Julia Stephens, "Worldly Afterlives: Tracing Family Trails Between India and Empire" (Princeton UP, 2025)

About this episode

Julia Stephens discusses her book on Indian migrants and their stories within the context of the British Empire.

The British Empire covered much of the world during the 19th century–and each time someone moved through it, they left a paper trail in their wake. Julia Stephens, the author of Worldly Afterlives: Tracing Family Trails Between India and Empire (Princeton UP, 2025), uses that archive of documents to try to piece together the stories of Indian migrants that traveled the empire throughout their lives–and, in some cases, after their lives were over. Julia joins us today to talk about her book and her attempt to find a different approach to studying these histories: Figures like Kuala Lumpur magnate Thamboosamy Pillai, Zanzibar–Bombay matriarch Jambai, and the elusive sailor John Muhammad. Julia Stephens is associate professor of history at Rutgers University. She is also the author of Governing Islam: Law, Empire, and Secularism in South Asia (Cambridge University Press: 2018) You can find more reviews, excerpts, interviews, and essays at The Asian Review of Books. You can read its review of Worldly Afterlives here. Follow on Twitter at @BookReviewsAsia. Nicholas Gordon is an editor for a global magazine, and a reviewer for the Asian Review of Books. He can be found on Twitter at…

People in this episode

Host: Nicholas Gordon

Guest: Julia Stephens

Topics covered

• British Empire
• Indian migrants
• historical archives
• family history
• migration stories

Keywords

• British Empire
• Indian migration
• historical documents
• family trails
• Julia Stephens

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Princeton UP, Rutgers University

Books & works: Worldly Afterlives: Tracing Family Trails Between India and Empire, Governing Islam: Law, Empire, and Secularism in South Asia

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