Inflation is the hypothesis that the Hot Big Bang was preceded by a period of accelerated expansion, driven by the potential energy of a scalar field. In large-field models of inflation, the range of the scalar field during inflation is larger than the Planck scale. These models are attractive since they generically make predictions that will be tested in the next several years. Unfortunately, such models are not naturally implemented in field theory, and they have also proved elusive in string theory constructions.

Recently, Silverstein and Westphal presented the first string theory realization of large-field inflation. In their model, inflation is driven by a brane that stretches as it moves around a cycle in the extra dimensions. I will present work in progress on generalizing this effect of brane monodromy to produce new, testable models of inflation. The main obstacle is constructing a background in which all the moduli are stabilized, and the brane has small back-reaction.