We will welcome Professor Renisa Mawani (University of British Columbia) and discuss a chapter from her exciting new book, Across Oceans of Law.

Professor Mawani’s study  utilizes the controversial 1914 voyage of the Komagata Maru and its blocked attempt to transport Punjabi migrants from East Asia to Vancouver, to intervene methodologically and substantively in the burgeoning field of colonial legal history and in the scholarship on the British Empire more generally. The study foregrounds oceans in the dynamics of mobility and empire, delineating the manner in which oceanic voyage and the legal construction of the seas served as foundational sites for “racial, legal, and political struggles over mobility, movements, and imperial control.”

The Law and History Workshop meets on 3/19 from 12:15-2:00, in 1229 Dwinelle Hall.  Lunch will be provided on a first come basis. Our conversation begins at 12:30 and proceeds on the basis that participants have read the introductory chapter of Across Oceans of Law. To obtain a copy of the chapter, please contact anthony.gregory@berkeley.edu. We look forward to your joining us!