Markus Schoof was born and raised in East Germany. After finishing high school in Germany, he lived as a social worker in Colombia. He is a PhD candidate at the Ohio State University who specializes in the history of U.S. foreign relations and works under the guidance of Drs. Peter Hahn and Joe Parrott. Schoof has taught courses on the history of the United States, Latin America, and the world. His dissertation is tentatively entitled, “American Missionaries and the Remaking of U.S.-Brazilian Relations, 1930-1988.”