The Michigan Society of Fellows has selected six new members out of over 1,660 applicants to serve three-year appointments as postdoctoral fellows and non-tenure track assistant professors, beginning this fall. 

The fellows were chosen for the importance and quality of their scholarship and their interest in interdisciplinary work. During their time at the University of Michigan, they will teach selected courses in their affiliated departments and continue their scholarly research.

The new junior fellows, with their affiliated department at U-M, their degree-granting institution, and their research project are:

• Amia Davis, classical studies (LSA), Yale University; “Unbecoming Roman: Chaos Theory and Identity Collapse in the Roman Balkans (2nd – 7th c. CE).”
• Tanner Kovach, anthropology (LSA), University of Connecticut; “Investigating Neanderthal–Modern Human Interaction and Evolution in the Southern Caucasus.”
• Jack LaViolette, sociology (LSA), Columbia University; “Curriculum, ideology, and the shaping of postgraduate lives: Computational approaches.”
• Carlos Andres Marcelo Serván, mathematics (LSA), the University of Chicago; “Lefschetz fibrations through the lens of Teichmüller theory.”
• Maya Samuels-Fair, earth and environmental sciences (LSA), University of California, Berkeley; “Understanding the effect of reproductive strategy on extinction risk using the fossil record.”
• Tinghao Zhou, film, television and media (LSA), University of California, Santa Barbara; “At the Ends of Media: E-waste Toxicity and Environmental Politics in Rural China.”

Fellows appointed in previous years who will continue as members of the Michigan Society of Fellows are: 

• Aabid Allibhai, law.
• Zoë Berman, Afroamerican and African studies.
• James Boyko, ecology and evolutionary biology.
• Dina Mahmoud, comparative literature.
• Justin Miller, classical studies.
• Teresa Paneque-Carreño, astronomy.
• Erik Peterson, physics.
• Sylvia Ryerson, American culture.
• Phoebe Springstubb, history of art.
• Julio Villa-Palomino, anthropology.

The Michigan Society of Fellows was founded in 1970 with grants from the Ford Foundation and Horace H. and Mary Rackham Funds. 

The society provides financial and intellectual support to individuals selected for professional promise and interdisciplinary interests. Competition for the fellowships is open to eligible candidates in the physical and life sciences, engineering, the social sciences, education, the humanities, and the arts.