Ruby Lal is an acclaimed historian of India and Professor of South Asian Studies at Emory University. She taught previously at the Johns Hopkins University, and directed its Program for the Study of Women, Gender and Sexuality. Her fields of study include feminist history and theory, and the question of archive as it relates to writing about Islamic societies in early modern and modern world. Author of numerous articles and essays for wider audience, her first book, Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World (Cambridge University Press, New York, 2005) won much acclaim, including numerous reviews in major international journals and magazines, such as The New York Review of Books, The Economic and Political Weekly, Revue Historique, and The Times Literary Supplement. Her second book, Coming of Age in Nineteenth Century India: The Girl-Child and the Art of Playfulness (Cambridge University Press, New York, 2013) was reviewed extensively in academic journals and magazines with wider intellectual concerns. Her recently published biography, Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan (NY: W.W. Norton, 2018, 2020 PB) was a Finalist in History for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and won the Georgia Author of the Year Award in Biography. In 2020-21, she was appointed Senior Fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Studies, Uppsala, Sweden. Ruby spent Fall 2022 as Public Humanities Fellow at the Jackman Humanities Institute, University of Toronto where she finalized her new biography - VAGABOND PRINCESS: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan (Yale University Press; forthcoming, Spring 2024).

Link to book info - EMPRESS: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan