Dr. Justin Jones

Biography

Justin Jones is a historian specializing in the religious and social-legal transformations of modern Islam, with a particular focus on South Asia, including the Indian subcontinent. He joined the University of Oxford in 2014, having previously served as a Research Fellow at the Centre for South Asian Studies at the University of Cambridge and as a Lecturer in Global History at the University of Exeter. His research has addressed significant themes within Shi‘i Islam in South Asia, including clerical revivalism, religious writing practices, martyrology, and Shi‘i politics. His monograph, 'Shi‘a Islam in Colonial India' (2012), and the edited volume 'Shi‘a Modern South Asia' (2014) highlight his contributions to the field. He has published several works on the social and cultural histories of Muslim urban centers in North India, particularly in the rural townships of the Lucknow region. Currently, he conducts intertwined projects on the adjudication of Islamic family laws and community-level Muslim legal practices, as well as exploring the role of Islamic clerics (‘ulama) in legal contexts, including issuing fatwas. His research interests also extend to 'Islamic feminist' thought and Muslim women’s rights activism in South Asia and globally, with recent edited compilations on Muslim marriage and divorce law in contemporary U.K. Europe, published in 2020.

Research Interests