Rajend Mesthrie is Professor of Linguistics in the Department of English at the University of Cape Town, holding an NRF research chair in the area of Language, Migration and Social Change. He served two terms as President of the Linguistics Society of Southern Africa. He has published widely in the fields of sociolinguistics, with special reference to language contact in South Africa. Amongst his publications are Introducing Sociolinguistics, 2nd edition (with Joan Swann, Ana Deumert and William Leap, 2009), Language in South Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2002) and World Englishes (with Rakesh M. Bhatt, Cambridge University Press, 2008).