Mitra Sharafi
@mitrasharafi.bsky.social
Legal historian of South Asia at the University of Wisconsin Law School & president-elect, Am. Society for Legal History. Also love dogs & travel! Views my own. On Instagram, I'm @mitrasharafi
Lots of talk about Mississippi Masala & Monsoon Wedding rn, but my favorite film by Mira Nair (with Sooni Taraporevala) is Salaam Bombay (1988), especially for the tragic storyline of a young girl pulled into prostitution by the man she thinks is her 1st boyfriend: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaLf...
Salaam Bombay! | Mira Nair | 50 Films I Love | Film Companion
YouTube video by Film Companion Studios
www.youtube.com
November 6, 2025 at 10:45 PM
Lots of talk about Mississippi Masala & Monsoon Wedding rn, but my favorite film by Mira Nair (with Sooni Taraporevala) is Salaam Bombay (1988), especially for the tragic storyline of a young girl pulled into prostitution by the man she thinks is her 1st boyfriend: www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaLf...
Thank you, Gautham! Legal historians everywhere are so lucky to have had you as LHR editor
It’s been a hell of a run. Being Editor of @lawandhistrev.bsky.social has been the greatest honor of my career. But it had to end some time. I’ll be stepping down as Editor by next summer. I’ll give proper thanks to LHR’s Associate Editors & ASLH folks in due course. What a bittersweet moment!
November 6, 2025 at 9:36 PM
Thank you, Gautham! Legal historians everywhere are so lucky to have had you as LHR editor
Just discovered the work of Azadeh Akhlaghi, who photographs staged recreations of famous moments in Iranian history (usually assassinations). An interesting visual genre at the intersection of photography and history: www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
Azadeh Akhlaghi: the photographer who stages murders in Iran
Akhlaghi recreates Iran's most notorious death scenes from the time before cameraphones – from the mysterious end of Iran's gold-medal wrestler to the controversial poet who swerved her car to avoid a...
www.theguardian.com
November 6, 2025 at 9:11 PM
Just discovered the work of Azadeh Akhlaghi, who photographs staged recreations of famous moments in Iranian history (usually assassinations). An interesting visual genre at the intersection of photography and history: www.theguardian.com/artanddesign...
The Annual Conference on South Asia just wrapped up in Madison--now in its *53rd year.* Thanks to @andreafowler13.bsky.social, Sarah Beckham and their amazing @uw-madsouthasia.bsky.social team for making it all happen. Such an energizing place to share research, as always!
October 27, 2025 at 5:39 PM
The Annual Conference on South Asia just wrapped up in Madison--now in its *53rd year.* Thanks to @andreafowler13.bsky.social, Sarah Beckham and their amazing @uw-madsouthasia.bsky.social team for making it all happen. Such an energizing place to share research, as always!
For legal historians: did you publish a book recently that won't be represented at the Detroit ASLH conference book sale in Nov.2025? You should bring a copy for this new initiative to showcase your work! Much needed as only a few publishers are represented at the book sale: aslh.net/new-works-in...
New Works in Legal History: Displays at the Detroit Meeting | American Society for Legal History
New Works in Legal History: Many legal historians publish books with presses that are not represented at the conference book sale. In recognition of this fact, the ASLH will host a table to showcase t...
aslh.net
September 26, 2025 at 7:54 PM
For legal historians: did you publish a book recently that won't be represented at the Detroit ASLH conference book sale in Nov.2025? You should bring a copy for this new initiative to showcase your work! Much needed as only a few publishers are represented at the book sale: aslh.net/new-works-in...
Reposted by Mitra Sharafi
@legalhistoryblog.bsky.social @kmtani.bsky.social @grisinger.bsky.social @mitrasharafi.bsky.social @awcohen.bsky.social @marydudziak.bsky.social @serenamayeri.bsky.social Last call! Extended deadline from ASLH Projects & Proposals for legal history. Due 9/19 - see ASLH website for details.
September 19, 2025 at 4:40 PM
@legalhistoryblog.bsky.social @kmtani.bsky.social @grisinger.bsky.social @mitrasharafi.bsky.social @awcohen.bsky.social @marydudziak.bsky.social @serenamayeri.bsky.social Last call! Extended deadline from ASLH Projects & Proposals for legal history. Due 9/19 - see ASLH website for details.
Just learned that UW-Madison has a historical cookbook collection (with a wobbly center of jello recipes): onwisconsin.uwalumni.com/now-were-coo...
Now We’re Cookin’ | On Wisconsin
For 60 years, UW’s Steenbock Library has been growing its cookbook collection.
onwisconsin.uwalumni.com
September 16, 2025 at 3:25 PM
Just learned that UW-Madison has a historical cookbook collection (with a wobbly center of jello recipes): onwisconsin.uwalumni.com/now-were-coo...
Can anyone recommend good memoirs set in Ireland?
September 12, 2025 at 12:05 AM
Can anyone recommend good memoirs set in Ireland?
Calling all legal historians! The ASLH Projects and Proposals funding application deadline has been extended--from Sept.1 to Sept.18, 2025. If you're looking for funding for a legal history workshop or other initiative (the Call is very broad), you should apply: aslh.net/projects-pro...
Projects & Proposals Funding Deadline Extended | American Society for Legal History
The ASLH is pleased to announce the extension of the deadline for Projects and Proposals funding until 9/18. The goal of P&P is the "funding of new initiatives in the study, presentation, and producti...
aslh.net
September 9, 2025 at 7:08 PM
Calling all legal historians! The ASLH Projects and Proposals funding application deadline has been extended--from Sept.1 to Sept.18, 2025. If you're looking for funding for a legal history workshop or other initiative (the Call is very broad), you should apply: aslh.net/projects-pro...
Reposted by Mitra Sharafi
Boats in a Storm gets an India edition with Westland Books @westlandbooks.bsky.social!
Releasing on 18 August.
Releasing on 18 August.
August 13, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Boats in a Storm gets an India edition with Westland Books @westlandbooks.bsky.social!
Releasing on 18 August.
Releasing on 18 August.
Very excited that the Asian Legal History Association will be formally launched at 2 events in March 2026--at Chinese University of Hong Kong (March 17-18, 2026) + Oxford (March 23)! Here's the Call for Papers for "Legal History in Asia and Beyond" (due Oct31): www.law.cuhk.edu.hk/app/events/c...
Call for Papers – Legal History in Asia and Beyond: Lessons from the Past for the Present - The Chinese University of Hong Kong
The Transnational Legal History Group, part of the Centre for Comparative and Transnational Law within the Faculty of Law at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Oxford Programme in Asian Laws of the Faculty Read more…
www.law.cuhk.edu.hk
September 7, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Very excited that the Asian Legal History Association will be formally launched at 2 events in March 2026--at Chinese University of Hong Kong (March 17-18, 2026) + Oxford (March 23)! Here's the Call for Papers for "Legal History in Asia and Beyond" (due Oct31): www.law.cuhk.edu.hk/app/events/c...
Fascinating article from the Princeton alumni magazine: paw.princeton.edu/article/max-...
‘He did not want me growing up in a country run by gangsters’
Why a father in Nazi Germany sent his son to Princeton
paw.princeton.edu
September 3, 2025 at 9:46 PM
Fascinating article from the Princeton alumni magazine: paw.princeton.edu/article/max-...
And on the theme of positive stories in the news, here is one of my all-time favorites--a NYT story from over a decade ago on a long kidney donation chain within the US: www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/h...
60 Lives, 30 Kidneys, All Linked (Published 2012)
www.nytimes.com
August 31, 2025 at 9:54 PM
And on the theme of positive stories in the news, here is one of my all-time favorites--a NYT story from over a decade ago on a long kidney donation chain within the US: www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/h...
Just discovered The Guardian's "Kindness of Strangers" series: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle... What a ray of light in the middle of reading the news, which these days is so full of cruelty & destruction. These stories are moving, funny, kind, & hopeful. I just read them all in one go!
Kindness of strangers | The Guardian
<p>Sometimes a random gesture or act of generosity can change the way you think about your day – or your life</p>
www.theguardian.com
August 31, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Just discovered The Guardian's "Kindness of Strangers" series: www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle... What a ray of light in the middle of reading the news, which these days is so full of cruelty & destruction. These stories are moving, funny, kind, & hopeful. I just read them all in one go!
Wow--incredible interview with Arundhati Roy on her mother, rising authoritarianism in India and the US, and other things: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/m...
Arundhati Roy on How to Survive in a ‘Culture of Fear’
www.nytimes.com
August 30, 2025 at 12:37 PM
Wow--incredible interview with Arundhati Roy on her mother, rising authoritarianism in India and the US, and other things: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/30/m...
Reposted by Mitra Sharafi
This was indeed one of my reactions. Especially for those of us teaching at non-elite universities, there has always been the reassurance that it didn't matter if we never taught Akkadian or Elamite b/c someone really interested could always go to Chicago or Harvard or Oxford to learn those. Now?
There will be many casualties from UChicago ending ('pausing') PhD admissions in Humantities, but one which I am keenly aware of: this is close to a death sentence for teaching cuneiform in the United States (esp. Sumerian, Hittite, Elamite, Eblaite, Luwian) and it will affect the whole world.
“Chicago has long helped to keep alive tiny fields & esoteric areas of humanistic study... Without the univ’s support, & the continued training of grad students who can keep these bodies of kn going, entire spheres of human learning might eventually blink out.” www.theatlantic.com/culture/arch...
August 27, 2025 at 3:08 PM
This was indeed one of my reactions. Especially for those of us teaching at non-elite universities, there has always been the reassurance that it didn't matter if we never taught Akkadian or Elamite b/c someone really interested could always go to Chicago or Harvard or Oxford to learn those. Now?
"Contrary to much popular opinion, college is not in the information transfer business; we are in the identity formation business." Insightful NYT piece on AI and pedagogy that looks to medieval history for useful ideas: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/o...
Opinion | Students Hate Them. Universities Need Them. The Only Real Solution to the A.I. Cheating Crisis.
www.nytimes.com
August 26, 2025 at 4:12 PM
"Contrary to much popular opinion, college is not in the information transfer business; we are in the identity formation business." Insightful NYT piece on AI and pedagogy that looks to medieval history for useful ideas: www.nytimes.com/2025/08/26/o...
Cannot wait to read the rest of Arundhati Roy's memoir, which includes a grim Imperial Entomologist grandfather: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...
Arundhati Roy on her fugitive childhood: ‘My knees were full of scars and cuts – a sign of my wild, imperfect, fatherless life’
When war broke out between India and China, the author and her brother were taken by their mother on a chaotic journey from hill station squat to an eccentric household in Kerala. Would they ever find...
www.theguardian.com
August 24, 2025 at 6:22 PM
Cannot wait to read the rest of Arundhati Roy's memoir, which includes a grim Imperial Entomologist grandfather: www.theguardian.com/books/2025/a...
A highlight of my recent trip to Japan for the 5th Asian Legal History Conference was discovering the teamLab digital art museums in Tokyo: #teamlabborderless #teamlabplanets. Wondrous! And they are in other places,too (incl. Singapore Macau Abu Dhabi Hamburg). The future of museums: www.teamlab.art
August 23, 2025 at 10:30 PM
A highlight of my recent trip to Japan for the 5th Asian Legal History Conference was discovering the teamLab digital art museums in Tokyo: #teamlabborderless #teamlabplanets. Wondrous! And they are in other places,too (incl. Singapore Macau Abu Dhabi Hamburg). The future of museums: www.teamlab.art
Reposted by Mitra Sharafi
I'm a historian of anticolonialism and anarchism in the 20C. My first book, 'Anarchy or Chaos', is a biography of India's foremost anarchist activist M.P.T. Acharya, and I am currently writing a book on the Indian revolutionary movement in Europe, 1905-1918. www.hurstpublishers.com/book/anarchy...
Anarchy or Chaos | Hurst Publishers
The first biography of an extraordinary political thinker at the heart of India's struggles against colonial and domestic oppression.
www.hurstpublishers.com
November 10, 2024 at 7:43 AM
I'm a historian of anticolonialism and anarchism in the 20C. My first book, 'Anarchy or Chaos', is a biography of India's foremost anarchist activist M.P.T. Acharya, and I am currently writing a book on the Indian revolutionary movement in Europe, 1905-1918. www.hurstpublishers.com/book/anarchy...
Reposted by Mitra Sharafi
A good conference for photos!
August 20, 2025 at 4:50 AM
A good conference for photos!
Reporting back from another fantastic Asian Legal History Conference! This was the 5th--in Kyoto, Japan @doshishauniversity.bsky.social. Thanks & congrats to @chrismroberts.bsky.social, Anselmo Reyes, & everyone else who made it happen. Keynotes & vegan dinner @ shrine were especially memorable.
August 19, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Reporting back from another fantastic Asian Legal History Conference! This was the 5th--in Kyoto, Japan @doshishauniversity.bsky.social. Thanks & congrats to @chrismroberts.bsky.social, Anselmo Reyes, & everyone else who made it happen. Keynotes & vegan dinner @ shrine were especially memorable.
I did an interview with Kunal Ambasta on the history of forensic science and my forthcoming book (coming out with @cornellupress.bsky.social in 2026). Now up on the National Law School of India University's Scholars in Conversation series: www.nls.ac.in/blog/scholar...
Scholars in Conversation l Professor Mitra Sharafi with Assistant Professor Kunal Ambasta - National Law School of India University
The ‘Scholars in Conversation’ series features interviews with academics across diverse disciplines and geographies. Anchored by NLSIU faculty members, these conversations explore the work of leading voices in their fields in order to bring academic...
www.nls.ac.in
August 17, 2025 at 8:54 PM
I did an interview with Kunal Ambasta on the history of forensic science and my forthcoming book (coming out with @cornellupress.bsky.social in 2026). Now up on the National Law School of India University's Scholars in Conversation series: www.nls.ac.in/blog/scholar...
Wow. Cambridge University Press has been sending me an agreement to let AI metabolize the 2014 book I published with them. I haven't signed because I'm uneasy and want to wait and see. But JHUP is a press that is flipping the default--authors apparently give permission unless they opt out.
Friends who've published with Hopkins, check out the below if you weren't already aware:
“Authors have until the end of August to opt out of the licensing agreement. If they do not, their work will be used to help train AI models.”
July 26, 2025 at 9:01 PM
Wow. Cambridge University Press has been sending me an agreement to let AI metabolize the 2014 book I published with them. I haven't signed because I'm uneasy and want to wait and see. But JHUP is a press that is flipping the default--authors apparently give permission unless they opt out.
It always makes my day to see a camel whenever I'm in north/western India. A happy camel story from Pakistan: www.bbc.com/news/videos/...
Watch: Camel learns to walk again with prosthetic leg
The animal, named Cammie, was rehabilitated by an animal shelter in Karachi, Pakistan.
www.bbc.com
July 21, 2025 at 9:42 PM
It always makes my day to see a camel whenever I'm in north/western India. A happy camel story from Pakistan: www.bbc.com/news/videos/...