Aviv Derri received her PhD in History and Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies from New York University (2021), where she specialized in the history of the Ottoman Empire and in the comparative study of empires in the modern era. She is interested in the social, political, and cultural history of capitalism in the Middle East from a global perspective. Based on her doctoral dissertation, her book project examines the rise of new financial markets and provincial public debt in nineteenth century Ottoman Damascus, foregrounding the role of tax-farmers, merchant families, and Jewish financiers of the hajj. This work explores local and inter-imperial conflicts and anxieties about political belonging and sovereignty, risk and uncertainty, and the boundaries of financial activity - reflected, most notably, in the distinction between interest and usury - in a period of European financial expansion and major development projects at home. 

In addition to her Visiting Fellowship att he Center, Aviv currently holds a postdoctoral position at the Martin Buber Society of Fellows in History and the Social Sciences (Jerusalem). Her work has been published in The International History Review and the International Journal of Middle East Studies, among other journals.