Michelle Engert teaches at the America Institute (Department of English and American Studies) of the Ludwig Maximilian University in Munich and at the American University in Washington D.C. She obtained her BA in Humanities from the University of Texas at Austin in 2001, and her J.D. from the University of New Mexico School of Law in 2004. Previously she was an Assistant State and Federal Public Defender in New Mexico and Maryland, and an Attorney Advisor in Washington D.C. before starting an academic career in 2011. In addition to her teaching and research on criminal justice issues, she has lectured widely on Bob Dylan and his cultural significance. She has attended over 250 live Bob Dylan performances in the United States and throughout Europe, and has worked on interpreting and preserving the material in the original handwritten manuscripts of Bob Dylan’s works from the 1970s.