Global Fellows
Jethro Calacday
Dr. Jethro A. E. A. Calacday served as an Ansari Global Fellow and scholar of global history whose research explores the entanglement of religion and empire in the making of the modern world. He works on the histories of the US in the World, the Philippines, Papal diplomacy, global Catholicism, and Southeast Asia. His first monograph-in-progress, Catholic Empire: The American Colonial State and the Roman Catholic Church in the Transimperial Philippines, examines how the Roman Catholic Church facilitated the rise of US empire at the end of the nineteenth century, whilst revealing that the US was subsumed within older patterns of empire and religion despite its disavowal of the Spanish empire. This first monograph is based on his Cambridge dissertation "American Imperialism and the Roman Catholic Church in the Philippines," which was recognised by the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations (SHAFR) in 2024 with its Marilyn B Young Fellowship. His scholarly works have appeared in Diplomatic History, Church History, Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints, H-Net, and Saysay: The Journal of Bikol History.
Andrew Dickson
Dr. Andrew Dickson served as an Ansari Global Fellow having recently completed an ESRC-funded PhD in International Relations at the University of Sussex, where he served as Programme Coordinator for the University's Religion and Foreign Policy Initiative. His research explores religion and secularism in International Relations across foreign and development policy, de-radicalisation programmes, and human rights advocacy. He also holds an MA in Conflict, Security and Development from King’s College London, and a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from Hertford College, Oxford. He was previously Centre Manager for the LSE Faith Centre and Religion and Global Society Research Unit, and Research and Projects Manager for the Lokahi Foundation.
Jacob Katumusiime
Dr. Jacob Katumusiime served as an Ansari Global Fellow and is currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Johannesburg. Jacob is the 2024 Winner of the Rahamon Bello Award for the Best PhD in African and Diaspora Studies. He researches on the intersections of Culture and Politics, navigating questions of colonialism, postcolonialism and decolonization, and exploring issues of identity, citizenship, social movements, political violence and diasporic lives. Jacob holds an Interdisciplinary PhD in Social Studies, a Master of Philosophy in Social Studies and a Bachelor of Arts with Education (First Class) from Makerere University, Uganda.
Thahir Jamal Kiliyamannil
Dr. Thahir Jamal Kiliyamannil is an Ansari Institute Global Fellow who recently completed his PhD at the University of Hyderabad, India. His doctoral thesis, titled “Islam, State, and Sovereignty: Genealogy of Muslim Subject Formation in Malabar,” traces the minoritization of Muslims in India, examining Muslim engagements with state, sovereignty, and law in the colonial and postcolonial contexts in South India. He was formerly a COMPOSE Fellow (2025) at Universitas Islam Internasional Indonesia, a DAAD PhD Visiting Fellow (2022) at the Centre for Modern Indian Studies, University of Göttingen, and an Erasmus Fellow (2021) at the Berlin Graduate School of Muslim Cultures and Societies, Freie Universität Berlin. Currently, he serves as an Assistant Professor at SRM University-AP, India. His areas of research interest include Islam, sovereignty, governmentality, religion, state, and minority discourses. He is presently working on his first monograph, tentatively titled Formations of Minority: Afterlives of Law, Governance, and Colonial Sovereignty in India.
Dina Osama Lotfy
Dr. Dina Osama Lotfy served as an Ansari Institute Global Fellow and is currently an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Cairo University. Her research focuses on autocratic transitions, religion and politics, and terrorism. She earned her B.A., M.Sc., and Ph.D. in Political Science from Cairo University. Her work has also been published in several leading international journals, such as Democratization, Government and Opposition, and Politics and Religion. She developed strong quantitative and analytical skills through her participation in the 2022 ICPSR Summer Program in Quantitative Methods for Social Research, held at the University of Michigan–Ann Arbor, United States. She also earned the Best Doctoral Dissertation Award in the field of political science and African studies from the Kemet Boutros Ghali Foundation for Peace and Knowledge, Cairo, Egypt.
Ely Orrego-Torres
Dr. Ely Orrego Torres served as an Ansari Institute Global Fellow and is a current Postdoctoral Researcher at Lund University. Her research brings together international relations and political theory to explore the intersections of religion and politics in the global arena. She earned her Ph.D. in Political Science from Northwestern University in 2025. She is currently working on her first book, which examines the politics of religious freedom and secularism in the Americas between 2017 and 2023, with a focus on transnational and regional networks and the religio-spiritual actors participating in the Organization of American States (OAS). Her work has been published in journals including Social Compass and Philosophy and Global Affairs. Outside of academia, she is a passionate foodie who enjoys exploring new restaurants, experimenting with recipes, and trying street food from around the world.