Nine International Senior Fellows Start Collaborations with UA Ruhr Researchers

The established scholars who have started their Senior Fellowships at the College in March 2026 possess outstanding research expertise in an impressive range of fields within the social sciences and the humanities, covering cultural anthropology, migration studies, sociology of education, political science and governance, health policy, law and literary studies, history of philosophy, criminology, and historical theology. The home institutions of the visiting researchers are equally diverse, located in Armenia, Brazil, Ethiopia, India, Nigeria, South Africa, the UK, and the USA.

On 10 March 2026, the group of Senior Fellows and six tandem partners met at the Welcome Day in Essen where the College’s administration and staff warmly received them. The scholars outlined the research activities planned for their six-month stays, including various academic events they will be co-organising with their tandem partners. A weekly colloquium provides the opportunity for Senior Fellows and researchers at the College to discuss their current research projects across disciplines.

The International Senior Fellowship Programme

The international Senior Fellowship Programme promotes building sustainable international partnerships and research cooperation in the social sciences and the humanities. Through an annual call for applications, the College for Social Sciences and Humanities selects up to 20 internationally recognised scholars for research stays within the University Alliance Ruhr.

The current call for applications invites established researchers to apply for fellowships starting in 2027 until 15 May 2026. 

Current Senior Fellows and Tandem Projects

Sreeparna Chattopadhyay is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the Manipal Law School (India). Her research interests include gendered violence in India, intersectional inequities in health systems, and reproduction. In a tandem project with Elena Beregow (College for Social Sciences and Humanities and TU Dortmund University), she will investigate knowledge production and narratives related to climate change, with an emphasis on the impact of extreme heat in India and Germany.

Daniel Chigudu is Professor of Political Science and Governance at the University of South Africa (UNISA). He specialises in governance, peace and conflict studies, social protection, gender equality, and development evaluation, with a particular focus on African contexts. With his tandem partner Martina Brandt (TU Dortmund University), he will work on a project that examines how changing social protection policies can facilitate healthy ageing across African social systems.

Alison Cuellar is Professor of Health Administration and Policy at George Mason University (USA). The focus of her research is children’s health policy, including services and health insurance for low-income children. In a joint project with Martin Karlsson and Daniel Kühnle (University of Duisburg-Essen), she investigates children’s mental health challenges in Germany from a life course perspective, taking into account disadvantage in early life and prevention policy.

Aschalew Abeje Lakew is Associate Professor of Migration Studies at Bahir Dar University (Ethiopia). His research has a particular emphasis on mechanisms of internal and transnational migration as well as its effects on the social structure in Ethiopia, especially the Amhara region. Working with Anja Tervooren (University of Duisburg-Essen), he will analyse ethnographic materials to examine child labour bondage in the agrarian society of Ethiopia’s Awi Zone, with a focus on economic and socio-cultural factors.

Julia Ng is Reader in Critical Theory and founding director of the Centre for Philosophy and Critical Thought at Goldsmiths, University of London (UK). Her work has explored the links between modern mathematics and political thought, modern German-Jewish philosophy, and theories of history and language in the 20th century. The project in which she collaborates with Astrid Deuber-Mankowsky (Ruhr University Bochum) builds on the German-Jewish reception of Daoist concepts in the early 20th century and seeks to reconfigure Critical Theory for Global South contexts.

Anna Ohanjanyan is a religious studies scholar with a focus on historical theology and head of the Department for the Study of the Armenian Texts of the 15th–19th Centuries at the Mesrop Mashtots Institute of Ancient Manuscripts ‘Matenadaran’ (Armenia). She will work together with Margarita Voulgaropoulou (Ruhr University Bochum). Their project examines cross-confessional theological exchange in 18th-century Constantinople through Armenian translations of Greek Orthodox treatises by Eustratios Argenti on Baptism and the Eucharist.

Oludayo Tade is a sociologist at the University of Ibadan (Nigeria) and founding president of the Nigeria Society for Criminology (NSC). His research covers victims of crime, cybercriminality, deviance and social problems, conflict and peace studies, protests, diaspora and transnational studies. In a tandem project with Christine Morgenstern (Ruhr University Bochum), he explores how women displaced by Bokoharam terrorists in northeast Nigeria experience and cope with violent victimisation.

Kathryn Temple is Professor of Law and Humanities at Georgetown University (USA). She has published widely on the history of legal emotions. The joint project with Eva Weber-Guskar (Ruhr University Bochum) draws on law and humanities methodologies to situate the emergence of the concept of ‘ambivalence’ as a modern emotion in the context of the cultural, social, and juridical conditions of the period of modernity.

Wivian Weller is Professor of Education at the University of Brasília (Brazil) and a research fellow of the National Council for Scientific and Technological Development. Her research focuses primarily on the sociology of education and educational inequalities as well as international comparative school and youth research. She will collaborate with Nicolle Pfaff (University of Duisburg-Essen) on a project aiming to develop an analytical framework for studying neo-conservative and right-wing extremist transnational youth movements.

Detailed information about the Senior Fellows and their projects is available on the College’s website: www.college-uaruhr.de/fellowship/tandem-projects.