New Fellows for the Leuphana Institute for Advanced Studies have been finalised

Lüneburg. The nine new fellows of the Leuphana Institute for Advanced Studies (LIAS) in Culture and Society for the fellowship year 2024/25 have been announced. They come from universities and research institutions in North and South America, Africa and Europe. Their work at LIAS will be characterised by an interdisciplinary approach to humanities and social science research in the face of crisis-ridden social conditions.

The research topics are diverse: and include artificial intelligence and machine learning as well as popular resistance among Iranian women, the nationalisation of the culture of remembrance, and the fight against sexual violence in Nigeria. A female artist is also among those selected. As an artist fellow, she is concerned with the production conditions of artistic work. A new senior fellow will be researching the imperial history of the Hanseatic League.

The LIAS is unique in Lower Saxony. The institute, which is being funded by a five-year grant from zukunft.niedersachsen (formerly Niedersächsisches Vorab) initiative of the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture and the Volkswagen Foundation, plays an important role in Leuphana University’s strategic endeavours to further sharpen its integrative profile in the humanities and social sciences.

Erich Hörl, academic Co-Director of LIAS and Vice President for Research at Leuphana, explains the research concept: “In contrast to other centres of humanities and cultural studies research in Germany, a substantial amount of the work at Leuphana is already collaborative. This collaborative interaction between disciplines is also the model for the LIAS, but applied to a much broader community from other research cultures that raise, perspective and develop problems differently. I am delighted that after just one year we can already see how much this approach is bearing fruit.”

Background
The Leuphana Institute for Advanced Studies (LIAS) in Culture and Society at Leuphana University Lüneburg is a research institute that serves to raise the profile and promote the internationalisation of the university's key research areas. The funding from the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture totalling 5 million Euro offers the fellows ideal research conditions in Leuphana's central building for a period of up to one year. An attractive research environment with interdisciplinary collaboration, university integration and co-creation awaits the fellows.

The fellows selected by an independent advisory board for the new fellowship year are: Bruno Moreschi, University of São Paulo; Maud Meyzaud, Maria Sibylla Merian Centre Conviviality-Inequality in Latin America (Mercia) São Paulo; Proshot Kalami, Norfolk State University; Rabia Harmansah, currently Visiting Fellow at the Stanley J. Seeger '52 Center for Hellenic Studies, Princeton University; Ramona Dima, University of Stavanger; Paula Bertúa, University of Buenos Aires and Idowu Emmanuel Adeniyi, University of Oye-Ekiti. Artist fellow will be Ima-Abasi Okon (London and Amsterdam). Richard Drayton (King's College London) will take up a senior fellowship.