Hagar Gal

Hagar Gal graduated with a BA in History in 2022. Her honors thesis explored a Baghdadi Jewish family, the Sassoons. Her primary research question was to investigate how the Sassoons monopolized the supposedly British opium and cotton trade in the 19th century, and the implications of their monopolization on the historiography of British power in Asia in modernity.

Hagar's outstanding project demonstrates the expansive work being done in Jewish Studies: in addition to studying the history of Sephardic Jews, Hagar studied British imperial history, East Asian history, Middle Eastern history, and so on. Congratulations on this significant accolade, Hagar!