Mbembe is a research professor in history and politics at the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research (WiSER), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa. He holds a PhD in history from the Université de Paris I-Panthéon Sorbonne and a DEA in politics from the Institut d’études politiques de Paris. A member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, he is the author of timely and path-breaking books such as On the Postcolony, Critique of Black Reason, and Politiques de l’inimitié. He has published extensively in fields as diverse as African history, politics and aesthetics, and critical theory. Translated in many languages including English, German, Dutch, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian, his work is growing in influence worldwide. Worthy of the twenty-first century and the new demands placed on theory, it provides a new and startling perspective on the crises of our times. Mbembe holds many awards, including the 2015 Geschwister Scholl Preis for his Kritik der schwarzen Vernunft.