Julia Stephens
دانشیار · Colonial and Post-Colonial South Asia
Rutgers, The State University of New Jerseyمعرفی
Julia Stephens is an Associate Professor of History at Rutgers University and serves as the Vice Chair for Undergraduate Education in the Department of History. She has been at Rutgers since 2016 and previously taught at Yale, Cambridge, and Harvard.
Education:
- Ph.D., Harvard University
- M.Phil., Trinity College, Cambridge
- B.A., Harvard College
Research Interests:
Her research centers on how law has shaped religion, family, and economy in colonial and post-colonial South Asia and the wider Indian diaspora. Her first book, Governing Islam: Law, Empire, and Secularism in South Asia (2018), explores the colonial construction of the religious/secular binary and its contested legal and social implications.
Her current project, Worldly Afterlives: Death and Diaspora in the Indian Ocean, investigates inheritance practices among Indian migrants across the Indian Ocean world, using estate records to trace the lives and legal entanglements of diasporic families. This work involves archival research in India, South Africa, Zanzibar, Hong Kong, Singapore, and the UK.
Publications Overview:
Her publications span legal history, Islamic law, colonial governance, and transnational history, with a consistent focus on South Asia and the Indian Ocean. Her work often combines archival legal sources with broader cultural and social analysis, reflecting an interdisciplinary approach bridging history, law, and anthropology.
Grants and Fellowships:
- Award for Distinguished Contribution to Undergraduate Education, Rutgers (2019)
- InterAsia Research Fellowship, SSRC (2016–2017)
- Kempf Memorial Fund, Yale (2015–2016)
- Mellon Postdoctoral Fellowship, Cambridge (2013–2014)
- Sidney R. Knafel Completion Fellowship, Harvard (2012–2013)
- Jacob K. Javits Fellowship, U.S. Dept. of Education (2008–2012)
Teaching and Advising:
She teaches surveys on modern South Asia and political Islam, and offers specialized seminars on Islamic law, postcolonial and subaltern theory, and diasporic family histories. She also plays a key administrative role as Undergraduate Vice Chair in the History Department.
