About
Farina Mir is a historian of colonial and postcolonial South Asia, with a particular interest in the social, cultural, and religious history of late-colonial north India. Her first book, The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010) is a study of the Punjabi language and its literature under colonialism (from 1849–1947). Through an analysis of Punjabi qisse, or epic stories/romances, Mir locates a Punjabi literary formation in colonial Punjab—and its resonances in contemporary postcolonial India, Pakistan, and in the Punjabi diaspora. By examining the social history of this formation and the themes that it engaged with, The Social Space of Language reassesses late-colonial Punjab’s history away from standard narratives of communal antagonism and violence to examine the moorings of a regional culture that emphasized the importance of locality, a commitment to shared forms of piety, and emphasized gender relations that contest patriarchy. The book was awarded the 2011 John F. Richard Prize in South Asian History from the American Historical Association and the 2012 Bernard Cohn Prize from the Association of Asian Studies. Mir recently discussed the book on a podcast, available here.
Mir’s current research is focused on Islam in late-colonial India. She is working on a book entitled, "Genres of Muslim Modernity: Being Muslim in Late-Colonial India, 1858-1947," which examines Urdu-language akhlaq—religious/literary texts on ethics—and how they reveal an important history of Islam and Muslims in South Asia. Grounded in a corpus of Urdu akhlaq texts published between the 1860s and 1940s, the book: casts light on a significant but understudied domain of Muslim ethical thought in colonial India; examines Muslim religious dispositions as revealed through this literature; and is an inquiry into the notion of secular Muslimness and its implications for understanding Muslim experience in modern South Asia.
Mir teaches a range of courses at the University of Michigan. These include a co-taught introductory course on the discipline of History, “History 101: What is History?” Mir co-authored a short piece (with Paulina Alberto) on why a 101 course is atypical for History departments while normative for other social science disciplines and speaks to its value for History curricula. Her South Asian history offerings include undergraduate survey courses on “The History of Modern India and Pakistan,” “The History of Islam in South Asia,” and an undergraduate seminar on the Partition of India. She also regularly teaches a graduate colloquium on “Islam in Motion,” on histories of Islam in the Indian Subcontinent.
Mir currently serves as the Director of Graduate Studies for the History Department and served two terms as Director of U-M’s Center for South Asian Studies (2012-2015 and 2016-18).
Selected Publications:
The Social Space of Language: Vernacular Culture in British Colonial Punjab, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010).
Punjab Reconsidered: History, Culture, and Practice, ed. Anshu Malhotra and Farina Mir. (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012).
"Genre and Devotion in Punjab's Popular Narratives: Rethinking Cultural and Religious Syncretism," Comparative Studies in Society and History 48.3, July, 2006: 727-758.
Affiliation(s)
- Center for South Asian Studies
- Program in Anthropology and History
- Islamic Studies Program
Field(s) of Study
- Modern South Asia
- Islam/Muslims in South Asia
- British colonialism
