Dr. Asha Best received her Ph.D. (2017) in American Studies from Rutgers University-Newark. She is an urbanist whose research and teaching is interdisciplinary. Her work links mobilities studies, post-colonial and black studies, critical race theory and studies of urban informality. She is particularly interested in popular, improvised and often unofficial urban practices deployed by black and migrant groups, and her research looks at how those practices impact how cities are understood, planned and mapped. She is developing a comparative research project around black and migrant place-making, informality and mobilities in the context of Johannesburg.