Introduction

This special issue of Kunapipi is a tribute to tlie work and career of Professor Shirley Chew, who retires in June 2003 as Professor of Commonwealth and Postcolonial Literatures in the School of English, University of Leeds, UK. She has occupied the Chair at Leeds since 1993, but her association with the School of English dates from 1974. Along with other scholars at Leeds, such as Arthur Ravenscroft, William Walsh, Lynette Hunter and David Richards — and in association with international figures such as the late Anna Rutherford — Shirley has dedicated her academic career to the teaching, researching and promoting of literatures in English from Commonwealth countries.