Welcome to 32 new fellows at AIAS

The new fellows join AIAS through various types of fellowships with different objectives. Seven AIAS-AUFF fellows bring a bottom-up basic research project exploring in-depth diverse areas such as political representation; understanding generational health trends and applying the geometric hierarchical stochastic block model.

Two fellows will start a scientist and artist collaboration to interrogate automated emotional labour and the commodification of care in commercial chat-based AI in an Artist-in-Residence Tandem fellowship.

One fellow will assess the effectiveness of tripwires in international politics as well as fostering Nordic collaboration in a Riksbankens Jubileumsfond fellowship. With a Monograph fellowship funded by the Carlsberg Foundation, three fellows will condense decades of research insights into a book format.

Three new AIAS Science-Diplomacy fellows will work in a theme group, joining two current Science Diplomacy fellows. The group work to develop the field of science diplomacy from diverse research perspectives and projects; whereas 16 Associate fellows from Aarhus University will be affiliated with the AIAS community over the next two years to expand their interdisciplinary network and establish collaborations outside their own immediate research field.

From 1 September, AIAS welcomes

AIAS-AUFF Fellows

• Cameron Hu, Center for the Humanities, Wesleyan University, USA
  Project at AIAS: ‘Predicaments of Knowledge in/of the Anthropocene’
• Darren Halpin, School of Politics and International Relations, Research School of Social Sciences, Australian National University, Australia 
  Project at AIAS: ‘Organising the Present to Give Voice to the Future? Political Representation of Future Generations’
• Ermias Debie Adane, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, Bahir Dar University, Ethiopia
  Project at AIAS: ‘Sacred Corridors: Modeling Socio-Ecological Resilience in Ethiopia’s Church Forest Networks’
• Jessica Wax-Edwards, Department of Spanish, Portuguese and Latin American Studies in the School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, University College Cork, Ireland
  Project at AIAS: ‘Visualising populist performance: audiovisual approaches to the study of populist imagemaking’
• Joshua Bergamin, Department of Philosophy, University of Vienna, Austria
  Project at AIAS: ‘Embodying Freedom: Habits, Improvisation, and Distributed Agency’
• Octavio Bramajo Hemsi, Institute for Evolutionary Medicine, University of Zurich, Switzerland
  Project at AIAS: ‘Understanding health trends outcomes in young adults in Denmark: a generational perspective’
• Sayeh Khaniha, Institute of Mathematics and Statistics (IME), University of São Paulo, Brazil
  Project at AIAS: ‘Geometric Hierarchical Stochastic Block Model (GHSBM): Theory, Algorithms, and Biological Validation’

AIAS Science Diplomacy Fellows

• George Salter, Danish Centre for Studies in Research and Research Policy, Department of Political Science, Aarhus University
  Project at AIAS: ‘Technological interdependencies and value mobility in the Danish quantum computing ecosystem’
• Rachele Pierini: Saxo Institute, University of Copenhagen
  Project at AIAS: ‘Diplomacy Designers: Bottom-Up Practices in Building Digital Humanities Research Infrastructures’
• Sonam Kinga, Royal Institute of Governance and Strategic Studies, Bhutan
  Project at AIAS: ‘From a Hot Spot to a Hope Spot – Science Diplomacy and Bhutan’s Survival Between India and China’

AIAS-Riksbankens Jubileumsfond Fellow

• Elias Götz, Department of Government, Uppsala University, Sweden
  Project at AIAS: ‘Deterrence Matters: Assessing the Effectiveness of Tripwires in International Politics.’

Artist-in-Residence and Aarhus University Tandem Partner

• Amy Boulton, Artist based in Stockholm, b. Huddersfield, UK
• Pablo Velasco, Department of Digital Design and Information Studies, Aarhus University
  Joint project at AIAS: ‘Data Intimacies: Love and labour in an age of AI’

Carlsberg Monograph Fellows at AIAS

• Anja Bechmann, School of Communication and Culture - Media Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark
  Project: ‘Platform Collective Behavior and the Making of Democracy’
• Isabelle Torrance, School of Communication and Culture – English, Aarhus University, Denmark
  Project: ‘Greek Tragedy and Human Rights: The Case of Ireland’
• Lars Thorup Larsen, Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Denmark
  Project: ‘Have people stopped listening to science? How citizens gauge the authority of expert knowledge’

Associate Fellows from Aarhus University

• Alejandra Zaragoza Scherman, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Athanasia Lampraki, Assistant Professor, Department of Management, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Barth F. Smets, Professor, Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering - Water Technology, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Behzad Bozorgtabar, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering - Signal Processing and Machine learning, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Haja Kadarmideen, Professor, Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences - ANIVET Management and Modelling (MAMO), Aarhus University, Denmark
• Julia Föcker, Professor, Danish School of Education - Educational Psychology, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Laura Stidsholt, Assistant Professor, Department of Biology - Zoophysiology, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Lenka Belicova, Postdoc, Department of Biomedicine, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Mattias Heymann, Professor, Department of Mathematics - Science Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Nadescha Zwerschke, Tenure Track Assistant Professor, Department of Biology - Aquatic Biology, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Niels Buus, Professor, Department of Public Health - Department of Science in Nursing, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Oana Vuculescu, Associate Professor, Department of Management, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Per Qvist, Associate Professor, Department of Biomedicine - Research and Education, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Pia Majbritt Jensen, Associate Professor, School of Communication and Culture - Media Studies, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Ulrik Nissen, Associate Professor, School of Culture and Society - Systematic Theology, Aarhus University, Denmark
• Vera Anna van der Weijden, Tenure Track Assistant Professor, Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics - Molecular Health, Aarhus University, Denmark

‘Meet the new’ Marathon: 32 3-minute speed-lectures

On Thursday 3 September 2026 at 14:00 – 17:00, the new fellows will present their research and research questions in short 3-minute speed-lectures that are open to all. Participants are welcome to join the whole afternoon, but also welcome to drop in for selected talks.

Find more information about the ‘Introductory Research Presentations Seminar’ here.

Contact

Andreas Roepstorff, Director
E-mail: andreas.roepstorff@aias.au.dk 

Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies, AIAS
Høegh-Guldbergs Gade 6B
DK-8000 Aarhus C
Danmark