Shiri Birenboim is a medievalist, currently holding a postdoctoral position on the "Contending with Crisis" ISF project.
She obtained a bachelor's degree in law and social sciences (2006) and a master's degree in general history (2018, Summa cum laude), both from Tel Aviv University.
Her research focuses on late medieval European history, with a special emphasis on medieval medicine, social aspects of the medical profession, and the transmission of medical knowledge, particularly between the Jewish medical milieu in Provence and the Christian society.
Her Ph.D. dissertation, supervised by Prof. Naama-Cohen-Hanegbi (TAU), examines the practical and conceptual aspects of environmental and public health in late medieval Marseille, exploring how the city integrated medical theories alongside social, theological, and cultural concepts to preserve environmental and public health.
The Research seeks to expand the scholarly discussion of the urban environment in an interdisciplinary manner, combining medical notions incorporated into urban legislation in the Medieval Latin West with a socio-cultural perspective that examines public health and environmental care in everyday urban life, emphasizing Marseille’s uniqueness as an interreligious urban space with the largest Jewish community in southern France. In addition, it proposes an expanded narrative that enriches the knowledge of the local history of the Jewish community by exploring interreligious urban cooperation through shared environmental and health-related practices.