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Ruby Lal to deliver 2025 Distinguished Faculty Lecture
professor Ruby Lal in front of a bookcase full of books

Ruby Lal, professor of South Asian history at Emory College of Arts and Sciences, will present the 2025 John F. Morgan, Sr. Distinguished Faculty Lecture on Tuesday, Feb. 4.

Lal’s work centers on restoring erased female figures and their histories, particularly from the Mughal Empire. She is the author of four critically acclaimed books and numerous essays. Her most recent book, “Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan,” has been lauded by the BBC, The Hindu, Vogue India and The Wall Street Journal. It also was longlisted for the Cundill History Prize. Her last biography, "Empress: The Astonishing reign of Nur Jahan," was a finalist for the LA Times Book prize and won the Georgia Author of the year award. 

Lal will speak on “Who Decides What History Is?” during her lecture, which will be delivered Tuesday, Feb. 4, at 5 p.m. in Convocation Hall, Room 208. A reception will follow in Room 210.

Her lecture on Feb. 4 will address the following: 

A new and widening threat to history has emerged in India where the Hindu right-wing state is undertaking the widespread erasure of India’s deeply held syncretic history. The Mughals, who represent nearly 400 prosperous years of India’s history and are responsible for so many cultural touchstones in the nation, have been systematically removed from textbooks. In this lecture, Lal will reflect on how her work as a public historian of the Mughals provide a bulwark against the erasure of the sprawling and storied Mughal empire, and its daring and dynamic female figures and non-power people. For a long time, male scholarship had enacted this erasure. Lal will discuss forms of narration, what is “fact” and who gets to decide what counts as evidence, and therefore as history.

The lectureship recognizes the achievements of distinguished Emory faculty members and provides an opportunity for these individuals to present major themes of their work that are of intellectual interest to the Emory and greater Atlanta communities. 

Register to attend by Friday, Jan. 24.

Photo by Danish Saroee.


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