Sharon D. Michalove was the Associate Director for Undergraduate Studies in the Department of History at the University of Illinois until her retirement in December 2006. She is currently an adjunct assistant professor in the Program in Medieval Studies at the University of Illinois. Dr. Michalove received her Ph.D. in the History of Education at the University of Illinois. Her current research is on cultural exchange in the early modern world focusing on Venice and its trading partners in Europe, Africa, and the Levant. She is the author of various articles including “Equal in Opportunity? The Education of Aristocratic Englishwomen 1450–1540” in Barbara Whitehead, ed., Women’s Education in Early Modern Europe: A History, 1500–1800 (Garland Press, 1999) and "Women as Book Collectors and Disseminators of Culture in Late Medieval England and Burgundy" in Biggs, Reeves, and Michalove, eds., Reputation and Representation in Fifteenth-Century Europe (Brill, 2004). She has presented papers dealing with early modern topics at the International Medieval Congress at Kalamazoo, Michigan, the International Medieval Congress in Leeds, UK, the Fifteenth Century Studies Conference, the Western Association of Women Historians, and other conferences.