The Society of Fellows provides a postdoctoral opportunity for nine early-career academics to engage in interdisciplinary research at Dartmouth before becoming full-time faculty members at the College or a different university. Society of Fellows faculty director Emily Walton said the group does “critical work” that blends different academic disciplines.
“Thinking about anthropology in terms of biology, thinking about religion in terms of race, thinking about history in terms of anthropology,” Fellow Faiza Rahman GR said. “These are sort of hybrid forms that we need to now think about so that knowledge can move in novel, bolder directions.”
After getting their Ph.D.s, fellows spend three years at Dartmouth, where they can write books, publish articles and do research, according to Walton. Second- and third-year fellows also teach undergraduate courses in their academic departments.
Former College president Phil Hanlon ’77 founded the Society in 2014. He was motivated by a lack of graduate programs at the College, according to Walton.
“We have a very strong undergraduate presence and we have a very strong faculty presence, but we don’t have a lot of people in the middle,” Walton said.
Walton said the Society’s mission was to “fill the middle” between undergraduates and faculty by bringing in “cutting-edge scholars” at the beginning of their careers.
Postdoctoral fellow Robert Weiner GR studies Chaco Canyon, which he described as a “major center of religion and politics for Indigenous people” in the Southwestern United States. Weiner said the Society of Fellows gives him “institutional support to undertake research.”
“A group of colleagues to discuss ideas with who are coming at things from different perspectives … has been hugely catalytic and inspiring,” he said.
Weiner added that the teaching component of the fellowship was “beneficial.”
“I taught this class last year called Sacred Movement,” Weiner said. “Having the opportunity to design and teach that course led me to … [look] at things from religious studies, anthropology, archeology, cognitive science, literature and even art history.”
Rahman conducts research on Islamic understandings of menstruation. She said the Society has helped her “think in many different directions.”
“Prior to coming to the Society of Fellows, I was just looking at menstrual activism amongst Muslim women at the societal level in Pakistan,” Rahman said. “Since I’ve come here in the Society of Fellows, I’m very interested now in the medical history of menstruation globally … and what the entanglements of medicine have to do with the religious beliefs related to menstruation.”
Fellow Armani Beck is currently working on a book titled “Precarious Privilege: Transgender Accounts of Intersectional Masculinity,” where she interviews trans people about gaining and losing male privilege. She said the Society was “incredibly helpful.”
“There is so much encouragement and mentorship,” Beck said.
Beck added that she was “incredibly impressed with Dartmouth students” during her teaching experience.
“I realized very early on in my time here that I want to work with undergrads because my research is important and I want [students] to know about it,” Beck said. “But I also think [students] have so many gifts that I can benefit from as well,” Beck said.
Rahman said that the “community” of the Society allowed her to do “bolder” research.
“Getting everyone’s input on your work very naturally creates that interdisciplinary synergy that really is the avenue to doing good, inventive, bolder research,” Rahman said.
Walton added that the Society of Fellows “enlivens research in ways we can pass on to undergraduates.”
“Dartmouth as a college is so good at providing the liberal arts experience to Dartmouth undergraduates,” Walton said. “The Society of Fellows is a really awesome way for faculty to participate in that liberal arts experience.”
Correction Appended (Nov. 9, 5:48 p.m.): This article erroneously attributed a quote to director Emily Walton. It has been corrected.
