Roxani Eleni Margariti

Roxani Eleni Margariti is a historian and maritime archaeologist whose research illuminates the economic, social, and material history of the medieval Indian Ocean world. She is author of Aden and the Indian Ocean Trade: 150 Years in the Life of a Medieval Arabian Port (2007), a detailed study of Aden’s urban institutions and commercial networks from the eleventh to the thirteenth century based on archival, environmental, and archaeological evidence. Margariti’s publications—including coedited volumes on Christian, Jewish, and Muslim interrelations—critically engage material culture and cross-cultural exchange in the Eastern Mediterranean and Red Sea regions. 

Since 2002, she has served as associate professor in the Department of Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies at Emory University, where she also directs graduate studies. Margariti earned her PhD in Near Eastern studies from Princeton University, an MA in nautical archaeology from Texas A&M University, and a BA in Western Asiatic archaeology from University College London. Her scholarship draws on fieldwork and archival research across England, Greece, Turkey, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates.