Emmanuelle Saada

Emmanuelle Saada teaches French at Columbia University. Her main field of research is the history of French imperialism in the 19th and 20th centuries, with a specific interest in law. Her first book Empire's Children: Race, Filiation and Citizenship in the French Colonies was published by the University of Chicago Press in 2012 and her second book, Histoires et colonisations des récits de la conquête aux héritages post-coloniaux was published by Gallimard in 2026.

Saada's book project, The Rule of Law and Violence in the Making of Colonial Algeria (1844-1902), examines the articulation of law and violence in the French colonization of Algeria between 1844 and 1902. It focuses on the Code de l’indigénat, a disciplinary legal regime imposed on Algerians. The project explores the multiple debates about the juridical nature of the Code, among local colonial administrators, legal theorists and legislators and finally as expressed in the actions of ordinary Algerians, who wrote innumerable petitions and mounted legal challenges to the Code.