Lesley Lokko is Associate Professor and Head of the Graduate School of Architecture at the University of Johannesburg. She is an architect, academic and (incidentally) the author of nine best-selling novels. She was born to a Ghanaian surgeon and Scottish artist, grew up in Ghana and studied at the Bartlett School of Architecture in London. She completed her PhD in Architecture at the University of London in 2007. She has taught at schools of architecture in the US, the UK and South Africa. She is the editor of White Papers, Black Marks: Race, Culture, Architecture (University of Minnesota Press, 2000) and has been an on-going contributor to discourses around identity, race, African urbanism and the speculative nature of African architectural space for over twenty years. She has been a visiting professor in the US, UK and South Africa and is a regular juror at international competitions and symposia. She is currently a member of the Aga Khan Master Jury 2016.