Dr Ellen Filor

Dr Ellen Filor was an IAS Junior Research Fellow from 2015-16.

Research Theme: Conflict, Confrontation and Justice

Corruption in a Time of Reform: Conflict and (in)justice at the end of the East India Company, c. 1800-1857

Ellen Filor's research explores corruption during the last fifty years of the East India Company. By examining the 62 cases of corruption brought before the East India Company board between 1807 and 1857, she will detail the legal processes of prosecution and punishment for corruption.

While previous histories about corruption in the East India Company have largely focused on the metropolitan debates of Edmund Burke and Warren Hastings, this research will position these debates in the colonial courts and incorporate the voices of the colonised. By taking an interdisciplinary approach, she can place this corruption and its conflicts within a longer temporal and geographical context. These prosecutions and punishments reflect a conflict between colonised and coloniser that was played out under the new system of reforms and the continued allure of corruption.

Biography

Ellen has history degrees from the University of York and the University of Warwick. She completed her PhD in 2014 at University College London. Since passing her viva, she has been a Scottish Studies Fulbright Scholar at the University of Michigan.