Jeffrey Gil is a Senior Lecturer in the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at Flinders University, Adelaide, Australia. He is currently researching the reasons behind the global interest in Chinese language learning and its implications for the future of English as a global language. His book, Soft Power and the Worldwide Promotion of Chinese Language Learning: The Confucius Institute Project, was published by Multilingual Matters in 2017. He is also a long time reader of Spider-Man and other comics.