Society of Scholars

scholars discussing a topic around the main Simpson Center conference room table

The Society of Scholars is an intellectual community of humanists of diverse generations, academic ranks, and departmental affiliations who contribute to and learn from one another’s work. Each year, approximately eight faculty and three dissertation research fellowships support members of the Society of Scholars. Scholars in year-long residence at the University of Washington may be invited to participate as well. The group meets biweekly throughout the year to discuss their research in progress. 

Apply for the Fellowship (Faculty)

Apply for the Fellowship (Student)

Cohort Archives

2024 - 2025 Society of Scholars

Oya Rose Aktaş
Doctoral Candidate
History
Danya Al-Saleh
Assistant Professor
Jackson School of International Studies
M. Aziz
Assistant Professor
American Ethnic Studies
Jennifer Baez
Assistant Professor
Art History / School of Art + Art History + Design
Jacob Beckert
Doctoral Candidate
Department of History
Bianca Dang
Assistant Professor
History
Diana Flores Ruíz
Assistant Professor
Cinema & Media Studies
Ungsan Kim
Assistant Professor
Asian Languages and Culture
A portrait of Jasmine Mahmoud standing in front of a bookcase.
Assistant Professor
School of Drama
Josh Reid
Associate Professor
American Indian Studies
Randa Tawil
Assistant Professor
CHCI-ACLS Visiting Fellow
Kyle J. Trembley
Doctoral Candidate
Anthropology
JohnMorgan Baker
Doctoral Candidate
English
Andreas P. Bassett stands in front of a large shrubbery while wearing a dark jacket blue shirt and tie.
Doctoral Candidate
English
Anne Duncan
Doctoral Candidate
English
Kathleen Escarcha
Doctoral Candidate
English
medium close-up of Yandong. He is on the left of the frame in a black t-shirt looking at the camera. To the right is a light flare form the setting sun, while the background shows buildings and a park.
Doctoral Candidate
Cinema & Media Studies
Eric Villiers
Doctoral Candidate
School of Drama

2020 - 2021 Society of Scholars Fellow

A close-up portrait of Bettina Judd wearing glasses and a dark shirt.

Bettina Judd (she/her/hers)

Assistant Professor

Feelin: Creative Practice, Pleasure Politics, and Black Feminist Thought

This project explores how Black women artists produce Black feminist thought through the creative process. Using the African American Vernacular English use of the term “feelin” as a mean to index knowledge as affective, Feelin: Creative Practice, Pleasure Politics, and Black Feminist Thought argues that Black women artists approach and produce knowledge as internal and complex sensation entangled with pleasure, pain, anger, and joy to name a few emotions, making artistic production itself the meaning of the work. Feelin intervenes in discourses in critical theory that would disembody feeling as knowledge, and expands notions of Black women’s pleasure politics in Black feminist studies that are inclusive of the erotic, the sexual, the painful, the joyful, the shameful, and the sensations and emotions that yet have no name.