kr2573@columbia.edu

Kalyani Ramnath is Assistant Professor of History at Columbia University. She is a historian of modern South Asia, interested in researching and teaching legal history, histories of migration and displacement, transnational and global history, and questions of archival method. Ramnath received her Ph.D. in history from Princeton University in 2018, and was a Prize Fellow in Economics, History, and Politics at the Center for History and Economics from 2018 - 2021. She also holds a bachelor's degree in arts and law from the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) and a master's degree in law  from the Yale Law School. She has also taught at NLSIU (2010 - 2012) and the University of Georgia (2022 - 2024). Her first book, Boats in a Storm: Law, Migration, and Decolonization in South and Southeast Asia 1942 - 1962  was published with Stanford University Press in 2023, and was named one of the Books of the Year by History Today in the same year. For 2024 - '25, she was awarded an ACLS Fellowship for her second book project Adrift in the Indian Ocean. Ramnath has written for academic journals such as Law and History Review, Itinerario, Indian Economic and Social History Review and Past and Present, as well as law reviews and for public-facing academic outlets. Follow her on Bluesky @kalramnath.bsky.social.