Society of Scholars
![scholars discussing a topic around the main Simpson Center conference room table](/sites/default/files/styles/event_image_400_x_350_/public/project_program_images/_MG_7159.jpg?itok=AS7ROj8L)
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)
2024 - 2025 Society of Scholars
![Oya Rose Aktaş](/sites/default/files/styles/about_page_people_225x250_/public/people_profiles/headshot.png?itok=9inKGp-E)
![Danya Al-Saleh](/sites/default/files/styles/about_page_people_225x250_/public/people_profiles/20230117_Danya%20Al-Saleh_1047-Edit.jpg?itok=yUPTRpFa)
![Jennifer Baez](/sites/default/files/styles/about_page_people_225x250_/public/people_profiles/JBaez-headshot.jpg?itok=7fDrtPBV)
![Jacob Beckert](/sites/default/files/styles/about_page_people_225x250_/public/people_profiles/Headshot%20copy.jpg?itok=bLJl14Dx)
![Bianca Dang](/sites/default/files/styles/about_page_people_225x250_/public/people_profiles/Bianca%20Dang%20Headshot.jpg?itok=5mjgNn4K)
![Diana Flores Ruíz](/sites/default/files/styles/about_page_people_225x250_/public/people_profiles/D.RUIZ_.jpg?itok=vj3ROiXk)
![Ungsan Kim](/sites/default/files/styles/about_page_people_225x250_/public/people_profiles/UKIM.png?itok=-uu7m-24)
![Josh Reid](/sites/default/files/styles/about_page_people_225x250_/public/people_profiles/Reid%20Mug_0.png?itok=AIEEo4Vv)
![Randa Tawil](/sites/default/files/styles/about_page_people_225x250_/public/people_profiles/ACLS%20photo.jpg?itok=5XQqcqOv)
![Kyle J. Trembley](/sites/default/files/styles/about_page_people_225x250_/public/people_profiles/ratstock.jpg?itok=cqe61UWQ)
![Andreas P. Bassett stands in front of a large shrubbery while wearing a dark jacket blue shirt and tie.](/sites/default/files/styles/about_page_people_225x250_/public/people_profiles/Andreas%20Bassett.jpg?itok=AO1KyWz5)
![Anne Duncan](/sites/default/files/styles/about_page_people_225x250_/public/people_profiles/IMG_4016.png?itok=AIPx4cSX)
![Kathleen Escarcha](/sites/default/files/styles/about_page_people_225x250_/public/people_profiles/Escarcha_Photo2.png?itok=vfl6Omkv)
![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.](/sites/default/files/styles/about_page_people_225x250_/public/people_profiles/y_li_photo.jpg?itok=r9EMNScm)
![Eric Villiers](/sites/default/files/styles/about_page_people_225x250_/public/people_profiles/BES%20Headshot%20Eric%20Villiers%20%28edited%29.jpg?itok=sFskXCtO)
2023 - 2024 Society of Scholars Fellow
![Smiling head shot of a woman with long dark brown hair wearing a long sleeved black turtleneck sweater.](/sites/default/files/styles/calendar_rollup_image_350_x_400_/public/people_profiles/Ananya%20Sikand-%20Headshot.jpg?itok=hyZS0OCF)
Ananya Sikand (she/her/hers)
Muslim Unbelonging: Conceptual and Performance Art in Post-Independence South Asia (1970-2020)
This project reframes histories of conceptual and performance art across South Asia and its diaspora in the wake of Partition. By re-centering their bodies as archives, the artists Rasheed Araeen, Nasreen Mohamedi, Rummana Hussain and Zarina Bhimji offer new configurations and alternative understandings of “Muslimness.” This theoretical and ethnographic approach considers how these artists inhabit a specific lived experience. It also examines how they express their subjectivity, pain and joys. By using archival evidence, ethnography and exhibition histories in Africa, England and South Asia, Sikand suggests “Muslimness” and Islamic art accommodate new improvisations within the bounds of solidarity and sociability.