Fellow Spotlights Archive • Berlin University Alliance

Fellow Spotlight: Mihnea Chiujdea

Scholars have long argued that social normativity—the generation, maintenance, and enforcement of shared meanings of right and wrong across different places and times—enables the individual to develop a personal identity as a thinking subject with agency.

Fellow Spotlight: Leander Nowack

Power and force can have spatial dimensions, embedded in both architecture and objects. A new publication, edited by scholar and spatial practitioner Leander Nowack, interrogates this relationship, featuring insights from BUA students, NGOs, and researchers in a critical examination of EU border installations.

Fellow Spotlight: Samia Akhter-Khan

As climate change and population aging reshape societies, Dr. Samia Akhter-Khan is uncovering how they affect human connection. With her new CARE Lab and a recent publication in Nature Health, she is helping define a growing field at the intersection of environment, aging, and social relationships.

Fellow Spotlight: Luciano Santander Hoces

As the radicalization of politics threatens democracies worldwide, scholars face growing challenges in researching contentious actors. In a new article, Santander reflects on how to interview far-right leaders, addressing trust, ideological asymmetries, and ethical responsibility in polarized contexts.

Fellow Spotlight: Hanna-Tina Fischer

Strengthening health systems to be more equitable and resilient in the face of crises is a major societal challenge. Fischer’s research contributes to this effort, most recently through the newly awarded Einstein Research Unit, "Technologies in Global Health: From Innovation to Users".

Fellow Spotlight: Stefano Evangelista

Meet the Oxford scholar uncovering the history of contemporary English literature in Berlin and read about his project's upcoming summer school collaboration with the Harvard Institute for World Literature.

Image Credit: Philip Bullock

Fellow Spotlight: Rouven Symank

Symank, of the SCRIPTS Cluster of Excellence, has been awarded a John F. Kennedy Memorial Fellowship at Harvard University. Read more about his research and recent achievements in this Fellow Spotlight.

Image Credit: Rouven Symank

Fellow Spotlight: Karen Leeder

Leeder’s ‘AfterWords’ project as part of an Einstein BUA/Oxford Visiting Fellowship is nearing its close. Read more about her achievements to date, including recent publications, and the project's final programming, including its final workshop hosted by the Literaturforum on October 23, 2025.

Image Credit: Alyssa K. Faoro