Abigail Jacobson received her PhD from the University of Chicago in 2006. She taught for several years in Israel. In 2011-12 she was a junior research fellow at the Crown Center for Middle East Studies at Brandeis University. Her research focuses on the social and urban history of mixed urban communities in Palestine and the Eastern Mediterranean in the late Ottoman period and the British mandate. Jacobson's book, entitled "From Empire to Empire: Jerusalem between Ottoman and British Rule" was published by Syracuse University Press in July 2011. She is currently working on two main projects. The first focuses on the history of Palestinian communism and anti-imperial struggle at the end of the British mandate and the early years of the State of Israel. The second project discusses relations and links between Jews of Arab descents and Arabs in Mandatory Palestine.