Russ Leo holds a Ph.D. from the Program in Literature at Duke University. His dissertation, "Affect Before Spinoza: Reformed Faith, Affectus, and Experience in Jean Calvin, John Donne, John Milton and Baruch Spinoza," investigates affective approaches to faith in order to account for the revelatory and revolutionary possibilities of poetry, theology and philosophy in early modernity. His interdisciplinary interests span early modern studies, theology, philosophy and literary theory. He earned a B.A. in English from SUNY College at Fredonia, and at Duke won numerous scholarships for his graduate work, including a grant to attend The Folger Institute, Washington. Leo has published on topics ranging from Augustine to Spinoza and Lacan, and served in an editorial role for the special issue of a major journal in his field. He has broad teaching experience at Duke University, where he offered seminars of his own design on "Witchcraft in Early Modern Literature," and "How Horror works; Or, Readings in the Macabre." This fall at Princeton he will teach a Freshman Seminar on witchcraft, belief and agency in early modern literature, and in the spring will join the faculty team teaching Humanistic Studies 217-218, a course exploring interdisciplinary approaches to Western culture since the Renaissance. Leo will also begin developing his dissertation into a more comprehensive book project, tentatively titled "Enlightenment from Below: Milton, Spinoza and the Resources of Revolution."