Dr. Ada Kuskowski

Biography

Ada Maria Kuskowski is an associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania, specializing in medieval history and legal history. Her work is driven by a fascination with premodern legal cultures and their broader place within European history. Kuskowski views law not as an isolated sphere but as imbedded within cultural practices, performance, power, literary culture, and the manuscript tradition. She currently serves as the director of the Global Medieval Renaissance Studies Program at Penn and has published extensively on her research topics. Her book, Vernacular Law: Writing and Reinvention of Customary Law in Medieval France (Cambridge, 2023), rethinks the emergence of written customary law in thirteenth-century France as a moment of intellectual and cultural innovation rather than a simple recording of local oral traditions. Kuskowski's work has garnered attention for its nuanced arguments about the agency of lay authors in the creation of legal texts and their role in shaping legal discourse. Additionally, she is working on a project exploring the evolution of legal cultures following conquests and how these influences shaped governance and societal structures. Kuskowski has received fellowships from notable institutions and has held various academic positions prior to her appointment at Penn, including roles at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and New York University. She encourages graduate students interested in pursuing a PhD in History to reach out to her.

Research Interests

Experience