Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts welcomes new scholars
The Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts welcomed five new postdoctoral fellows this fall. Pictured from left: Dimitrios Halikias; Chloe Howe Haralambous; Kelsey Henry; Yelena Baraz, director of the society; Timothy Loh and Sara Kang.
Five new scholars have joined Princeton University’s Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts this fall. The society is an interdisciplinary community of postdoctoral fellows and Princeton faculty members that encourages innovation in scholarship and teaching.
Established in 1999 by a gift from the late charter trustee Lloyd Cotsen and the Humanities Council's leadership and now celebrating its 25th anniversary, the society offers outstanding scholars with a recent Ph.D. the opportunity to enhance their teaching and research over a three-year term. Fellows meet regularly for formal and informal discussions, seminars, workshops and reading groups to pursue new knowledge and understanding within and across disciplines. The society has welcomed 123 postdoctoral fellows to Princeton since its founding.
"The members of this year’s cohort bring new ideas and perspectives to the society and the Princeton community at large," said Yelena Baraz, director of the society. “They are starting conversations with faculty and graduate students, and their innovative classes are attracting undergraduates.” Baraz is the Kennedy Foundation Professor of Latin Language and Literature at Princeton and professor of classics.
The full cohort of 14 Cotsen postdoctoral fellows is drawn from a wide range of disciplines in the humanities and humanities-related social sciences — and includes one astrophysicist. Fellows hold appointments as lecturers in their academic host departments and in the Humanities Council. They teach half-time while conducting their own research.
During their time at Princeton, they engage with the campus community in many ways: advising and mentoring undergraduate students, participating in academic programs and panels, presenting their research, developing new courses and co-teaching with faculty members. The new Cotsen fellows of the 2024-27 cohort are:
Dimitrios Halikias
Dimitrios Halikias
Appointed in the Department of Politics, the Program in Humanistic Studies and the Humanities Council, Halikias is interested in political philosophy and the history of political thought. His current book project focuses on the reinterpretations of medieval feudalism that were deployed by 19th-century critics of liberalism and capitalism. In his next project, he plans to focus on the philosophy of the American Progressive Movement. Dimitrios received a Ph.D. in government from Harvard University. This fall, he is teaching a seminar in political theory on capitalism and its critics.
Kelsey Henry
Kelsey Henry
Appointed in the Department of African American Studies and the Humanities Council, Henry is a historian whose work integrates perspectives from Black studies, histories of science and medicine, and disability studies. Her research asks how the conflation of Blackness and developmental disorder became integral to the language and logic of racism in the United States, and examines the role that medical and behavioral science has played in this conflation. Henry holds a Ph.D. in American studies and a master's in the history of science and medicine from Yale University. This fall, she is teaching the course “Topics in African American Culture and Life: Black Disability Studies, Black Disability Histories.”
Chloe Howe Haralambous
Chloe Howe Haralambous
Appointed in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Humanities Council, Howe Haralambous is a scholar of comparative literature who studies mobility and revolution at sea. Her particular focus is on political, fictional and forensic narratives of the Mediterranean passage between Libya and Italy. At Princeton, she is working on her book project, provisionally titled “The Rescue Plot: Politics, Policing and Subterfuge in the Mediterranean Migrant Corridor.” Chloe received her Ph.D. in English and comparative literature from Columbia University. This fall, she is teaching the course “Refugees, Migrants and the Making of Contemporary Europe.”
Sara Kang
Sara Kang
Appointed in the Department of History and the Humanities Council, Kang is a historian of gender and sexuality in modern Japan, Korea and the Asia-Pacific. Her research investigates histories of sexual exploitation and violence under overlapping Japanese and American imperial formations. At Princeton, Kang is developing her first book project, “Operation Relax: Empires of Sex in Japan, South Korea and the Asia-Pacific (1945-1995)." She holds a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University. This fall, she is teaching the course “Women and War in Asia/America.”
Timothy Loh
Timothy Loh
Appointed in the Department of Anthropology and the Humanities Council, Loh is a sociocultural anthropologist. Bringing together medical anthropology, linguistic anthropology, and science and technology studies, his ethnographic research examines sociality, language and religion in the deaf and signing worlds spanning Jordan, Singapore and the United States. At Princeton, he is working on his book project “Assistive Modernity: Deafness and Technology in Contemporary Jordan.” He holds a Ph.D. and a master's in History, Anthropology, and Science, Technology and Society (HASTS) from MIT. This fall, Loh is teaching the course “Differences: The Anthropology of Disability.”
