Judith Surkis

Judith Surkis is a Professor of History at Rutgers University's School of Arts and Sciences, Department of History, where she has been teaching since 2012. She holds a Ph.D. from Cornell University (2001) and previously taught at Harvard and Columbia universities. Her academic appointments include visiting professorships at the Sorbonne, Université de Paris-8, and the Ecole normale supérieure.

Her research focuses on Modern European History with emphasis on France and the French Empire, gender and sexuality, and intellectual, cultural, and legal history. Surkis examines questions of sex and citizenship, colonialism and postcolonial migration, as well as critical theory and historical methodology across the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. She is currently working on The Intimate Life of International Law: Children and Development After Decolonization, which examines how population movements tested the boundaries of postcolonial sovereignty through international family law conflicts.

Her publications reveal consistent engagement with colonial and postcolonial legal frameworks, particularly regarding gender, sovereignty, and Islamic law in French Algeria. Her work demonstrates interdisciplinary approaches bridging history, legal studies, gender studies, and postcolonial theory, with recurring themes of bodily integrity, citizenship, and transnational migration patterns.

Her notable scientific awards and fellowships include:

• National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship
• Davis Center for Historical Studies Fellowship at Princeton University
• Institute for Advanced Study Fellowship
• Pembroke Center Fellowship at Brown University
• Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar funding

Surkis co-directed the research project Ethical Subjects: Moralities, Laws, Histories (2015-2017) with Seth Koven, funded by the Mellon Foundation as a Sawyer Seminar on the Comparative Study of Cultures. Her work has received significant grant support for research on colonial law, gender, and sovereignty. She maintains an active research agenda with recent publications spanning historical methodology, postcolonial legal studies, and gender politics.