2025 Koch History Centre Fellows Announced
Date Published: 27.08.2025
The Faculty of History and Wadham College, Oxford, are delighted to announce the names of the inaugural Koch History Centre Fellows, appointed for the academic year 2025-2026 on the theme of Religion and the State.
The Fellows will pursue independent research projects while at the Centre, coming together to discuss the historiographical implications of their work through a regular seminar series. The Koch Centre represents the largest ever philanthropic donation to History at Oxford and is particularly welcome at a time when other institutions are having to cut back their funding of the humanities.
“The study of big questions in history has fascinated me since my teens. I am delighted to see this Centre established at Oxford, with its unparalleled excellence in research and teaching.”
Richard Koch (History, 1968), author, entrepreneur, and philanthropist
“The Koch History Centre is a wonderful testament to the enduring value of history research at Oxford, and we are delighted to welcome the inaugural cohort of Koch Fellows this year. It’s an auspicious moment for the university with the Stephen A. Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities opening to students, staff, and the public this autumn, underlining the power and centrality of the Humanities in the wider world.”
Professor Daniel Grimley, Head of the Humanities Division
“We are deeply grateful to Richard for this gift. It is a powerful validation of the importance of studying history, and a sign of confidence in the humanities. It also underlines the life-changing impact of the tutorial education which we have maintained here at Wadham over the generations”.
Robert Hannigan
Salmoli Choudhuri is an intellectual historian of legal and political concepts that have played a foundational role in shaping modern and contemporary India and informing global thought. salmoli.choudhuri@history.ox.ac.uk
Henry Clements is Assistant Professor of History at the University of Warwick. henry.clements@history.ox.ac.uk
Daniel Gunnar Kressel specializes in the history of transnational right-wing ideologies and networks in Latin America, Spain, and Israel. daniel.kressel@history.ox.ac.uk
Geoffrey Levin is assistant professor of Middle Eastern and Jewish Studies at Emory University. geoffrey.levin@history.ox.ac.uk
Carlotta Marchi holds a PhD in History, awarded in September 2021 through a joint doctoral PhD between the Università degli Studi di Pavia (Italy) and Aix-Marseille Université (France). carlotta.marchi@history.ox.ac.uk
Odile Panetta is an historian of early modern ideas, with a particular interest in Protestant political thought between the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. odile.panetta@chch.ox.ac.uk
Amar Sohal is an intellectual historian of modern India and Pakistan and Lecturer in the History of Political Thought at King’s College London. amar.sohal@history.ox.ac.uk
Teresa Witcombe works on the religious, cultural, and intellectual history of the medieval Iberian Peninsula, with a particular focus on Muslim-Christian relations, translation and transfer across frontiers, and the formulation and curation of religious identities. teresa.witcombe@sjc.ox.ac.uk
Hengameh Ziai is a lecturer in the history of the Middle East and Africa at SOAS, University of London. hengameh.ziai@history.ox.ac.uk
Uta Balbier is Professor of Modern History at the University of Oxford and Tutorial Fellow of St Anne’s College. uta.balbier@history.ox.ac.uk
Anthea Butler is the Geraldine R. Segal Professor in American Social Thought at the University of Pennsylvania. anthea.butler@history.ox.ac.uk
Céline Dauverd is a historian of the Mediterranean specializing in Italy, Spain, and North Africa with a focus on the relation between empires and religion in pre-modern times. celine.dauverd@history.ox.ac.uk