Jason Freitag awarded a Robert Ryan Professorship
Jason Freitag was awarded a Robert Ryan Professorship in the Humanities (the 3rd history faculty member to receive it!) for his current book project, The Sacrifice of Kṛṣṇā Kumārī: An Iphigenia in India.
This project is the first book-length exploration of the well-known, but little studied, episode of the Mewari Rājpūt princess Kṛṣṇā Kumārī (1794-1810 CE), who lost her life to end a conflict over her hand in marriage that raged between the most powerful royal houses in Rajputana (now Rajasthan). Kṛṣṇā Kumārī’s death exemplifies the intricate relationships between gender, politics, empire, and nation. His research emphasizes how complex interactions of power--political, economic, traditional patriarchal, and colonial–shaped a crucial period in the history of the Rajput States and the British Empire.