Dennis J. Mitchell is professor emeritus at Mississippi State University where he taught and administered the Division of Arts and Sciences for twenty years until he retired in 2016. Mitchell now divides his time between Mississippi and New Mexico. He edits the Journal of Mississippi History and is the author of several articles and books including the New History of Mississippi. His graduate degrees are from the University of Mississippi in British History. After a stint as Assistant Director of the Mississippi Humanities Council, he taught mostly world history at Jackson State University for twenty years. During that time, he traveled widely, financed by summer grants, in places such as India and Africa. One grant enabled him to study Shona at Michigan State University and later in Zimbabwe. When Mitchell turned to studying and writing Mississippi history, he did it with a different perspective.