Mitra Sharafi

Evjue-Bascom Professor of Law

Pronouns: she/her

Contact

mitra.sharafi@wisc.edu
608/265-8428
975 Bascom Mall, 6112 Law Building, Madison, WI, USA, 53706-1399

Curriculum Vitae

Websites:
Mitra Sharafi's South Asian Legal History Resources

@mjsharafi

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Education

PhD (History), Princeton University (2006)
BCL (Law), Oxford University (1999)
BA (Law), Cambridge University (1998)
BA (History), McGill University (1996)

Biography

Mitra Sharafi is a legal historian whose research focuses on South Asia. She holds law degrees from Cambridge and Oxford (the UK equivalent of a JD and LLM) and history degrees from McGill (BA) and Princeton (PhD). Her first book, Law and Identity in Colonial South Asia: Parsi Legal Culture, 1772-1947 won the Law and Society Association’s 2015 Hurst Prize. She is completing her second book manuscript, provisionally entitled, Fear of the False: Forensic Science and the Law of Crime in Colonial South Asia. Her next major project will explore the world of non-European law students from across the British empire (and globe) who came to London's Inns of Court to become barristers, 1860s-1960s. Sharafi has published articles on the history of abortion, blood-stain testing, forum-shopping for divorce, the legal profession, constitutionalism and the rule of law, and slavery. Future articles will examine the role of scientific experts in criminal trials, and the history of law books and publishing. Her research has been funded by the American Council of Learned Societies, Institute for Advanced Study, Mellon Foundation, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Science Foundation, Romnes Faculty Fellowship, Shelby Cullom Davis Center, and Social Science Research Council.

Sharafi teaches Contracts I at the UW Law School, along with undergraduate courses in Legal Studies and History. She is the recipient of campus awards for her teaching and mentoring.

Mitra Sharafi is president-elect of the American Society for Legal History.

She has hosted the South Asian Legal History Resources website since 2010.

Scholarship & Publications

SSRN

Law Repository

Activities

Mitra Sharafi presented "Death Investigation in Bombay: A Tale of Three Coroners, 1776-1976" during the 4th Asian Legal History Conference in Hue, Vietnam, July 25, 2024. The talk related to Sharafi's current book project on forensic science in colonial India and her undergrad Legal Studies teaching on the history of forensic science (including on the coroner system in Wisconsin).
Mitra Sharafi presented "Trial by Certificate: Government Scientific Experts and India's Criminal Procedure Code s.293" during a Berkeley Legal History Workshop on Feb. 20, 2024, and during an ABF-Northwestern Legal History Colloquium on March 15, 2024. The article, a spin-off from Sharafi's book project, aims to convince judges in India to cross-examine scientific experts more via video-conferencing.
Mitra Sharafi was named president-elect of the American Society for Legal History (ASLH) during the awards ceremony of the 2023 ASLH annual meeting in Philadelphia on Oct. 28, 2023. Sharafi will be president-elect of the ASLH in 2023-25 and will be president in 2025-27.
Mitra Sharafi presented "Falsity and Forensic Science in South Asian Legal History" on June 20, 2023. This keynote adress, based on the book manuscript Sharafi is completing, was given during the 3rd Annual Asian Legal History Conference hosted by the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Mitra Sharafi was awarded a 2022 Slesinger Award for Excellence in Mentoring by University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Women, Trans and Nonbinary Faculty Mentoring Program Advisory Committee. Twelve UW faculty members were nominated. Of these, three received the award.
Mitra Sharafi presented "Fear of the False in Colonial South Asia" during the Max Planck Institute for Legal History-Tel Aviv University Law: Transnational Legal History Workshop on Nov. 22, 2022. The presentation was the introduction to Sharafi's book manuscript on the history of forensic science.
Mitra Sharafi presented "Lessons from Forensic Science: Why History Matters" during a webinar hosted by the Law and Social Science Network, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, India on Sept. 15, 2022. The talk drew on Sharafi's research for her current book project, "Fear of the False: Forensic Science in Colonial South Asia," along with her teaching on the history of forensic science in the English-speaking world (19th Century to present).
Mitra Sharafi presented "Planted Poison and Wrongful Convictions in Colonial South Asia" during New York University's Center for Global Asia South Asia Series on April 6, 2022. Watch the presentation.
Mitra Sharafi contributed the blogpost "The Fish on Marchmont Street" to Humanities Moments, a project of the National Humanities Center. Read the blogpost.
Mitra Sharafi recently published "Abortion in South Asia, 1860-1947: A medico-legal history" in Modern Asian Studies, vol. 55, issue 2, pp.371-428. The piece is a spin-off from her larger "Fear of the False: Forensic Science in Colonial South Asia" book project. Read the article.
Mitra Sharafi presented "Planted Poison and Wrongful Convictions" at the Global Forensic Histories Workshop on March 19, 2021. The event was co-sponsored by UW Law School's Institute for Legal Studies, UC Hastings College of Law, and the American Society for Legal History.
Mitra Sharafi presented "Planted Poison," as part of the National Humanities Center's fellows' lecture series. Sharafi's talk was on a chapter from her book project, "Fear of the False: Forensic Science in Colonial India." During 2020-21, she is working on the book manuscript as an American Council of Learned Society Burkhardt Fellow (virtual) at the National Humanities Center.
Mitra Sharafi presented "Interdisciplinary Studies and Forensics: Why History Matters" at the 1st International Symposium on Crime Studies in October. The symposium was hosted by the Center for Criminology & Forensic Studies and the Jindal Institute of Behavioural Sciences, O. P. Jindal Global University in Delhi, India. Watch the presentation on YouTube.
Mitra Sharafi presented "Imperial Truth Mechanics: Law and Forensic Science in Colonial India" for "Empires of Law in Colonial South Asia," an event hosted by the Rutgers British Studies Center. Along with the pre-recorded presentation, the event included a live Q&A with Sharafi and Tanya Agathocleous, CUNY/Hunter College.
Mitra Sharafi's article, "Abortion in South Asia, 1860-1947: A medico-legal history," was published in Modern Asian Studies in May 2020.