Eva Schreiner’s research links architectural history with histories of imperialism, capitalism, and urban-rural relationships in Europe and West Asia. Earning a PhD in Architecture at Columbia University, her dissertation explores the Ottoman Empire’s inter-imperial debt system between the 1870s and 1919, focusing on the role played by Ottoman and German state and private actors in shaping this system at its material basis. At ANAMED, Schreiner focuses on the built environment of Constantinople’s financial district in Galata and the Ottoman Public Debt Administration headquarters in the historic district to investigate how these structures emerged from and actively mediated the modern credit system. Not only their aesthetics but also the legal and financial claims of ownership and credit actualized through these buildings were central to the international debt system’s architecture. In this way, the study reveals Constantinople’s central place in the history of modern finance.
Schreiner’s research has been supported by the Graham Foundation and the Social Science Research Council. She holds a BA from the University of St. Gallen and an MA from New York University. Her work is published in ABE Journal (forthcoming), Architectural Theory Review (2022), Ways of Knowing Cities (Columbia University Press, 2019), and gta papers (2019).