Members of the third cohort of Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity have successfully completed their active fellowship year and have now joined the lifelong fellowship community that includes Fellows from across the seven Atlantic Fellowships around the world.
The 14 Fellows, who joined the programme based at LSE International Inequalities Institute in September 2019, hail from Africa, Asia, Australia, North and South America and Europe. Policy-makers, activists, researchers and movement-builders, their courageous work for change is exemplary of the “thinkers, doers and change-makers” that the Atlantic Fellowships were created to nurture and support.
The new Senior Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity are: Madhumitha Ardhanari (Singapore), Hobeth Martinez-Carrillo (Colombia), Esther Mwema (Zambia), Michaela Rafferty (North of Ireland), Leanne Sajor (Philippines), Sophea Chrek (Cambodia), Della Duncan (United States), Alon Lee Green (Israel), Joan Jones (United States), Asha Kowtal (India), Liz Nelson (United Kingdom), Foluke Ojelabi (Nigeria), Crystal Simeoni (Kenya) and Amanda Young (Australia).
Among them are five Residential Fellows, whose London-based active fellowship saw them complete the MSc in Inequalities and Social Science at LSE, in addition to the bespoke Atlantic Fellowship modules they followed alongside nine Non-Residential peers who have joined them on the journey to senior fellowship. In March 2021, Madhumitha Ardhanari’s master’s dissertation for the MSc in Inequalities and Social Science was awarded the LSE Saw Swee Hock Southeast Asia Centre Postgraduate Dissertation Prize.
Dr Armine Ishkanian, Executive Director of the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme, offered her congratulations to the new Senior Fellows on behalf of the programme team and fellowship community.
“I would like to extend a warm welcome to Cohort 3 on joining our burgeoning Senior Fellows community, which includes 52 Fellows. We are excited to witness their journeys and collaborations as Senior Fellows, and to remain engaged in a continual dialogue with them, along with our Senior Fellows from Cohort 1 (2017-18) and Cohort 2 (2018-19),” she said.
The Fellows’ active fellowship year was built on dialogic pedagogy, professional skills-building, action learning, collaboration and critical exchanges in the research-rich environment of the International Inequalities Institute. At the heart of that experience were the in-depth examinations of inequalities they undertook through a range of lenses and via disparate geographical perspectives and disciplinary fields. The findings of those undertakings were presented in the form of master’s dissertations (Residential Fellows) and original project work (Non-Residential Fellows).
Dr Sara Camacho Felix, assistant professorial lecturer for the programme, reflecting on the year, said: “It has been a dialogic journey with our third cohort of Fellows, where spaces for listening and sharing have offered rich cross-contextual learning. Even when restrictions in response to COVID-19 forced a change in our modes of engagement, these Fellows retained their commitment to the programme’s dialogic pedagogy.
“The rewarding results of this journey are evident in the wonderful dissertations and projects that Fellows produced, all of which speak to the wider aim of fighting for equity across multiple social and economic contexts,” she added.
Asmaa Akhtar, Programme Manager (Global Engagement and Impact) for the programme, noted that the Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity programme is based on the belief “that inequality is not inevitable and that a just and equitable world is possible. These values go hand in hand with the values identified by our inaugural cohort of Fellows, which they felt should underpin the Senior Fellows community: Fellow-driven, active to effect social change, giving and receiving care, performing collective leadership, and connecting through affinity.”
“The purpose of lifelong engagement is to amplify the impact of Fellows’ active fellowship over time; it will allow them to shape, grow and scale up social change. We expect and hope that Senior Fellows will be proactive in accessing as well as contributing to the knowledge, passion, creativity and resources of the AFSEE community alongside the wider global community of Atlantic Senior Fellows,” she said.
Dr Ishkanian concluded: “It is an honour for us to support our Senior Fellows as they build upon their knowledge and practical skills gained during the programme, and to extend and amplify their individual and collective impact upon the world.”
With the members of the fellowship’s 2020-21 fourth cohort now in the middle of their active fellowship year and the selection process for the 2021-22 fifth cohort of Atlantic Fellows for Social and Economic Equity under way, applications for the 2022-23 sixth cohort will open in autumn 2021.
Banner Image: Catarina Heeckt
