Lynda Gichanda Spencer is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Literary Studies in English at Rhodes University. She has also taught in the field of English and African Literary Studies at Stellenbosch University, the University of South Africa and Vista University. Her research interests include contemporary women’s popular writing, popular culture in Africa, African women’s writing, Eastern African fiction, African cultural studies and transnational literatures. She is the principal investigator of Urban Connections in African Popular Imaginaries research project, Primary Investigator (with Prof Ashleigh Harris) ‘Contemporary African Texts and Contexts: Decolonising the archive, genre and method’, editor of Eastern African Cultural and Literary Studies, and co-convenor (with Prof Sharlene Khan) of Afems Conference.