Chance Woods completed a doctorate in English Renaissance studies in 2017 at Vanderbilt University. He studies the literature and intellectual history of early modern Europe. His principal area of inquiry is the subject of so-called rational (speculative) mysticism (especially within the Neoplatonic tradition) and its role in the early Enlightenment. Currently he is revising his dissertation into a book manuscript entitled, “Unknown Enlightenment: Mysticism in the Age of Milton.”