2026

2026

Postdoctoral Fellows join a unique interdisciplinary community composed of their peers as well as the Senior Fellows of the Society, who include many of the University’s leading scholars. Past Fellows of the Society have gone on to become distinguished scholars at institutions around the world.

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Amia Davis

  • Appointment 2026-2029
  • Assistant Professor | Postdoctoral Fellow
  • Classical Studies
  • Research Project: “Unbecoming Roman: Chaos Theory and Identity Collapse in the Roman Balkans (2nd – 7th c. CE).“

Amia is a Roman historian who investigates how individual and collective identities can suddenly collapse under the pressures of ethnic tension, local violence, and political uncertainty in the Balkans. She received her PhD from Yale University.

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    Tanner Kovach

    • Appointment 2026-2029
    • Assistant Professor | Postdoctoral Fellow
    • Anthropology
    • Research Project: “Investigating Neanderthal–Modern Human Interaction and Evolution in the Southern Caucasus.”

    Tanner is a paleolithic archaeologist studying the material remains of the last Neanderthals and earliest modern humans in the southern Caucasus. He received his PhD from the University of Connecticut.

      A person wearing a blue jacket and jeans stands indoors, leaning against an ornately carved wooden wall with one hand in their pocket.

      Jack LaViolette

      • Appointment 2026-2029
      • Assistant Professor | Postdoctoral Fellow
      • Sociology
      • Research Project: “Curriculum, ideology, and the shaping of postgraduate lives: Computational approaches.”

      Jack is a historical sociologist and computational social scientist. His research employs natural language processing and network analysis to examine the history of the novel, the industrialization of American publishing, and the fictionalization of class, kinship, and other social structures. He received his PhD from Columbia University.

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        Carlos Andres Marcelo Serván

        • Appointment 2026-2029
        • Assistant Professor | Postdoctoral Fellow
        • Mathematics
        • Research Project: “Lefschetz fibrations through the lens of Teichmüller theory.”

        Carlos is a Peruvian mathematician and ecologist. He’s currently interested in applications of Teichmüller theory to the study of smooth 4-manifolds. He received both his PhD in ecology (2020) and in mathematics (2026) from the University of Chicago.

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          Maya Samuels-Fair

          • Appointment 2026-2029
          • Assistant Professor | Postdoctoral Fellow
          • Earth & Environmental Science
          • Research Project: “Understanding the effect of reproductive strategy on extinction risk using the fossil record.”

          Maya Samuels-Fair uses the marine fossil record to understand how rapid environmental change drives evolution, extinction, and ecosystem change. She received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.

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            Tinghao Zhou

            • Appointment 2026-2029
            • Assistant Professor | Postdoctoral Fellow
            • Film, Television, & Media
            • Research Project: “At the Ends of Media: E-waste Toxicity and Environmental Politics in Rural China.”

            Tinghao’s research focuses on media theory, environmental humanities, and science and technology studies in China. He received his PhD from the University of California, Santa Barbara.