Quadrant welcomes three new Fellows who will be in residence at the Institute for Advanced Study at the University of Minnesota for a semester each in 2011-2012:
Adia Benton is a medical anthropologist and visiting assistant professor at Oberlin College. She received her Ph.D. in social (medical) anthropology at Harvard University. Her research has focused on HIV treatment, care and support efforts in Freetown, Sierra Leone, examining how HIV treatment, care, and support in a low-prevalence, post-conflict setting reflects, engenders, and reproduces novel forms of “exception”—in terms of subjectivities, professional practice, and in knowledge production within, about, and for Africa. Dr. Benton will be in residence in fall 2011 with Quadrant’s Health & Society group.
Luis Castañeda earned his Ph.D. in art and architectural history from New York University’s Institute of Fine Arts in 2011, with a dissertation that examined the intersections between politics and design in the context of the 1968 Mexico City Olympics. His work examines the relationship between international relations, the negotiation of cultural identities, and the transformations in design culture of twentieth-century Latin America. He begins a position as an assistant professor in art and music histories at Syracuse University in fall 2011. Professor Castañeda will be in residence in spring 2012 with Quadrant’s Design, Architecture, and Culture group.
Marcus Filippello is a visiting assistant professor in history at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. He received his doctorate in African history from the University of California-Davis in 2010. His project, “'Crossing the ‘Black Earth’: Environmental Change, Eco-Nationalism, and Post-Independence Autonomy in a Beninese Forest Community,” is based on his dissertation. His project analyzes the textual nature of a road traversing a valley of seasonal wetlands to emphasize social and environmental change in southeastern Benin, West Africa. Professor Filippello will be in residence in fall 2011 with Quadrant’s Environment, Culture, and Sustainability group.
