Eva Schreiner

Eva Schreiner is a Minerva Fast Track Fellow at the Kunsthistorisches Institut in Florenz, an institute of the Max Planck Society. She leads the 'Architectures of Finance' research group, focusing on the intersection of architectural history with imperialism, capitalism, and financial systems across Europe, West Asia, and North Africa.

Education:

• PhD in Architecture, Columbia University (2024)
• MPhil in Architecture, Columbia University
• MA, New York University
• BA, University of St. Gallen

Schreiner's research examines how capital operates materially through architecture, investigating how buildings and urban spaces actualize financial concepts like debt and property. Her work reveals the physical manifestations of seemingly abstract financial processes, highlighting the material foundations of modern finance in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. She specifically studies credit as an instrument of control deployed by German actors in the late Ottoman Empire, examining the architectural network that emerged from Ottoman debt.

Scientific Recognition:

• Graham Foundation's Carter Manny Award for dissertation research
• Support from the Social Science Research Council

Schreiner has taught at Columbia University and TU Darmstadt following a joint post-doctoral fellowship at KHI Florence and ANAMED Istanbul. Her research spans from nineteenth-century financial imperialism to mid-twentieth century tax havens, demonstrating how finance is literally set in stone through bank buildings, gold mines, and commercial infrastructure, with implications that continue to shape twenty-first century capitalism.