Alex Tickell studied English at the University of Leeds, researching South Asian fiction for his PhD, and subsequently taught at the University of York. Tickell joined the Open University in 2011 and is Director of the OU's Postcolonial and Global Literatures Research Group. He focuses on conjunctions of literature, politics, and infrastructure in South Asian and Southeast Asian Anglophone writing, and he has received AHRC and Leverhulme Trust funding for his research. Tickell edited The Oxford History of the Novel in English, Volume 10, covering South and Southeast Asia, and in 2022 co-curated the British Library's 'Chinese and British' exhibition.