Caroline Rooney was born in Zimbabwe. She studied as an undergraduate at the University of Cape Town before taking up a Beit Fellowship to undertake doctoral research at Oxford University. She works and publishes mainly in the area of postcolonial studies and Arab cultural studies, focusing on liberation struggles and their aftermaths in both sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Middle East. Her research engages with postcolonial theory in relation to diverse philosophical and spiritual traditions, literary and political uses of language, and cross-cultural articulations of gender and sexuality. Her current work is particularly concerned with contemporary Arab writing and popular culture in relation to the Arab uprisings, and explores the resources of arts activism both critically and creatively.