College Welcomes Second Cohort of Senior Fellows

Eight outstanding international scholars are joining the College for Social Sciences and Humanities as Senior Fellows for the winter term 2024/2025, coming to Essen from renowned universities in Israel, Mozambique, Nigeria, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the USA. Their fields of research cover a wide range of disciplines, from sociology, gender studies, German studies, and English linguistics to philosophy and religious studies, political science, and arts.

At the Welcome Day on 18 September, the College administration officially received the Senior Fellows and some of their tandem partners at the College facilities in Essen. On behalf of the Scientific Board, Prof. Ute Schneider (University of Duisburg-Essen) warmly welcomed the visiting scholars, wishing them a productive stay at the University Alliance Ruhr: “I hope you will experience the College as a vivid place for interdisciplinary exchange, and I am sure that you will inspire multi-faceted academic discussions and contribute to a fruitful collaboration.” Presenting their projects, the Senior Fellows provided insights into their research agendas and outlined the activities planned during their fellowship. They will organise various academic events, give lectures, work on publications, and conduct field work.

The international Senior Fellowship Programme promotes sustainable international partnerships and multilateral cooperation in research. Through an annual call for applications, the College selects up to 20 scholars who are active members of a foreign university or research institution and have an internationally recognised, outstanding research profile.

Patrício Langa is a sociologist and Professor of Comparative Higher Education, Policy, and Innovation Studies at Eduardo Mondlane University, Mozambique. His research interest lies on the intersection of sociology, higher education and science studies. With his tandem partner Liudvika Leišytė (TU Dortmund University), he will investigate the epistemic implications of International Research Collaborations (IRCs) and their interculturality in the meaning of science and knowledge production.

Zintombizethu Matebeni, popularly known as Zethu, holds the National Research Foundation (NRF) South Africa Research Chair in Sexualities, Genders and Queer Studies at the University of Fort Hare. With a background in sociology and ethnographic methods, Matebeni has been a catalyst of African queer studies. The research project, set at the intersection of media, gender, queer and Black studies, seeks to forge connections between how South African (audio-)visual culture and performance translates to the German experience. Zethu Matebeni’s tandem partner is Henriette Gunkel from Ruhr University Bochum.

Imke Meyer and Heidi Schlipphacke are professors of Germanic Studies at the University of Illinois, Chicago, USA. Meyer‘s research is focused on 19th to 21st century German-language literature, film and thought. Heidi Schlipphacke also holds an affiliate appointment in Classics and Mediterranean Studies and has published widely on German, European, and American literature, film and thought. In their fellowship and joint project, they will explore the slippages and boundaries between the concepts homosociality, homoeroticism, and homosexuality in the context of gendered identities in the literary sphere. They work with Sigrid Nieberle from TU Dortmund University.

Irven M. Resnick is a professor of Philosophy and Religion and has held the Chair of Excellence in Judaic Studies at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (USA) since 1990. His research project, pursued in tandem with Alexandra Cuffel (Ruhr University Bochum), will investigate Albert the Great’s understanding of humoral complexion and its influence upon health and disease in both individuals and whole peoples, leading to a reconstruction of his ethno-anthropology.

Ahmad H. Sa’di is an associate professor in the Department of Politics and Government at Ben Gurion University, Israel. His research project seeks to trace the history of the declinist perspective, map the core ideas of declinism and study their mutations, in order to illustrate how this discourse is mobilised to sustain European right-wing populist movements and parties. Sa’di will be working with Franziska Martinsen from the University of Duisburg-Essen.

Foluke O. Unuabonah is a professor at the English Department of Redeemer’s University, Ede, Nigeria. Her main areas of research include (corpus) pragmatics and discourse analysis. In collaboration with Christiane Meierkord (Ruhr University Bochum), she will investigate the use of different discourse-pragmatic features (DPFs) in three African English varieties (Ghanaian, Nigerian, and Ugandan English) on the basis of postcolonial pragmatics and variational pragmatics.

Althea Greenan works in Special Collections and Archives at Goldsmiths University of London (UK) curating the Women’s Art Library (WAL) collection. She programmes artistic research supporting artists, students and academics working with the wide range of materials and archives. Greenan will begin her fellowship at the College in November 2024 and work with Tahani Nadim (College for Social Sciences and Humanities, Ruhr University Bochum) on a project which centres on the question of archiving as an emancipatory tool for political participation.

Learn more about the Fellows and their projects: www.college-uaruhr.de/fellowship/tandem-projects