The Medieval Myth of Ancient Customary Law

Ada Kuskowski is assistant professor in the department of History at the University of Pennsylvania. A medieval historian and a legal historian, Kuskowski weaves together approaches from history, law, and literature with the larger goal of understanding how legal cultures developed in Europe during the Middle Ages. Her writing has focused on sources that might be described as “black letter law” and are often prone to positivist approaches. However, she interprets these materials as legal narratives that are embedded in larger cultural contexts and examine them through the values, representations, expectations, and mentalités that produced them and gave them meaning.

Kuskowski received her PhD in History from Cornell University. She teaches at the University of Pennsylvania, where she earned the Richard S. Dunn Award for Distinguished Teaching, and has also taught at Southern Methodist University and at McGill University.