Five scholars join Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts
Alice Pisani (left), Ben Machava, Mari Jo Velasco, Natalie Prizel and Matthew Larsen, pictured with director Michael Gordin, the Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History, have joined the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts this year.
Five new postdoctoral scholars have joined the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts(Link is external) this academic year. The society is an interdisciplinary community of postdoctoral fellows and Princeton faculty members that aims to bring innovative approaches to scholarship and teaching. It offers outstanding young scholars with a recent Ph.D. the opportunity to enhance their teaching and research over a period of three years.
The Society of Fellows, initiated by a gift from Lloyd Cotsen, charter trustee and member of the Class of 1950, and established under the leadership of the Humanities Council(Link is external) in 1999, is directed by Michael Gordin(Link is external), the Rosengarten Professor of Modern and Contemporary History(Link is external).
The full cohort of 13 Cotsen postdoctoral fellows(Link is external) is drawn from a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and humanities-related social and natural sciences. They are appointed in the Humanities Council and teach half-time in their chosen academic home department or the Program in Humanistic Studies(Link is external) while pursuing their own research projects. The postdoctoral and faculty fellows affiliated with the society meet regularly in the Joseph Henry House for discussions, seminars and lectures. The new fellows are:
Matthew Larsen(Link is external), lecturer in the Humanities Council and religion(Link is external), and Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows. Following his first book on the New Testament, “Gospels before the Book,” he is pursuing a new project on early Christians and incarceration.
Ben Machava(Link is external), lecturer in the Humanities Council and history, and Link-Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows. A historian of modern Africa, he is completing a monograph on “Social Reform, Citizenship and the Carceral Regime in Socialist Mozambique: A History, 1974-1988.”
Alice Pisani(Link is external), postdoctoral research associate, astrophysical sciences(Link is external), and Cotsen Fellow in the Society of Fellows. Her current research focuses on cosmic voids, the large under-dense regions in the distribution of galaxies in the universe.
Natalie Prizel(Link is external), lecturer in the Humanities Council, English(Link is external) and humanistic studies, and Haarlow-Cotsen Postdoctoral Fellow in the Society of Fellows. A specialist in Victorian literature, and queer and disability studies, she is writing a book titled “The Good Look: Victorian Visual Ethics and Physical Difference.”
Mari Jo Velasco(Link is external), lecturer in the Humanities Council and music(Link is external), and Cotsen postdoctoral fellow in the Society of Fellows. Her research interests include French music history and culture. She is working on a book “Moving Mountains: Popular Song and Devotional Culture in the Western Pyrénées and the Building of Nations.”
