Society of Fellows names new members

April 10, 1995
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ANN ARBOR—The Michigan Society of Fellows at the University of Michigan has selected four new Fellows to serve three-year appointments as postdoctoral scholars and assistant professors. Chosen for their independent scholarship and interdisciplinary intellectual interests, they will teach selected courses in their affiliated departments and continue their scholarly research.

The new Fellows, their affiliated departments and research interests are:

Michael Allen, Department of History, is preparing a first critical edition of Histories by ninth-century Bishop Frechulf of Lisieux and plans a more general inquiry into the literary and visual representations of historical periods, symbolic events, and moments of change in Carolingian culture. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto.

Sarah Caldwell, Department of Anthropology and Program on Studies in Religion, expects a Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. She plans to develop a cross-cultural theory of non-verbal cognition in ritual and artistic expressive forms and to bring new approaches to the study of non-verbal experience. She will complete a book on ritual art in the Bhagavati cult of Kerala, South India.

Michael Gorman, who will be affiliated with the Department of Psychology and Program in Reproductive Sciences, holds a Ph.D. in biological psychology from the University of California, Berkeley. He will study photorefractoriness in animals, cirannual rhythms, and human sexuality.

Kathleen Malone O’Connor, who holds a Ph.D. in religious studies from the University of Pennsylvania, will be affiliated with the Department of Near Eastern Studies. Her research projects will be concerned with qur’anic healing and talismanry within the larger network of medieval Islamic medicine.

Unique to public universities, the Michigan Society of Fellows was founded in 1970 with grants from the Ford Foundation and Horace H. and Mary Rackham Funds. The society provides financial and intellectual support to individuals selected for outstanding achievement, professional promise, and interdisciplinary interests. Competition for the fellowships is open to candidates in the physical and life sciences, engineering, social sciences and education, the humanities and the arts.

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