Piotr Górecki is a professor of history at the University of California, Riverside, where he has worked since 1989, after lecturing briefly at the University of Illinois at Chicago. His training is in general medieval history, and in his research he specializes in the history of medieval Poland, with a principal focus on the intersection between social and legal history, on medieval communities, and on the medieval economy. He has a PhD from the University of Chicago (history, 1988), and a JD from Stanford Law School (1983).