Michelle D. Commander is Associate Director and Curator of the Lapidus Center for the Historical Analysis of Transatlantic Slavery at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Before joining the Schomburg Center, she was an Associate Professor of English and Africana Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. A Ford Foundation and Fulbright Fellowship recipient, Commander is the author of Afro-Atlantic Flight: Speculative Returns and the Black Fantastic.