Kris Manjapra, professor of History at Tufts University, works at the intersection of transnational history and the critical study of race and colonialism. He research connects Caribbean Studies, Indian Ocean Studies, and the study of Europe. He is the author of five books, including his comparative study of global emancipation processes and the implications for reparations movement today: Black Ghost of Empire: The Long Death of Slavery and the Failure of Emancipation (Scribner and Penguin, 2022), shortlisted for the 2022 New England Book Prize. His previous book, Colonialism in Global Perspective (Cambridge, 2020), contributes to the emerging field of Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora Studies. And Age of Entanglement: German and Indian Intellectual across Empire (Harvard, 2014) won the 2019 International Merck-Tagore Prize.
His work exceeds disciplinary boundaries and his scholar-activism crosses the walls separating the university from larger and more diverse communities. He served as the chair of the Department of Studies in Race, Colonialism, and Diaspora at Tufts University from 2017-2021. He is the founder of a site-based nonprofit, Black History in Action, dedicated to the restoration and reactivation of a cultural heritage center in Cambridge, MA.