SCAS Announces Fellows of the Academic Year 2026-27 (1)
Today we are delighted to present three of the scholars who will be Fellows-in-residence at the Collegium during the next academic year (2026-27).
Some Fellows will be in residence during the entire academic year, whereas others will be at the Collegium either during the autumn or the spring semester.
Further names will be announced throughout the spring.
More information about each Fellow will be available later on.
Natalia Mamonova
Senior Researcher, RURALIS – Institute for Rural and Regional Research, Trondheim, Norway
About
During her time at SCAS in 2026–27, Natalia Mamonova will work on her forthcoming study “More than farming. Ukrainian agriculture, identity and politics during the war”. Intended for both academic and general readers, the book will be based on her extensive research in Ukraine before and after Russia’s full-scale invasion. It discusses agriculture not only as a key factor in ensuring Ukraine's food security during wartime, but also as a catalyst for patriotism and national unity, as a focal point for political disputes, and as a means of healing and rebuilding Ukraine after the war.
Mamonova will be in residence as a SCAS-Nordic Fellow.
Jaison Jeevan Sequeira
PhD, Mangalore University, India
About
Jaison Jeevan Sequeira will join SCAS as a Human Past Junior Fellow for the academic year 2026–27. During his time at SCAS, he will continue his work on the Indo-Arya migration into South Asia, a migration that represents a pivotal demographic and cultural transition. While genetic studies have outlined the broad Steppe-pastoralist contributions to the region, emerging evidence suggests this expansion involved distinct migratory waves. Sequiera’s study investigates the hypothesis that two genetically distinguishable Steppe-derived groups entered South Asia at different periods: an early wave (Wave 1) exhibiting substantial local admixture and Dravidian linguistic influence, and a later wave (Wave 2) maintaining higher Steppe ancestry with minimal Dravidian substrate. By integrating cutting-edge genomic analysis with rigorous linguistic investigation, this project provides higher resolution into how these distinct movements shaped South Asia’s complex ethnolinguistic landscape.
Ashley Williard
Associate Professor of French, University of South Carolina, USA
About
Ashley Williard’s book project, Disruptive Minds: Madness and Mental Disability in the Early French Atlantic, unsettles common narratives about mental capacity that laid the foundations for racial slavery. Through microhistories of diverse colonial subjects deemed mad, Disruptive Minds offers a kaleidoscopic view of the complex meanings, political force, and radical possibilities of madness. With deep archival roots, this project deploys novel reading practices to unearth diverse epistemologies and strategies for survival. Positioned at a rich intersection of critical disability, gender, and race studies, this research will make a significant contribution to understandings of bondage and contestation in the francophone world and beyond.
Ashley Williard will be a Fellow at SCAS during the academic year 2026–27.