Current Fellows
2024/25 FRIAS Fellows
Each year, outstanding researchers from around the world gather at FRIAS to further their research projects and exchange ideas with fellow scholars. This creates a distinctive intellectual and interdisciplinary environment, bringing together young postdoctoral fellows and esteemed senior professors from the humanities, natural sciences, and life sciences. On this page, we introduce the current cohort of fellows, their events, as well as their research projects and activities. An overview of all previous cohorts can be found here: Fellow Finder
Fellow Projects
Prof. Dr. Chikodili Collins Ajibo
University of Nigeria
Law
External 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)
Internal Junior Fellow
Oktober 2024 – Juni 2025
Structure-property relationship in soft matters to discover novel materials in silicon
Dr. Jenny Benham
Cardiff University
History, Medieval Studies
External Senior Fellow
(FRESCO Programm)
Januar 2024 – Juni 2025
Espionage in the Middle Ages
Dr. Berit Callsen
University of Osnabrück
Romance Cultural Studies
External 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
External Senior Fellow (FRESCO Programme)
July 2023 – December 2025
Knowledge and Wisdom in Zen Buddhism
Prof. Dr. Christina Grozinger
Pennsylvania State University
Entomology
External Senior Fellow (FRESCO Programm)
March 2022 – December 2025
Accelerating research on land use and climate change effects on pollinator populations through high-throughput tools
Dr. Philipp Höfele
University of Freiburg
Philosophy, Ethics
Fellow of the Young Academy for Sustainability Research (YAS)
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
External Senior Fellow
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
External Senior 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. 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
Internal Fellow (FRIAS Project Group)
October 2024 – September 2025
FRIAS Project Group: Post-war Periods. Plurality – Temporality – Re/Constructions
Dr. Robert Lee
University of Cambridge
History
External Junior Fellow
September 2024 – June 2025
Superintending Conquest: United States Expansion along the Indian Boundary Line
Prof. Dr. Suzanne Mohney
Pennsylvania State University
Materials Science and Engineering
External Senior Fellow (FRESCO Programme)
December 2023 – December 2025
Novel Electrodes for Energy Conversion
Prof. Dr. Daniela Müller
Radboud University Nijmegen
Church History, History of Christianity, Canon Law
External Senior Fellow (FRESCO Programme)
July 2021 – December 2025
Old and New Debates about the Cathars. The Controversy on Catharis
Prof. Dr. Gabriel Nuñez
The University of Michigan
Immunology
External Senior Fellow (FRESCO Programme)
July 2021 – December 2025
Inflammation and Metabolism in Host-Microbial Interactions
Prof. Dr. Onookome Okome
University of Alberta
African Studies, Literature and Cinema
External Senior Fellow (FRESCO Programme)
June 2021 – December 2025
Nollywood: Text, Context, Controversy
Dr. Felicitas Opwis
Georgetown University
Islamic Studies
External Senior Fellow (FRESCO Programme)
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 2025
Balzan Project in Global History: Global Processes and the Dynamics of Regions
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Piller
University of Freiburg
History
Internal Fellow (FRIAS Project Group)
October 2024 – September 2025
Prof. Dr. Klaus J. Puettmann
Oregon State University
Forest Ecology
External Senior Fellow (FRESCO Programme)
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
Guest 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
Internal Fellow (FRIAS Project Group)
October 2024 – September 2025
Prof. Dr. Lauren Rickards
La Trobe University
Human Geography
External Senior Fellow (FRESCO Programme)
July 2023 – December 2025
Well-adapted sustainability; sustainable adaptation
Dr. Sergio Francisco Romero
University of Texas at Austin
Linguistic Anthropology
External Junior 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 Freiburg
Physics
External Senior Fellow
September 2024 – April 2025
Attosecond correlation spectroscopy and coherent control of molecular dissociation
Dr. Ari Sitas
University of Cape Town / University of Stellenbosch
Sociology
External Senior Fellow (FRESCO Programme)
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
Internal Fellow (FRIAS Project Group)
October 2024 – September 2025
FRIAS Project Group: Post-war Periods. Plurality – Temporality – Re/Constructions
Dr. Robert Spindler
English and German Literature
External Junior Fellow (FWF Erwin Schrödinger Fellowship)
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
Internal Fellow (FRIAS Project Group)
October 2024 – September 2025
FRIAS Project Group: Post-war Periods. Plurality – Temporality – Re/Constructions
Prof. Dr. Fabian Stroth
University of Freiburg
Archaeology
Internal Fellow (FRIAS Project Group)
October 2024 – September 2025
FRIAS Project Group: GlassAge. A Transparent View of Ancient Innovation
Prof. Dr. Gregg Jørgen Suaning
The University of Sydney
Neuroprotheses
External Senior Fellow (FRESCO Programme)
July 2021 – December 2025
Neural regeneration in spinal cord injuries
Prof. Dr. Nektarios Tavernarakis
University of Crete
Biology
External Senior Fellow (FRESCO Programme)
August 2021 – December 2025
The role of mitophagy in neuronal quality control and survival during ageing
Dr. Linus Ubl
The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Medieval German Literature and Culture
External Junior 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 (ERC Fellowship)
April 2017 – December 2023
Internal Fellow (FRIAS Project Group)
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
Internal Fellow (FRIAS Project Group)
October 2024 – September 2025
FRIAS Project Group: GlassAge. A Transparent View of Ancient Innovation
Events
We warmly invite our Fellows to the following events, which are an integral part of the Fellowship program at FRIAS. Guests are also welcome to join the colloquium. Please register at events@frias.uni-freiburg.de.
Academic Life 2024/25
