Dr Lubaaba Al-Azami is founding editor of Medieval and Early Modern Orients (MEMOs). She is Lecturer in Shakespeare and Early Modern Literature at the University of Manchester. She previously served as postdoctoral fellow at the University of Liverpool and postdoctoral researcher at King's College London. She completed her PhD in English Literature at the University of Liverpool where her AHRC funded research considered early modern English encounters with and dramatic representations of Mughal Indian imperial women. During 2020/21 she was a visiting researcher at the University of Oxford. She completed her BA in English at King’s College London, an MA in Islamic Studies at SOAS, University of London and an MA in English from The George Washington University, Washington DC. She is founder of Network of Sisters in Academia (@NeSATweets), the first international professional network for Muslim women academics. Her research interests include early Anglo-European encounters with the Islamic Worlds, early modern theatrical negotiations of Asia, premodern critical race studies, intersectionality, decolonialism and well-brewed tea. Her book, First Encounters: How England and Mughal India Shaped the World, is forthcoming from John Murray Press. Lubaaba is represented by Northbank Talent Management and tweets @Lubaabanama.