Cynthia "Cindy" Selfe is an author, editor, scholar, and teacher in the field of Writing Studies, with a speciality in the subfield of computers and composition.

[5] In 1976 she enrolled in the University of Texas for her doctorate, where she was taught by Rhetoric and Composition scholars such as James Kinneavy, Lester Faigley, Steve Witte, Maxine Hairston, and John Ruszkiewicz.

[13] To prove her point, she wrote about how digital texts replicate the same problems found "irl," specifically the exoticization of people of color and the norming of whiteness.

"[11] She identifies three particular insights narratives give academic and public audiences:[11] In her book Literate Lives in the Information Age, she and co-author Gail Hawisher formulate a matrix showing the various intersections of literacy—particularly digital literacy—and factors such as education, class, race, gender, and political affiliation.

[2] In Atlanta in 1999, Selfe delivered the chair's address to the Conference on College Composition and Communication, "Technology and Literacy: A Story about the Perils of Not Paying Attention.

[14] Seven years later, Selfe and Hawisher added co-author Patrick Berry when they updated and reformatted that publication as a fully interactive online book-length text entitled Transnational Literate Lives in Digital Times.