“I am interested in how Jews engaged with monarchies and courtly culture in the European Middle Ages, with royal women as a particular focal point. Currently, my doctoral project explores the relationship between Jews and queens in 13th-century northern France, weaving together royal administrative sources, chronicles, Jewish and Christian art, responsa literature, and Hebrew narrative accounts, and providing a case study on Blanche of Castile, Queen of France from 1223-1252.

“As an architectural historian, I would like to bring interdisciplinary methodological approaches of history, archaeology, building history, history of technology and art history to Jewish Studies. Currently, I am dealing with research questions that have arisen from my dissertation work on medieval synagogue buildings in the Ashkenazic region (including northern France and England), which I completed in 2005.  The focus is on topographical and infrastructural aspects of Jewish residential areas in the built space of the medieval city and its modes of perception (including sound history research). In recent years, new findings have significantly expanded our knowledge of such Jewish residential areas and their urban infrastructure. In comparison with the archival sources, the architectural archaeological insights into Jewish life in this era not only provide new information, but also raise new questions concerning a whole range of different aspects of Jewish and Christian coexistence: How was everyday religious life outside of ritual institutions such as the synagogue or the mikvah reflected in the internal structure of the Jewish quarter and its residential buildings? Can possible distinguishing characteristics be identified that indicate a specifically Jewish use? What forms of adaptation or modification of certain building types can be identified on the basis of the findings and sources?

“I research Jewish fathers and fatherhood in Ashkenaz (mainly northern France and Germany), from the 12th to 15th century. My current project attempts to portray a nuanced picture of Jewish fatherhood contextualized within the broader social framework of European Christian urban culture. Over the past decade, research on Jewish family life in Ashkenaz has expanded our understanding of this social institution, particularly with regard to knowledge of Jewish mothers and children. However, in order to gain more insights into everyday family-life, gender division and power structures within the family and society at large, an analysis of Jewish fathers and fatherhood is necessary.