The Michigan Society of Fellows has selected nine new fellows out of 949 applications to serve three-year appointments as postdoctoral scholars and assistant professors, beginning this fall.
The fellows were chosen for the importance and quality of their scholarship and for their interest in interdisciplinary work. During their tenure at the University of Michigan they will teach selected courses in their affiliated departments and continue their scholarly research.
The new fellows, with their affiliated department at U-M, their degree-granting institution, and their research project are:
• Laura Finch — English language and literature; University of Pennsylvania; “Intimate Economies: Financial Citizenship and Literary Form in the Contemporary Novel”
• Cynthia Gerlein-Safdi — Department of Climate and Space Sciences and Engineering, College of Engineering; Princeton University; “Remote Sensing of Canopy Water Dynamics”
• Linda Gosner — Department of Classical Studies, LSA; Brown University; “Imperial Connections, Mining Landscapes, and Local Communities in Roman Iberia”
• Thomas Kelly — Department of Asian Languages and Cultures, LSA; The University of Chicago; “The Poetics of Object Inscription in Early Modern China”
• James Macmillen — Urban and Regional Planning Program, Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning; Cornell University; “How do Urban Planners Engage with Temporality in Their Work?”
• Benjamin Mangrum — Department of English Language and Literature, LSA; University of North Carolina; “Tragedy, American Literature, and Political Theory”
• Brendan McMahon — Department of History of Art, LSA; University of Southern California; “Iridescence and Empiricism”
• Lynette Shaw — Department of Complex Systems, LSA; University of Washington; Modeling the Emergence of Cultural Dynamics from Individual Cognition
• Marlous van Waijenburg — Department of Economics, LSA; Northwestern University; “Financing the African State: The Material Underpinnings of African State Building Efforts”
Fellows appointed in previous years who will continue as members of the Society of Fellows are: Aniket Aga, natural resources and the environment; Amanda Alexander, Afroamerican and African studies and law; Amanda Armstrong, history; Lydia Beaudrot, ecology and evolutionary biology; Tierra Bills, civil and environmental engineering; Jana Cephas, architecture; Kevin Ko, history; Allan Lumba, history; Zhiying Ma, anthropology; Ana Maria Vinea, Near Eastern studies; Rebecca Wollenberg, Judaic studies; and Kelli Wood, history of art.
The Michigan Society of Fellows was founded in 1970 with grants from the Ford Foundation and Horace H. and Mary Rackham Funds. The society provides financial and intellectual support to individuals selected for professional promise and interdisciplinary interests.
Competition for the fellowships is open to eligible candidates in the physical and life sciences, engineering, the social sciences, education, the humanities, and the arts.
