About
Eve Krakowski is an Associate Professor of Near Eastern Studies and Judaic Studies at Princeton University, specializing in medieval Middle Eastern social history with a focus on Jewish communities in Fatimid and Ayyubid Egypt (969–1250). Her work examines family life, law, and religion in everyday contexts, leveraging the Cairo Geniza documents for insights into ordinary life.
Her research explores how legal frameworks and religious practices shaped gender roles and communal structures. She authored Coming of Age in Medieval Egypt, which won multiple awards, including the National Jewish Book Award. Currently, she is working on Written Torah: The Reinvention of Judaism in the Islamic Mediterranean, analyzing medieval Jewish writing practices.
- Teaching: Courses include Cairo Geniza studies, religious conversion in the Islamic Middle East, and Near Eastern humanities.
- Collaborations: Co-edited a Geniza research handbook and leads projects to enhance accessibility of Geniza documents through interdisciplinary methods.
Her work bridges archival analysis with social history, emphasizing how material evidence reveals lived experiences of medieval Jews. She also contributes to Princeton’s Humanities Council programs and has held post-doctoral fellowships at Yale and Columbia.
- Awards: National Jewish Book Award, Jordan Schnitzer Book Award, AAAS Honorable Mention.
- Labs/Projects: Geniza Lab (external link), Documents and Institutions in the Medieval Middle East collaborative.
