Hannah Smotrich Appointed to the U-M Society of Fellows

Hannah Smotrich, associate professor of art and design at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design, was invited by University of Michigan President Santa Ono to join the newest cohort of senior fellows of the Michigan Society of Fellows. Smotrich will serve a four-year term from 2023 – 2027.

The Society of Fellows, under the auspices of the Rackham Graduate School, was founded in 1970 by seven U‑M faculty members, including then-president Robben Fleming, to stimulate cross-disciplinary awareness and exchange. The new senior fellows will join the 16 appointed in years past to help create a spirited intellectual community and serve as models, mentors, and colleagues for the society’s postdoctoral fellows. Senior fellows help select the newest cohort of postdoctoral fellows, participate in monthly dinners at which all the fellows present their latest work, and recommend a new cohort of senior fellows each year.

Smotrich, who teaches across the design curriculum at the Stamps School, is known for collaboration with colleagues and students. In her classes, Smotrich encourages and creates opportunities for students to engage with the campus and community to explore ways that thoughtful design can have a positive impact. Her work as part of the award-winning Campus Creative Voting Project (CCVP), which she co-founded with Stephanie Rowden, associate professor at Stamps, exemplifies this commitment. The CCVP investigates how creative interventions can catalyze peer-to-peer interactions that increase college-age voting. Through this work, Smotrich and Rowden have worked with other university entities to create voting hubs during major election cycles and are currently working on plans for 2024.