Five new postdoctoral scholars have joined the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts this year.

The society, created in 2000 by a gift from Charter Trustee Lloyd Cotsen, is an interdisciplinary community that seeks to bring innovative approaches to scholarship and teaching at Princeton. It offers outstanding young scholars who have recently received their Ph.D. the opportunity to enhance their teaching and research over a period of three years.

The director of the society is Leonard Barkan, the Arthur W. Marks ’19 Professor of Comparative Literature. The society includes Princeton faculty members who serve as faculty fellows and meet regularly with the Cotsen Fellows in the Joseph Henry House for informal and formal discussions, seminars and lectures. The full complement of 13 postdoctoral fellows is drawn from a range of disciplines in the humanities, related social sciences and natural sciences.

The newest members of the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts are, from left, Amin Ghaziani, Yaacob Dweck, Eduardo Canedo, Ricardo Montez and Lucia Allais. (photo: Brian Wilson)

The Cotsen Fellows for 2008-11 were selected from a pool of more than 950 applicants. They teach half-time in their academic department or program or in the Council of the Humanities and pursue their own research. They are:

Lucia Allais, a Behrman-Cotsen Fellow and lecturer in architecture. She received her Ph.D. in history, theory and criticism of architecture and art from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Her dissertation examines the network of international agencies that was created in the middle of the 20th century to protect monuments worldwide from the prospect of widespread destruction. Allais has won numerous awards and fellowships for her work, including the Chester Dale Fellowship from the Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts. She has written articles on Claude Perrault’s “Ordonnance” and on the influence of Henri Bergson on urban planning, as well as translations of texts by Le Corbusier and Michel Foucault. She has worked with architectural firms in Europe and the United States. At Princeton, Allais will begin a project on the institutions of postmodern architectural theory. This fall, she is teaching “The History of Architectural Theory,” and in the spring she will join a faculty team teaching a yearlong course in humanistic studies.

Eduardo Canedo, a Link-Cotsen Fellow and lecturer in history. He received his Ph.D. in history from Columbia University with a dissertation on the rise of the deregulation movement in the United States from 1957 to 1980. Canedo has won a number of awards for his work, including Andrew W. Mellon and Jacob K. Javits fellowships. His publications explore topics such as the leadership of economist Murray Weidenbaum and consumer activist Ralph Nader, airline deregulation and the origins of neoliberalism. This fall at Princeton, he is teaching “The United States Since 1920” with historian Kevin Kruse, and in the spring he will teach the freshman seminar “The Wars Within: Patriotism, Protest and Propaganda in Modern America.” He also will further his research on the history of deregulation.

Yaacob Dweck, a Mellon-Cotsen Fellow in Judaic Studies and lecturer in history. He earned his Ph.D. in history from the University of Pennsylvania. His research focuses on Jewish thought, and his dissertation traces the changing definition of Kabbalah from medieval to early modern times. Dweck received several fellowships during his graduate studies, most recently the Benjamin Franklin Fellowship. He also has published English translations of two literary works from Hebrew. At Princeton, he will prepare a new Hebrew edition and English translation of Modena’s “Ari Nohem.” He also plans to study polemics about the Jewish soul in 17th-century Europe. This fall, he is teaching “Modern Jewish History,” and in the spring he will lead the freshman seminar “Kabbalah and Its Critics: From the Middle Ages to Madonna.”

Amin Ghaziani, an LGBT (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender)-Cotsen Fellow and lecturer in sociology. He earned a joint Ph.D. in management and organizations and in sociology from Northwestern University, where he taught for a year as a visiting assistant professor. His research focuses on the study of culture, social movements, sexuality and cities. Ghaziani’s dissertation, “The Dividends of Dissent: How Conflict and Culture Work in Lesbian and Gay Marches on Washington,” was published in September by the University of Chicago Press. At Princeton, Ghaziani will begin a project that examines cultural diversity and residential integration by studying what happens when straight people move into gay enclaves. This fall, he is teaching the freshman seminar “Why Can’t We All Just Get Along? Unity and Division in Political Life,” and in the spring he will teach “Queer Theory and Politics.”

Ricardo Montez, a fellow in race/ethnicity studies and lecturer in English. He received his Ph.D. in performance studies with a certificate in culture and media from New York University. His dissertation engages racial and ethnic politics in the work of Pop artist Keith Haring. His publications include studies of Andy Warhol’s portraits of Haring, the Paradise Garage nightclub in New York City and the Whitney Museum’s Haring retrospective. Montez has taught courses in performance studies, lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender studies and expository writing at institutions in New York. He also has served as managing editor of “GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies” for four years. At Princeton, Montez is teaching the course “Latina/o Sexualities” this fall and a freshman seminar on Latino popular culture in the spring.