Hayden J. Bellenoit

Hayden J. Bellenoit is an Associate Professor of History at the U.S. Naval Academy. After graduating summa cum laude in History and Economics from Wheaton College, he attended Oxford University, where he completed his master of studies in Historical Research and his doctor of philosophy in Modern History, focusing on late colonial India. While studying at Oxford, Dr. Bellenoit spent a year in India conducting research in Delhi, Lucknow, and Allahabad.

At the Naval Academy, Dr. Bellenoit offered the academy’s first courses on the history of India from 1700 to the present, the history of Islam and the origins of jihad in South Asia, the history of Pakistan, the premodern history of Asia, and the history of the Mughal Empire.

Dr. Bellenoit has researched and published extensively on modern Indian religious, social, and cultural history. His first book was Missionary Education and Empire in Late Colonial India, 1860–1920. He also has had peer-reviewed articles published in journals and edited volumes, including “Education, Missionaries and the Indian Nation, c. 1880–1920” and “Missionary Education, Religion and Knowledge in India, c. 1880–1915.” Dr. Bellenoit’s second book is The Formation of the Colonial State in India: Scribes, Paper and Taxes, 1760–1860. He is also a life member of Cambridge University’s Clare Hall.