Assistant Professor
Department of History

Nicholas Abbott

757-683-3953

8010 BATTEN ARTS & LETTERS
NORFOLK, 23529

Expertise

History
Early Modern and Colonial South Asia, Early Modern Islamic World, State Formation and Political Culture, Gender and the Family

Articles

Abbott, N. J. (2022). ‘It all comes from me’: Bahu Begam and the making of the Awadh nawabi, circa 1765–1815. Modern Asian Studies .
Abbott, N. J. (2020). A Mulk of One's Own: Languages of Sovereignty, Statehood, and Dominion in the Eighteenth-Century “Empire of Hindustan”. Itinerario 44 (3) , pp. 474–501.
Abbott, N. J. (2019). “In that One the Ālif is Missing”: Eunuchs and the Politics of Masculinity in Early Colonial North India. Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 63 (1–2) , pp. 73–116.

Books

Abbott, N. (2024). Women, Wealth and the State in Early Colonial India: The Begams of Awadh. Edinburgh University Press.

Book Chapters

Abbott, N. J. (2018). "Bringing the Sarkār Back In: Translating Patrimonialism and the State in Early Modern and Early Colonial India." State Formations: Global Histories and Cultures of Statehood (pp. 124-37) Cambridge University Press.

Presentations

(May , 2022). Zabt and its Discontents: Property Confiscation, Patrimonial Kingship, and the Performance of Sovereignty in Mughal India, c. 1600–1800 Freie Universität Berlin: “Sovereignty, 1300-1800: Terrestrial and Maritime Negotiations” .
(October , 2021). A Rule of Confiscation for Late-Mughal India: Zabt (“escheat”) in Eighteenth-Century Awadh 49th Annual Conference on South Asia .
(December , 2019). Sarkars into States: Language, Family, and Politics in Early Colonial North India Research Colloquium, Newberry Library (Chicago, IL) .
(March , 2019). Proprietary Sovereignty, Familial Finance, and the Making of the Shuja’i Dispensation: Awadh, 1765–75 Association for Asian Studies Annual Conference .
(October , 2018). A Late-Mughal Westphalia? Provincial Borders, Regional Sovereignty, and the 1765 Treaties of Allahabad 47th Annual Conference on South Asia .
(October , 2018). A Mulk of one’s own? Sub-imperial Sovereignty and Territorial Statehood in Late-Mughal Persianate Diplomacy, 1757–1775 Institute of Iranian Studies, Vienna: “Beyond the Islamicate Chancery” .
(April , 2018). Cracked Backs and Crooked Waists: Eunuchs, Gender and Verbal Abuse in Early Modern Awadh Humboldt University, Berlin: “Servants’ Pasts: 2nd International Conference” .
(December , 2017). ‘An Enemy of Our Family: Family, State, and Domestic Authority in the Awadh khord mahal, c. 1780–1815 Center for Historical Research, The Ohio State University: “Family, Kinship and Households: New Perspectives” .
(October , 2017). Patronage, Politics, and Persian Historiography in Nineteenth-Century Awadh 46th Annual Conference on South Asia .
(May , 2017). Gifts, Bribes, or the Cost of Doing Business? Regulating rishvat in Early Colonial India International Meeting on Law and Society .
(April , 2017). ‘But in this one the alif is missing’: Eunuchs and the Politics of Masculinity Annual Gender and Women’s Studies Conference, University of Wisconsin–Madison, “Ordinary Space, Extraordinary Living” .
  • 2020: Summer Stipend, National Endowment for the Humanities
  • 2019: National Endowment for the Humanities Research Fellowship, Newberry Library
  • 2019: Summer Research Fellowship, Research Foundation, Old Dominion University
  • 2018: Summer Research Grant, College of Arts & Letters, Old Dominion University
  • 2015: Dissertation Fellowship, Center for Historical Research, The Ohio State University
  • 2013: Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Fellowship, U.S. Department of Education

Organizational Chart