John Plotz is Mandel Professor of Humanities at Brandeis University and editor of the B-Sides feature in Public Books as well as B-Side Books (Columbia University Press, 2021). He co-hosts two podcasts: Novel Dialogue and Recall This Book. His books include The Crowd: British Literature and Public Politics (University of California Press, 2000), Portable Property: Victorian Culture on the Move (Princeton University Press, 2008), and Semi-Detached: Aesthetic Experience from Dickens to Keaton (Princeton University Press, 2017) He is among the co-founders of the Brandeis Educational Justice Initiative.