Elizabeth Dachowski is professor of history at Tennessee State University (a historically black, land-grant university in Nashville, Tennessee). She earned her BA in geography from Indiana University and her MA and PhD in history from the University of Minnesota with a primary field in the Middle Ages, a secondary field in the early modern period, and a minor in Latin. Her book, First among Abbots: The Career of Abbo of Fleury, won the Southeastern Medieval Association’s first book prize in 2009. Her current research interests include 10th century religious politics with a particular emphasis on monasticism in France, England, and the Low Countries. At TSU, Dachowski has taught a wide range of courses, including World History and American History surveys and upper-division courses in ancient, medieval, and early modern history. In her courses she focuses on helping students develop research and writing skills, with a particular emphasis on the interpretive problems inherent to premodern history. Dachowski advises the department’s history majors and sees that as an extension of her teaching and aims to help students gain a better understanding of History as both an academic discipline and as preparation for a wide range of careers. Dachowski is deeply committed to the ideals of academic freedoms and shared govenance and has served twice on the Faculty Senate and is currently an officer of the TSU chapter of the AAUP. She comes to the Tuning Project with a strong commitment to the idea that better defining the purpose of historical study is essential to the health of the discipline and that professional historians are the ones best equipped to lead the process of “tuning” the discipline.