ASU faculty set to walk in footsteps of Einstein and Gödel

Each year, the IAS, hosts more than 250 postdoctoral researchers and scholars from around the world.

PUBLISHED JUL 10, 2024

The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) (campus in background) is an independent academic institution located in Princeton, New Jersey. Insets (left to right) Kurt Gödel, Hannah Barker, Han Hsien Liew and Albert Einstein.

Phoenix, Arizona: Two faculty from the School of Historical, Philosophical and Religious Studies at Arizona State University have been awarded fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) beginning in fall 2024: Hannah Barker, associate professor of history, and Han Hsien Liew, assistant professor of religious studies.

Each year, the IAS, hosts more than 250 postdoctoral researchers and scholars from around the world to advance fundamental discovery as part of an interdisciplinary and collaborative environment.

Hannah Barker

Hannah Barker is an associate professor of history at Arizona State University. She specializes in the connections between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea in the late medieval period, focusing on the slave trade from the thirteenth to fifteenth centuries. Her book, 'That Most Precious Merchandise: The Mediterranean Trade in Black Sea Slaves, 1260-1500', explores the shipping, marketing, and purchasing processes of slaves by Genoese, Mamluk, and Venetian merchants. It has received several awards. Her current research interests include changes in status, the role of physicians in slave markets, and medieval Italian notaries' descriptions of slaves.

Han Hsien Liew

Han Hsien Liew is a historian specializing in the premodern Islamic world and is an Assistant Professor of Islamic Studies at Arizona State University. His research focuses on medieval Islamic political thought, scholarly culture, Qur’anic exegesis, and Arabic-Islamic writings. His upcoming book, 'Preaching Pious and Learned Rulership in Medieval Islam: Ibn al-Jawzi's Political Thought', explores the political discourses of Ibn al-Jawzi in medieval Islam. Liew’s work is published in 'Arabica' and the 'Journal of the American Oriental Society'. He has received several fellowships and awards. Originally from Penang, Malaysia, he earned his PhD from Harvard University.

What is the IAS?

The Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) is an independent academic institution located in Princeton, New Jersey. It was founded in 1930 by philanthropists Louis Bamberger and Caroline Bamberger Fuld. The IAS has been home to numerous influential scholars, including Albert Einstein, John von Neumann, and Kurt Gödel.