Megan Robb, assistant professor of religious studies, has been named Julie and Martin Franklin Assistant Professor of Religious Studies. Dr. Robb is an accomplished scholar of South Asian Islam, with a particular focus on the history of interpretative communities and literary publics. Her first monograph, Print and the Urdu Public: Muslims, Newspapers, and Urban Life, 1900-1950, is under contract with Oxford University Press. She has also recently co-edited a volume of essays, Muslims Against the Muslim League: Critiques of the Idea of Pakistan with Cambridge University Press and a special issue for the Journal of Royal Asiatic Society, “Urban Emotions in South Asia.” Her next book will focus on youth in public life in South Asia in the late colonial and early independence period.

Julie and Martin Franklin are ardent supporters of Penn who established this chair in 2008 to recognize and retain eminent scholars and professors who demonstrate outstanding performance in their field. Martin Franklin, C’86, is the founder and executive chairman of the Jarden Corporation and has served on the boards of Promotora de Informaciones S.A., Kenneth Cole Productions and GLG Inc. Julie Franklin, C’87, currently serves on Penn’s Social Policy and Practice Overseers Board and the Trustees’ Council of Penn Women.