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 aims to bring innovative approaches to scholarship and teaching.
Established by a gift from the late charter trustee Lloyd Cotsen and the Humanities Council’s leadership in 1999, it offers outstanding scholars with a recent Ph.D. the opportunity to enhance their teaching and research over a period of three years.
“I’ve already learned so much from speaking to these extraordinary scholars,” said Yelena Baraz, director of the society, the Kennedy Foundation Professor of Latin Language and Literature, and professor of classics. “There’s a lot of excitement about the courses they are teaching this year. I am looking forward to their presentations in our weekly seminars, where they will join the continuing fellows and our faculty fellows.”
The full cohort of 12 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.
The new Cotsen fellows of the 2023-26 cohort are:
- Supratik Baralay, lecturer in the Department of Classics, humanistic studies and the Humanities Council.
- Lacy Feigh, lecturer in the Department of History and the Humanities Council.
- Akil Fletcher, lecturer in the Department of Anthropology and the Humanities Council.
- Lieke van Son, visiting postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Astrophysical Sciences
- Xiaoyu Xia, lecturer in the Department of East Asian Studies and the Humanities Council.
