David I. Kertzer is the Paul Dupee, Jr. Uni­ver­si­ty Pro­fes­sor of Social Sci­ence and pro­fes­sor of anthro­pol­o­gy and Ital­ian stud­ies at Brown Uni­ver­si­ty, where he served as provost from 2006 to 2011. He is the author of nine books, includ­ing The Popes Against the Jews, which was a final­ist for the Mark Lyn­ton His­to­ry Prize, and The Kid­nap­ping of Edgar­do Mor­tara, which was a final­ist for the Nation­al Book Award. He has twice been award­ed the Mar­raro Prize from the Soci­ety for Ital­ian His­tor­i­cal Stud­ies for the best work on Ital­ian his­to­ry. He and his wife, Susan, live in Prov­i­dence, Rhode Island.