Tessa Lowinske Desmond holds a Master’s degree in Afro-American Studies and a PhD in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. At Harvard, she is Administrative Director and Lecturer for the Committee on Ethnicity, Migration, and Rights; the Director of Undergraduate Studies for Special Concentrations; and a fellow at Pforzheimer House. Her interests include multiethnic literature, the politics of fiction, literary legacies of the Vietnam War, and cultural studies of food systems and food ways. She has received awards for publically engaged scholarship and outstanding service to students. She was also awarded the K. Patricia Cross Future Leaders in Higher Education award, given by the American Association of Colleges and Universities to recognize scholars committed to academic and civic responsibility.