We are sad that historian Ronen Steinberg (MSU) cannot attend MLA, due to a family emergency, and delighted to welcome Biliana Kassabova who will take his place on our panel. A doctoral candidate at Stanford University, Biliana focuses on French literature and history of the 18th and 19th centuries. Her dissertation, entitled The Tribune and the People: Revolutionary leadership in 19th century France, addresses the question of how French practitioners and theorists of revolution of the 19th century have struggled to define the relationship between popular sovereignty and representative leadership. Biliana is the graduate student coordinator for the French Culture Workshop and the web manager of CMEMS. She is also part of the Mapping of the Republic of Letters, a collaborative digital humanities project.