Current Fellows
2025/26 FRIAS Fellows
Each year, 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
Dr. Lukman Adebisi Abdulrauf
University of Ilorin
Law
Senior Fellow
October 2025 – March 2026
Digital Constitutionalism for Sustainable AI Governance in Africa: A Critical Evaluation of Emerging Regulatory Approaches
Prof. Dr. Jennifer Altehenger
University of Oxford
Modern Chinese History
Senior Fellow
July 2026
Tangible Constitutions: The Material Culture of Law in Socialist China
Dr. Jenny Benham
Cardiff University
History, Medieval Studies
Senior Fellow
January 2024 – June 2025
September 2025
Espionage in the Middle Ages
Dr. Kun Dai
University of Freiburg
Chemistry
Early Career Fellow
September 2025 – June 2026
Artificial Protocells Driving Peptide Synthesis in Water
Prof. Dr. Moritz Diehl
University of Freiburg
Mathematics and system optimization
Senior Fellow
October 2025 – December 2026
FRIAS Project Group: Agrivoltaics
Dr. Laurence Gautier
CSH Delhi
History
Early Career Fellow
September 2025 – July 2026
Understanding secularism through state-minority relations. Muslim intermediaries in post-colonial India (1947-2004).
Dr. Berihun Gebeye
University College London
Public Law
Senior Fellow
October 2025
Syncretic Authoritarianism.
Prof. Dr. Stefan Glunz
University of Freiburg
Solar Energy, Photovoltaics, Semiconductor Physics
Senior Fellow
October 2025 – December 2026
FRIAS Project Group: Agrivoltaics
Prof. Dr. Albert Gouaffo
University of Dschang
German Studies
Senior Fellow
November 2025
How ‘blind’ is the German literary canon? Diversity as a challenge and perspective of literary historiography in postcolonial German studies
Dr. Prince Karakire Guma
British Institute in Eastern Africa
Geography
Early Career Fellow
March 2026 – June 2026
Infrastructural Vulnerability and Temporalities of Care and Repair in the Anthropocene
PD Dr. Gero Guttzeit
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich
English Literary Studies
Senior Fellow
October 2025 – March 2026
An Aesthetic Critique of Generative AI: Autonomy, Literature, and the Age of Large Language Models
Dr. Philipp Höfele
University of Freiburg
Philosophy, Ethics
Early Career Fellow
October 2024 – September 2027
Digital Anthropocene: AI and Sustainability
Prof. Dr. Tetiana Hoshko
Ukrainian Catholic University
History
Senior Fellow
October 2025 – December 2025
Women’s Health and Pregnancy in the Towns of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, 16th and 17th Centuries
Dr. Yael Kedar
The Hai College
Philosophy
Senior Fellow
September 2025 – March 2026
Principles of the Distribution of Matter in the Cosmos of Thirteenth-Century Franciscan Thought
Prof. Dr. Alexandra-Maria Klein
University of Freiburg
Ecology, Biodiversity
Senior Fellow
October 2025 – December 2026
FRIAS Project Group: Agrivoltaics
Prof. Dr. Tim Krieger
University of Freiburg
Economics
Rector’s Fellow
October 2025 – February 2026
Explorations in Conflict Economics: Belief, Identity, and Strategic Violence.
FRIAS Project Group
October 2025 – December 2026
Agrivoltaics
Prof. Dr. André Krischer
University of Freiburg
History
Senior Fellow
October 2024 – December 2026
FRIAS Project Group: Post-war Periods. Plurality – Temporality – Re/Constructions
Prof. Dr. Thomas Manganaro
University of Richmond
English Literature
Guest Researcher
August 2025 – July 2026
Saying and Showing in the Early Novel
Dr. Babatola Dominic Olawa
University of Lancashire/North-West University
Psychology
Early Career Fellow
March 2026 – August 2026
Cultural Contexts and Well-being in Old Age: Examining the Role of Cultural Variations in the World Health Organisation’s Active Ageing Determinants.
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
Dr. Sujata Patel
University of Hyderabad
Sociology, Social Theory
Senior Fellow
October 2025 – November 2025
The Multiplicities and Diversities within Anti-Colonial Social Theory
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Piller
University of Freiburg
History
Senior Fellow
October 2024 – December 2026
FRIAS Project Group: Post-war Periods. Plurality – Temporality – Re/Constructions
Dr. Ayesha Qurrat ul Ain
International Islamic University
Islamic 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
October 2024 – December 2026
FRIAS Project Group: GlassAge. A Transparent View of Ancient Innovation
Dr. Léa Renard
University of Heidelberg
Sociology
Early Career Fellow
January 2026 – August 2026
Toward a Historical Sociology of Colonial Knowledge
Prof. Dr. Marek Schönherr
Durham University
Physics
Senior Fellow
October 2025 – November 2025
Electroweak precision for the Large Hadron Collider
Prof. Dr. Scott R. Sehon
Bowdoin College
Philosophy
Guest Researcher
February 2026
Nihilism, Magic, and Mystery: An Essay about Rationality, Norms, and Agency.
Prof. Dr. Claudius Sittig
University of Freiburg
Contemporary German Literature
Senior Fellow
October 2024 – December 2026
FRIAS Project Group: Post-war Periods. Plurality – Temporality – Re/Constructions
Prof. Dr. Henrik Smith
Lund University
Ecology
Senior Fellow
October 2025 – December 2025
Underpinning the implementation of the European Restoration Law with scientific evidence
Dr. Dr. Georg Starke
Technical University of Munich
Medical Ethics
Early Career Fellow
November 2025 – February 2026
Artificial Intelligence at the end of life: a proof-of-concept and critical appraisal of a patient preference predictor.
Prof. Dr. Paulina Starski
University of Freiburg
European and International Law
Senior Fellow
October 2024 – December 2026
FRIAS Project Group: Post-war Periods. Plurality – Temporality – Re/Constructions
Prof. Dr. Fabian Stroth
University of Freiburg
Byzantine Archaeology
Senior Fellow
October 2024 – December 2026
FRIAS Project Group: GlassAge. A Transparent View of Ancient Innovation
Prof. Dr. Gregg Suaning
University of Sydney
Neuroprostheses
Senior Fellow
July 2025 – September 2025
NERRV – Neuronale Regeneration bei Rückenmarksverletzungen
(Neural regeneration in spinal cord injuries)
Dr. Peter Švihra
Czech Academy of Sciences
Semiconductor Detector R&D
Early Career Fellow
November 2025 – December 2025
Februar 2026
Development and Optimization of Advanced Semiconductor Sensors for High-Energy Physics and Beyond
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Joana van de Löcht
University of Münster
German Literature
Senior Fellow
October 2024 – December 2026
FRIAS Project Group: Post-war Periods. Plurality – Temporality – Re/Constructions
Prof. Dr. Eva von Contzen
University of Freiburg
English Literature
Senior Fellow
October 2024 – December 2026
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 – December 2026
FRIAS Project Group: GlassAge. A Transparent View of Ancient Innovation
Prof. Dr. Casey Walsh
University of California
Anthropology
Senior Fellow
January 2026 – August 2026
Neighborly Waters: Groundwater Regulation in California.
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
