Orin Starn (left) and Rebecca L. Stein were named 2026–27 Fellows of the National Humanities Center, one of the nation’s leading institutes for advanced study in the humanities.
Two Cultural Anthropologists Named 2026-27 National Humanities Center Fellows
Two Trinity College of Arts & Sciences faculty members, professors of Cultural Anthropology Rebecca L. Stein and Orin Starn, have been named 2026–27 Fellows of the National Humanities Center, one of the nation’s leading institutes for advanced study in the humanities. They are among 29 scholars selected from a pool of 453 applicants representing universities across the United States and Ghana.
During their fellowships, Stein and Starn will pursue major research projects while participating in the Center’s intellectual community of seminars, lectures and conferences. Stein’s project, “How to Unsee Gaza: Israeli Visual Politics in a Time of Genocide,” examines the politics of visual media and perception surrounding the war in Gaza. Starn’s project, “Love Yourz: Battling Amazon in Too Late America,” explores contemporary struggles against corporate power through the lens of resistance to Amazon.
“A National Humanities Center fellowship is a rare honor for any faculty member in the humanities and interpretive social sciences, and we are so proud that our department has not one, but two, such awards this year,” said department chair Thomas Nechyba. “In fact, we believe it is a first — and a testament to the scholarly excellence of our faculty in the department. We are very proud of Rebecca’s and Orin’s accomplishment!”
The fellows make up the National Humanities Center’s 49th class of resident scholars since its founding in 1978. The Center will award more than $1.6 million in fellowship grants to support scholars as they take leave from teaching and other duties to focus on research, with funding provided through the Center’s endowment as well as support from the Henry Luce Foundation and other donors.
