FRIAS Fellows 2024/25
Prof. Dr. Chikodili Collins Ajibo
University of Nigeria
Law
Senior Fellow
October 2024 – April 2025
Sustainable Governance of Natural Resources as a Pathway to Conflict Management
Dr. Atreyee
Banerjee
Albert-Ludwigs-Universität
Physics (Soft Matter)
Early Career Fellow
October 2024 – June 2025
Structure-property relationship in soft matters to discover novel materials in silicon
Dr. Jenny Benham
Cardiff University
History, Medieval Studies
Senior Fellow
January 2024 – June 2025
Espionage in the Middle Ages
Dr. Berit Callsen
University of Osnabrück
Romance Cultural Studies
Senior Fellow
November 2024 – April 2025
Watery Surroundings – Islandic Conditions: Active Waterscapes in Latin American Literature and Film
Prof. Dr. Bret Davis
Loyola University Maryland
Philosophy
Senior Fellow
July 2023 – December 2025
Knowledge and Wisdom in Zen Buddhism
Prof. Dr. Christina Grozinger
Pennsylvania State University
Entomology
Senior Fellow
March 2022 – December 2025
Accelerating research on land use and climate change effects on pollinator populations through high-throughput tools
Dr. Austin Himes
Washington State University
Forestry
Senior Fellow
June 2025 – August 2025
Standards for social-ecological systems research in forests
Dr. Philipp Höfele
University of Freiburg
Philosophy, Ethics
Early Career Fellow
October 2024 – September 2027
Digital Anthropocene: AI and Sustainability
Prof. Dr. Birgit Hopfener
Carleton University
Art history, Contemporary art and theory in a global framework
Guest Researcher
August 2024 – December 2024
Doing Critical Global Art History. Transcultural analyses and a pluriversal conceptual framework for contemporary art historiographic art
Dr. Stephen Howard
KU Leuven
Philosophy
Early Career Fellow
October 2024 – July 2025
A Kantian Epistemic Approach to Climate Change Debates
Dr. Apoli Bertrand Kameni
Université Omar Bongo / Sciences Po Lyon
Political Science, Strategic International Relations
Guest Researcher
November 2024 – December 2024
The Dead Sea’s Minerals: the Blind Spot of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
Dr. Agata A. Konczal
Wageningen University
Environmental Anthropology, Political Ecology, Environmental History
Senior Fellow
July 2025 – August 2025
Relational values within frameworks for social-ecological systems research in forests
Dr. Benjamin Kraemer
University of Freiburg
Aquatic Ecology
Early Career Fellow
October 2024 – July 2025
Lake dead zones: global drivers and sensitivity to climate change
Prof. Dr. André Krischer
University of Freiburg
History
Senior Fellow
October 2024 – September 2025
FRIAS Project Group: Post-war Periods. Plurality – Temporality – Re/Constructions
Dr. Robert Lee
University of Cambridge
History
Early Career Fellow
September 2024 – June 2025
Superintending Conquest: United States Expansion along the Indian Boundary Line
Prof. Dr. Shelly Levy-Tzedek
Ben Gurion University
Human-Robot Interaction & Motor Control
Senior Fellow
July 2025
Senior Fellow
October 2018
Ethical and Legal Implications of Social Robots in Rehabilitation
Prof. Dr. Jie-Hyun Lim
Sogang University
History
Senior Fellow
May 2025 – July 2025
Global Easts as a Problem Space
Prof. Dr. Thomas Manganaro
University of Richmond
English Literature
Guest Researcher
August 2025 – July 2026
Saying and Showing in the Early Novel
Prof. Dr. Suzanne Mohney
Pennsylvania State University
Materials Science and Engineering
Senior Fellow
December 2023 – December 2025
Novel Electrodes for Energy Conversion
Prof. Dr. Daniela Müller
Radboud University Nijmegen
Church History, History of Christianity, Canon Law
Senior Fellow
July 2021 – December 2025
Old and New Debates about the Cathars. The Controversy on Catharis
Dr. Ervan Nurtawab
State Islamic Institute (IAIN) of Metro
Malay-Indonesian Islamic Studies
External Junior Fellow
September 2022 – August 2024
Early Career Fellow
September 2024 – August 2025
Dr. Nneka Adaora Okechukwu
Independent Researcher
Public international law, human rights, and politics
Senior Fellow
June 2025
The Legal Implications of Geopolitical Splintering on Sustainable Development: A Case Study of Socio-Political Rights Frameworks in Africa
Prof. Dr. Onookome Okome
University of Alberta
African Studies, Literature and Cinema
Senior Fellow
June 2021 – December 2025
Nollywood: Text, Context, Controversy
Dr. Felicitas Opwis
Georgetown University
Islamic Studies
Senior Fellow
July 2021 – December 2025
Language and Hermeneutics in the Islamic Sciences
Prof. em. Dr. Dr. h.c. Jürgen Osterhammel
University of Freiburg
History
Distinguished Fellow
March 2019 – December 2027
Balzan Project in Global History: Global Processes and the Dynamics of Regions
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Piller
University of Freiburg
History
Early Career Fellow
October 2024 – September 2025
Prof. Dr. Klaus J. Puettmann
Oregon State University
Forest Ecology
Senior Fellow
June 2021 – December 2025
Developing and managing new forest ecosystems in times of global change
Dr. Ayesha Qurrat ul Ain
International Islamic University Islamabad
Religious Studies
Senior Fellow
October 2024 – January 2026
Modernity, science and Qurānic Hermeneutics in the Sub-continent: A study of selected responses to Darwinism in the twentieth Century
Prof. Dr.-Ing. habil. Bastian E. Rapp
University of Freiburg
Microsystem Engineering, Material Science
Senior Fellow (FRIAS Project Group)
October 2024 – September 2025
Prof. Dr. Lauren Rickards
La Trobe University
Human Geography
Senior Fellow
July 2023 – December 2025
Well-adapted sustainability; sustainable adaptation
Dr. Sergio Francisco Romero
University of Texas at Austin
Linguistic Anthropology
Senior Fellow
January 2025 – August 2025
On God, idols, and language: Latin, Spanish, Arabic, and the Christianization of the highland Maya
Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Sansone
University of Freiburg
Physics
Senior Fellow
September 2024 – April 2025
Attosecond correlation spectroscopy and coherent control of molecular dissociation
Dr. Arantzazu Saratxaga Arregi
Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities
Philosophy
External Junior Fellow
September 2023 – August 2024
Guest Researcher
October 2024 – December 2024
Epistemologien der Komplexität
Prof. Dr. Marek Schönherr
Durham University
Theoretical Particle Physics, Particle Physics Phenomenology
Senior Fellow
June – July 2025, October – November 2025
Electroweak precision for the Large Hadron Collider
Prof. Dr. Scott R. Sehon
Bowdoin College
Physics
Guest Researcher
June 2025
Nihilism, Magic, and Mystery: An Essay about Rationality, Norms, and Agency
Prof. Dr. Sandro Sessarego
University of Texas at Austin
Spanish and Portuguese Languages
External Senior Fellow
May 2023 – August 2024
Senior Fellow
June 2025 – August 2025
Afro-Veracruz Spanish and the Afro-Hispanic Language Atlas
Dr. Ari Sitas
University of Cape Town / University of Stellenbosch
Sociology
Senior Fellow
September 2024
The Shredding of the Mandela Dividend: the Ethic of Reconciliation Proscribed? & Sociology and the London Universal Race Congress of 1911
Prof. Dr. Claudius Sittig
University of Freiburg
Contemporary German Literature
Senior Fellow
October 2024 – September 2025
FRIAS Project Group: Post-war Periods. Plurality – Temporality – Re/Constructions
Dr. Robert Spindler
English and German Literature
Early Career Fellow
June 2023 – December 2024
Outsiders, Lawbreakers, Apostates, Witches: Figures of Transgression in Narrative English Broadside Ballads (1550-1800)
Prof. Dr. Paulina Starski
University of Freiburg
European and International Law
Senior Fellow
October 2024 – September 2025
FRIAS Project Group: Post-war Periods. Plurality – Temporality – Re/Constructions
Prof. Dr. Fabian Stroth
University of Freiburg
Byzantine Archaeology
Senior Fellow
October 2024 – September 2025
FRIAS Project Group: GlassAge. A Transparent View of Ancient Innovation
Prof. Dr. Gregg Jørgen Suaning
The University of Sydney
Neuroprotheses
Senior Fellow
July 2021 – December 2025
Neural regeneration in spinal cord injuries
Dr. Linus Ubl
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Medieval German Literature and Culture
Early Career Fellow
October 2024 – March 2025
Ars se necandi. Cultural poetics of suicide in the Middle Ages
Prof. Dr. Eva von Contzen
University of Freiburg
English Literature
Internal Junior Fellow
April 2017 – December 2023
Senior Fellow
October 2024 – September 2025
FRIAS Project Group: GlassAge. A Transparent View of Ancient Innovation
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Julia von Ditfurth
University of Freiburg
Art History
Senior Fellow
October 2024 – September 2025
FRIAS Project Group: GlassAge. A Transparent View of Ancient Innovation