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

2022 - 2023 Society of Scholars Fellow

A portrait of Leah Rubinsky standing in front of a body of water.

Leah Rubinsky (she/her/hers)

Doctoral Candidate

Mothering at the Margins: Place, Memory and Migration in Contemporary Circum-Caribbean Women’s Writing

This dissertation explores how contemporary circum-Caribbean women’s fiction shifts ideas of motherhood, narrating mothering in ways that complicate place and nation. Examining literary representations of subversive mothering across a mini-canon of Colombian and Caribbean novels, this project argues that, in situating subversive mothering in marginal, liminal spaces (woods, dreams, memory) the authors articulate mothering as acts occurring not in or for but across nations, opening up space in the literary imagination for grappling with histories of colonialism and displacement.