Dr. Simon Gikandi

Biography

Simon Gikandi is a University Professor of English at Princeton University and has held the position of Chair of the Department of English. He is known for his significant contributions to the fields of Anglophone literatures and cultures of Africa, India, and the Caribbean, as well as literary critical theory and postcolonial studies. Gikandi has served as vice president of the Modern Language Association (MLA) and became its president in 2019. He was the editor of PMLA, the official journal of the MLA, from 2011 to 2016. Gikandi earned his BA in literature with first-class honors from the University of Nairobi, followed by an MLitt in English studies from the University of Edinburgh as a British Council Scholar, and a PhD in English from Northwestern University. His research interests include slavery and modernity, decolonization in African literature, and global modernism. He is the author of several influential books and articles, including 'Writing Limbo: Modernism and Caribbean Literature' and 'Maps of Englishness: Writing Identity and Culture in Colonialism.' His works have received multiple accolades such as the James Russell Lowell Award and the Melville J. Herskovits Award for important scholarly work in African studies. Gikandi has also been recognized with fellowships from distinguished organizations like the Guggenheim Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies, and he is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as well as the British Academy.

Research Interests

Awards