Jagjeet Lally

Dr. Jagjeet Lally is an Associate Professor of the History of Early Modern and Colonial India at the Department of History, University College London (UCL). He serves as Director of the Centre for Transnational and Global History and Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of South Asia and the Indian Ocean World at UCL’s Institute of Advanced Studies. His research focuses on economic and material history, with a particular emphasis on South Asia’s global connections. Lally holds a BA (Hons.) in PPE from Oxford, an MSc in Economic History from LSE, and a PhD from Cambridge. He has held roles including Moses and Mary Finley Research Fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge, and taught at Imperial College London before joining UCL in 2014.

His work explores themes such as trade networks, empire dynamics, and material culture. Key publications include India and the Silk Roads (2021) and India and the Early Modern World (2024). He has contributed to museum projects like the Manchester Museum’s South Asia Gallery and served as a historical consultant for documentaries. Lally supervises doctoral students researching topics like Tamil diaspora archives and Indo-Thai Cold War relations.

Teaching modules include 'Empire in Eurasia', 'India and the Global Economy', and 'The Great Depression and the Making of the Third World'. His recent work engages with critical heritage studies, South Asian migrant communities, and the historiography of 'failure'.