Seven U-M lecturers and tenure-track faculty members have received 2022 summer fellowships at the Institute for the Humanities. A cohort of eight U-M faculty members and eight graduate students will be fellows at the institute during the 2022-23 academic year.
The two cohorts will take up residence at the institute during their fellowship periods, forming an intellectual community while pursuing original research and participating in regular, cross-disciplinary fellows’ seminars.
Fellowship recipients represent diverse disciplines within the humanities and span several colleges and schools across the university, this year including U-M Dearborn, the School of Music, Theatre & Dance, and the A. Alfred Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning.
The Institute for the Humanities facilitates work that examines humanities traditions broadly across space and time; deepens synergies among the humanities, the arts and disciplines across the university; and brings the humanities to public life. Each year it provides fellowships for U-M faculty, graduate students and visiting scholars who work on scholarly and artistic projects.
It also offers a wide array of public and scholarly events, including public lectures, workshops and discussions. The Institute for the Humanities Gallery — a fully curated, vibrant exhibition space — is known for bringing to campus artists whose work directly addresses current social issues and concerns.
Since its inauguration in 1987, the institute has granted fellowships to more than 400 U-M faculty, graduate students and visitors.
The fellows and the topics of their research projects are:
2022 Summer Fellows
Erin L. Brightwell, associate professor of Asian languages and cultures, “Wartime Japan: Translations of Empire.”
Charli Brissey, assistant professor of dance, “Dance We Must: Choreographies of Time, Space, and Emergent Matter(s).”
April Conway, lecturer III, Sweetland Writing Center, “Hedge Witch.”
Jay Crisostomo, associate professor of Middle East studies, “Sumerian: The Language of the Gods.”
Kristin Dickinson, assistant professor of Germanic languages and literatures, “Visualizing Translation: Belonging Beyond Citizenship in Contemporary Germany.”
Megan Ewing, lecturer I, Germanic languages and literatures, “Rough Surfaces, Difficult Climates: Ecological Thinking in the Neo-Avantgarde.”
Erik Mueggler, Katherine Verdery Collegiate Professor of Anthropology and professor of anthropology, “Slavery, Writing, and Indigenous Jurisdiction in Southwest China.”
2022-23 Faculty Fellows
Su’ad Abdul Khabeer, associate professor of American culture, Hunting Family Faculty Fellow, “Citing Amina.”
Hadji Bakara, assistant professor of English language and literature, Helmut F. Stern Faculty Fellow, “Governments of the Tongue: A Literary History of Human Rights.”
Sally Howell, associate professor of history, U-M Dearborn, John Rich Faculty Fellow, “Halal Metropolis: Mosques, Markets, and Muslim Visibility in Greater Detroit.”
Aida Levy-Hussen, associate professor of English language and literature, Hunting Family Faculty Fellow, “Race Traitors: “Bad” Objects and Illicit Attachments in African American Literature.”
Swapnil Rai, assistant professor of film, television and media, Richard and Lillian Ives Faculty Fellow, “Networked Bollywood: Star Switching Power and the Globalization of Indian Cinema.”
Giulia Riccò, assistant professor of Romance languages and literatures, John Rich Faculty Fellow, “New World Italians: The Invention of a Brazilian Identity.”
William Stroebel, assistant professor of classical studies and of comparative literature, Helmut F. Stern Faculty Fellow, “Lost in Partition: Greece and Turkey’s Undocumented Literatures at the East-West Borderscape.”
Anca Trandafirescu, associate professor of architecture, Steelcase Faculty Fellow, “Constructed Revisionism: The Monumental Potentials of Past Mistakes.”
2022-23 Graduate Student Fellows
Salman Amir, Middle East studies, David and Mary Hunting Graduate Fellow, “The Lost Tribe of Plato: The Druze Religion and Isma’ili Neoplatonism.”
Leah Bernado-Ciddo, classical studies, David and Mary Hunting Graduate Fellow, “Ceramics, Craft Communities, and Cultural Interactions in the First Millennium Adriatic: Production and Trade of Apulian Matt-Painted Pottery.”
Samet Budak, Middle East studies, Richard & Lillian Ives Graduate Fellow, “A Mediterranean Episteme: Intellectual Networks and Contacts in the Eastern Mediterranean (1350-1500).”
Janice Feng, political science, Richard & Lillian Ives Graduate Fellow, “Towards a Decolonial Account of Desire: The Cultivation of Desire and Indigenous Women’s Self-Making and Resistance in Early Modern French North America.”
Isabelle Gillet, history of art, Mary Fair Croushore Graduate Fellow, “Civility and Portraits of Women in France (1815–1848).”
Matthew Liberti, English language and literature, James A. Winn Graduate Fellow, “Standard Deviations: Migration Literature’s Overlapping Histories, Images, and Languages.”
Anthony Revelle, Romance languages and literatures, Mary Fair Croushore Graduate Fellow, “Sharing Flesh. Carnivorism & Commensality in Medieval French Literature.”
Alex Tarbet, classical studies, Sylvia “Duffy” Engle Graduate Fellow, “Greco-Egyptian Humor and Storytelling: Herodotus on the Nile.”
