Douglas Biow is the Superior Oil Company-Linward Shivers Centennial Professor in Medieval and Renaissance Studies and Director of the Center for European Studies at The University of Texas, Austin. He is the author of five prior books, including most recently The Culture of Cleanliness in Renaissance Italy (2006), In Your Face: Professional Improprieties and the Art of Being Conspicuous (2010), and On the Importance of Being an Individual: Men, Their Professions, and Their Beards (2015). He has been the recipient of a number of scholarly awards, including NEH, Delmas, and Guggenheim Fellowship.