Bio: Alamin Mazrui is Professor of sociolinguistics, literature, and cultural studies in the Department of African, Middle Eastern, and South Asian Literatures at Rutgers University. He holds a Ph.D. in linguistics from Stanford University, California, with a specialization in the political sociology of language. A member of the international advisory board of Human Rights Watch, the Committee on Academic Freedom in Africa, and the Board of Directors of the Kenya Human Rights Commission and Muslims for Human Rights (MUHURI), he has a special interest in human rights and civil liberties and has published policy reports on these subjects. Mazrui has written numerous articles in political sociology of language, education, literature, culture and linguistics, and has authored and/or (co)edited about fifteen books, including The Power of Babel: Language and Governance in the African Experience (with Ali Mazrui), English in Africa After the Cold WarSwahili Beyond the Boundaries: Language, Literature and Identity, and Cultural Politics of Translation: East Africa in a Global Context. In addition to his scholarly works, Alamin Mazrui is a published Swahili poet and playwright.