Richard Abels is Professor Emeritus at the United States Naval Academy and former Chair of the History Department. He is the recipient of all three USNA civilian faculty excellence awards: for teaching, research, and service.  Dr Abels is the author of three books, Æthelred the Unready: The Failed King (2018). Alfred the Great: War, Kingship and Culture in Anglo-Saxon England (1998) and Lordship and Military Obligation in Anglo-Saxon England (1988), as well as articles on warfare, politics and culture in early medieval England. He is currently researching the influence of culture upon the practice of warfare in the Middle Ages. His contribution to medieval military history was acknowledged with a volume of essays by specialists in that field: Military Cultures and Martial Enterprises in the Middle Ages: Essays in Honour of Richard P. Abels . He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Medieval Academy of America.

Ellen is recently retired after  a long and distinguished career as a senior attorney for the Justice Department.  She studied medieval history at Barnard College as an undergraduate, and earned a J.D. from Rutgers Law School.  Under her maiden name, Ellen Harrison, she co-authored with Richard a pathbreaking article that applied statistical analysis to the study of Inquisitorial records:  "The Participation of Women in Languedocian Catharism," Mediaeval Studies (1979).