Daniel Monterescu

Daniel Monterescu is Professor of urban anthropology and food studies at the Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology at Central European University (CEU), where he has been teaching since 2005. He is currently on leave for the 2024/25 academic year. His research focuses on ethnically mixed cities, settler colonialism, urban space, food politics, and Jewish revival movements in Central Europe and Israel/Palestine.

Monterescu holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of Chicago (2005). He has held prestigious fellowships including Jean Monnet and Marie Curie at the European University Institute in Florence, and was visiting professor at EHESS (Paris), the Technion (Haifa), and Kyoto University. He held the IMéRA chair on transregional studies in Marseille (2020–21).

His research explores themes such as nationalist gentrification, urban ruination, terroir and territory, culinary politics, and the social life of ruins. He is particularly known for his work on Jaffa, mixed cities in Israel/Palestine, and Jewish revival movements in post-secular Europe. His current project, funded by the Gerda Henkel Stiftung, is titled 'Lost Cities' and examines urban ruins and memory in Israel/Palestine from 1882 to the present.

His recent publications span interdisciplinary topics including settler colonialism and food, border wines, ethno-gentrification, and transnational Jewish identities. The articles reflect a consistent engagement with political ecology, urban anthropology, and cultural memory, often analyzing how food, wine, and urban space become sites of identity, conflict, and resistance.

• Finalist, Jordan Schnitzer Book Award (2015) for Jaffa Shared and Shattered

Monterescu advises on urban and cultural issues through public scholarship, hosting a blog on Haaretz and contributing op-eds on Middle Eastern politics and urbanism. He teaches courses such as Cities in the Middle East, The Anthropology of Masculinity, and Food, Culture & Politics. He is a sommelier (Italy, 2010) and candidate for the WSET Diploma (level 4, Austria).