American Council of Learned Societies, and the National Endowment for the Humanities, the UC Office of the President, and the Mellon Foundation. She served on the World History Association Executive Council, currently serves on the AP… World History Curriculum Assessment and Development Committee, and is President of the Forum on European Expansion and Global Interaction. Mitchell is the Editor-in-Chief of History Compass Exchanges. Her book, Belongings: Property, Family and Identity in Colonial South Africa (Columbia University Press, 2009) is available online.