Ben Jacob is a postgraduate student at the University of Cambridge, where his research focusses on plantation worlds in the nineteenth century. His undergraduate dissertation at the University of Oxford explored the intimate lives and literatures of Indian labourers aboard indentured voyages, and was awarded the Herbert Prize for best dissertation in colonial history. His writing has appeared in Tribune Magazine, Byline Times and the Oxford Review of Books, while he has worked as a historical researcher on two feature films and a BBC documentary series.