The Michigan Society of Fellows is welcoming its newest cohort of senior fellows. 

The new senior fellows will join the 24 who were appointed in years past to help create a spirited intellectual community and serve as models, mentors and colleagues for the junior fellows.

They help select the newest cohort of junior fellows, participate in monthly dinners at which all the fellows present their newest work, and recommend a new cohort of senior fellows each year.

The Society, under the auspices of the Rackham Graduate School, was founded in 1970 by seven founding U-M faculty members, including then-president Robben Fleming, to stimulate cross-disciplinary awareness and exchange. Out of these conversations have come new ideas, new methodological experiments, and even new collaborative projects.

“The University of Michigan has some of the world’s most brilliant scholars, offering unmatched breadth and depth across disciplines,” President Domenico Grasso said. “I look forward to learning more about the cohort’s ideas that will have others looking to Michigan in the years to come.”

Drawing together fellows from across all scholarly and artistic fields, the society welcomes six postdoctoral junior fellows each year for a term of three years, and a group of senior fellows, drawn from distinguished faculty across the university, for a term of four years.

The latest senior fellows are:

• Kathryn Babayan, professor of Iranian history and culture, and of history, LSA.
• Benjamin Fortson, professor of classical studies, and of linguistics, LSA.
• Minal Patel, professor of health behavior and health equity, School of Public Health.
• Devon Payne-Sturges, University Diversity and Social Transformation Professor and professor of environmental health sciences, School of Public Health.
• Elizabeth Popp Berman, Richard H. Price Professor of Organizational Studies, professor of organizational studies, and of sociology, LSA.
• Perrin Selcer, associate professor of history, LSA; and associate professor of Program in the Environment, School for Environment and Sustainability.
• Kira Thurman, associate professor of Germanic languages and literatures, and of history, LSA; and associate professor of music, theatre and dance, School of Music, Theatre & Dance.
• Angela Violi, Arthur F. Thurnau Professor; and Dennis Assanis Collegiate Professor, professor of mechanical engineering, of chemical engineering, and of electrical engineering and computer science, College of Engineering.