Rob Nixon is the Thomas A. and Currie C. Barron Family Professor in Humanities and the Environment at Princeton University, where he teaches creative nonfiction and environmental studies. He is the author of four books: London Calling: V.S. Naipaul, Postcolonial Mandarin; Homelands, Harlem and Hollywood: South African Culture and the World Beyond; Dreambirds: The Natural History of a Fantasy; and, most recently, Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor (Harvard UP), which was selected by Choice as an outstanding book of 2012.

Rob Nixon started out as an activist and socially engaged writer working for the overthrow of apartheid. He has since focused on environmentalism and public writing, particularly in relation to struggles for environmental justice in the global South.