Gregory Maxwell Bruce works at the intersection of Islamic studies, intellectual history, and Persian and Urdu studies. Although most of his research centers on South Asia in the colonial and postcolonial periods, his publications cover a wide geographical and temporal range, from Ilkhanid Persian moral philosophy and Indo-Ottoman-Egyptian intellectual networks in the late-nineteenth century to postcolonial progressive Urdu literature.
Having studied Arabic, Hindi, Urdu, and South Asian music as an undergraduate, he moved to India to pursue further language studies and training in tabla composition and performance. Two years of instruction in Arabic, Awadhi, Braj, Persian, and Urdu in Lucknow led him to the University of Texas at Austin, where he completed his Ph.D. under the supervision of Syed Akbar Hyder. Before coming to UChicago, he lectured in Urdu at Stanford and UC Berkeley and held research affiliations with the Departments of Persian and Urdu at Delhi University. His work has been supported by fellowships from the American Institute of Indian Studies and the American Institute of Iranian Studies.
Publications
Turkey, Egypt, and Syria: A Travelogue (Syracuse University Press, 2020)
Urdu Vocabulary: A Workbook for Intermediate and Advanced Students (Edinburgh University Press, 2021)
Nigāristān: A Facsimile Edition (Mazda Publishers, 2023)
His articles, chapters, and entries can be found, inter alia, in The Encyclopaedia of Islam, Encyclopaedia Iranica, Iranian Studies, SAGAR, SAMAJ, Sufi, The Routledge Handbook of Persian Literary Translation, and Persian Literary Devices.
Academic Journalism
In 2019, he cofounded the Journal of Urdu Studies (Brill). He has served as its Editor-in-Chief since 2023.
The Journal of Urdu Studies (Brill)