2024 Alumni College Fellows

Established in 2015, Alumni College Fellowships provide funding for individual scholarly projects. Each year, the Humanities Center selects up to twelve fellows, who receive funding and who present their work at our autumn Alumni College event.

Zara Amdur (Philosophy)

Project: "Socratic Midwifery: Socrates’ expertise and what he learned from his mother"

In Plato’s Theaetetus, Socrates claims he practices midwifery, the very same art possessed by his mother (149a). Although it is clear that Socrates is not literally delivering babies, two reasons render the meaning of this metaphor opaque. First, very little is known about the work midwives were doing in classical Athens. Second, Socrates rarely makes claims of positive knowledge; he is most famous for his awareness of his own ignorance. My research sheds light on both these aspects. I contribute to our understanding of female-encoded knowledge in antiquity and the philosophical meaning of the midwifery metaphor for Socrates’ pedagogical practices.

Pavel Andrade (Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures)

Project: "Mexican Literary Countertopographies"

As part of the archival work toward my first monograph, Modernism's Afterworlds: Capital, Form, and the Mexican Novel's Countertopographical Imagination, I plan to visit the Special Collections of Princeton University Libraries to consult the personal papers of authors Carlos Fuentes and Elena Garro. This visit will provide archival documentation for two chapters of my book and one article-in-progress focused on how the Mexican modernist novel of the 1960s absorbed the antinomies produced by the collapse of the national-popular state, and how self-consciousness and experimentation became imaginary lifelines in the face of socioeconomic decimation.

Jacob Baum (History)

Project: "The Deaf Shoemaker: Ability, Disability, and Daily Life in the Sixteenth Century"

The Deaf Shoemaker is a micro-historical study of the quotidian experiences of disability in the sixteenth century. Its subject is Sebastian Fischer (1513-c.1554), an adventitiously deaf shoemaker who lived in the German city of Ulm and left behind an extraordinary record of his life and times: a 430-leaf autobiographical notebook that entwines the story of his impairment with some of the most momentous transformations of the sixteenth century. Early modern disability history is an emerging field, but to date relatively few firsthand, experiential perspectives like Fischer’s have been represented. This study therefore stands to make important contributions to this field.

Fareed Ben-Youssef (English)

Project: "Seeing Beauty in a ‘Fenced In’ Life: Naomi Kawase's "An" and Dueling Representations of Hansen's Disease"

The fellowship would support a research trip to Japan. The resulting research article presents our interviews with director Naomi Kawase on An (2015), focusing on her deployment of beautiful aesthetics to capture long-marginalized, oft-unseen Hansen’s disease sufferers. We position such interviews against those with the National Hansen's Disease Museum and Sanitarium curator, analysis of the museum’s clinical videos, and ethnographic vignettes detailing how such taboo histories are presented at sanitaria across Japan. Of interest to film and disability studies scholars, our article theorizes a vital duel of representations, illuminating Kawase’s cinema and competing strategies to ethically portray those labeled ‘Other.’

Caroline Bishop (Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures)

Project: "Cicero Among Roman and Greek Readers"

This fellowship offers summer support to work on my second book, Cicero Among Roman and Greek Readers, which explores how Cicero’s reception was shaped in classical antiquity. Work over the fellowship period would focus on the book’s final chapter, which considers Roman influence on Cicero’s Greek reception. Incorporating the response of Greek readers to Cicero is crucial to the book’s core argument: namely, that the interpenetration of the Roman and Greek literary critical traditions played a pivotal role in the shaping of classicism. 

Megan Condis, (Media & Communication)

Project: "Now You're Playing with Gender: A Content Analysis of Gender and Sexuality in Video Game Print Advertisements, 1990-2000"

Before the widespread adoption of the internet, print advertisements played a vital role in the industry—not only in terms of informing potential customers about new products, but also in conveying an ever-shifting set of gendered values associated with gaming culture. In a previous study we conducted a longitudinal content analysis drawing on more than 2,200 print advertisements published in Electronic Gaming Monthly between 1990 and 2000. We hope to expand on this study by comparing this era of gaming to the pre-crash era of the 1970s and 1980s. We also hope to examine the Letters sections of these magazines to see the way in which these issues have been taken up by readers and editorial staff.

David Larmour (Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures)

Project: "The Virtues of Agonism: A Re-Evaluation"

Agonism, "the universal spirit of competition" (from Greek agon), is often viewed as the defining ideal of ancient Greek culture. While the Greeks themselves offer much to support this view--in mythology, athletics, philosophy and politics--significant reservations are visible in such Greek phenomena as stasis (political factionalism). This project radically re-evaluates how we should understand Greek Agonism, and its contemporary derivatives, in the wake of Nietzsche's emphasis on "agonal transfiguration" and Foucault's "care of the self". The project, led by myself, is a collaboration among a group of experts on literary, philosophical, ethical and physical agonism in Ancient Greece and contemporary society.

Miguel Levario (History)

Project: "The Mythos of Immigration Reform"

My book project tentatively titled, The Mythos of Immigration Reform, traces the political evolution of immigration reform into a national security issue and its impact on the Latino community. It examines the historical context of immigration reform since the Reagan Administration and the monumental Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 through the aggressive deportation operation and deferred action Executive Order of the Obama Administration. The study analyzes the political, economic, and social motivations of each presidential administration. The book project reclaims a scholarly historical approach to recent history and contemporary immigration and border control issues.

Asma Mehan (Architecture)

Project: "Transitioning Heritage: Critical Perspectives on Urban Resilience in Post-Oil West Texas"

This study explores the transition of West Texas from its deep-rooted oil industry towards a sustainable, diversified economy. It aims to trace the historical interplay of oil-driven urban development and envision new paradigms for urban resilience. The research will analyze existing infrastructure, propose adaptive urban planning strategies, and emphasize balancing environmental sustainability with socio-economic development. Drawing on global post-industrial examples, this study seeks to offer a strategic framework for transforming West Texas’s urban landscapes by repurposing its industrial heritage and energy heritage to benefit future generations.

Bernd Reiter (Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures)

Project: "How Traditional African Markets can build Trust and Community: An Exploratory Case Study of Tangier’s Traditional Souk"

I propose to conduct empirical research of one of north Africa's oldest markets, the souk of Tangier, to determine the conditions under which market interactions can build trust and community and to describe the role of women in traditional markets. I propose to spend one month in Tangier to conduct ethnographic field research, conducting qualitative interview and observing routine market interactions. As capitalist markets tend to undermine democracy, I seek to determine the conditions under which markets can support democracy and community.

Mathilda Shepard (Classical & Modern Languages & Literatures)

Project: "Life Politics: Flesh, Viscerality and Visual Culture in Colombia"

Social movements across the Americas are increasingly positioning life itself as the horizon of politics. From Andean projects of sumak kawsay (good living) to the global movement in defense of Black Lives and the emergence of autogestión de la vida (self-management of life) as an intersectional framework linking reproductive and territorial autonomy, life has become an anchoring concept for a wide range of movements working at the crossroads of social and environmental justice. Life Politics: Flesh, Viscera and Visual Culture in Colombia examines the formation of this political imaginary through a study of activist visual media in Colombia.

Ori Swed (Sociology, Anthropology, Social Work)

Project: "Unraveling the Threads: A Comprehensive Analysis of the Russian Influence Campaign on Twitter During the 2016 US Presidential Elections"

This important project seeks funding to complete a pioneering book on the Russian influence campaign during the 2016 US elections. Analyzing over 2,000 troll accounts and 2 million tweets, the research uncovers the division of labor, quantifies tactics, and explores content in the trolls’ network. This first-of-its-kind analysis aims to unravel the intricate network of Russian trolls, offering vital insights into information warfare. The project's significance lies in informing policymakers, social media platforms, and the public, enhancing understanding of external manipulation threats. Funding support will enable the final stages of research, writing, and production, contributing to the defense of democratic processes.