Jack Jin Gary Lee is assistant professor of sociology at The New School for Social Research and Eugene Lang College of Liberal Arts. His scholarship explores how race and law shape the social logics and processes of governance in modern empires and (post)colonial states. He is interested in "direct rule," with a focus on the racialized workings of law and legalities in the regulation of social bodies. To this end, Lee is working on a book that examines the significance of law and race in the development of Crown Colony government in the modern British Empire. Examining the reconstitution of Jamaica and the Straits Settlements (Singapore, Penang, and Malacca) as Crown Colonies over the second half of the nineteenth century and after, this project examines the structures, practices, and legacies of “direct rule” in relation to “plural societies.” His dissertation on this topic won the University of California, San Diego’s 2018 Chancellor’s Dissertation Medal (Social Sciences).