Mara Du is an associate professor of history in Cornell's College of Arts and Sciences. Her research centers on the history of imperial and modern China, with a particular focus on law, state-building, and China's global connections. 

Her first book, State and Family in China: Filial Piety and Its Modern Reform (Cambridge UP, 2022), won the 2022 International Society for Chinese Law and History Biennial Book Prize. Her next book, Defining China: From Dynastic State to People's Republic, will be published by Columbia University Press in 2027.