Matthew V. Desing is an associate professor of medieval and early modern Spanish literature at The University of Texas at El Paso. He attained his Ph.D. in Hispanic and Luso-Brazilian Literatures and Linguistics from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Dr. Desing’s research focuses on travel, gender, and authority in early Spanish texts, and most specifically those from mid-thirteenth century Castile. His book Mester de Romería: Travel and Ideology in the Medieval Spanish Imaginary is forthcoming. He is increasingly interested in issues of borders and liminality in both medieval and early modern contexts. Dr. Desing, along with Dr. Robin M. Bower (Penn State, Beaver) and Dr. Clara Pascual-Argente (Rhodes College, Memphis) are organizing an international conference on 13th- and 14th-century Spanish literature and culture entitled The Cleric’s Craft: Crossroads of Medieval Spanish Literature and Modern Critique. For more information on the conference, please visit: http://clerecia150.at.utep.edu/.