Michael Chidester is the Editor-in-Chief of Wiktenauer and, as Director of the Wiktenauer, an officer of the non-profit HEMA Alliance. Michael is a Research Scholar of the Meyer Freifechter Guild, a founding member of the Society for Historical European Martial Arts Studies (SHEMAS), a member of the Western Martial Arts Coalition (WMAC), and a Lifetime Member of the HEMA Alliance. He has lectured on historical martial arts across North America and Europe, and has authored or edited several books. His most recent project is creating exact replicas of fencing manuscripts through a company called HEMA Bookshelf, with the objective of helping fencers learn more about the physical properties of the works we study.