Three members of Selwyn have been promoted by the University of Cambridge, with their new roles taking effect on 1 October 2026.

Professor Uradyn Bulag, a bye-fellow of the College, has been promoted to the most senior professorship level. A historical and political anthropologist, he studies how Mongols have sought to establish their identity and sovereignty across China and Inner Asia, through communist and nationalist revolutions, cultural upheaval, and state violence. His work connects close local study with some of the largest questions in the field, from nation-building to settler colonialism and the governance of minorities, which speak directly to today’s world.

Selwyn Fellow Dr Vicky Young has been promoted to a more senior academic post. Already Kawashima Associate Professor of Japanese Literature and Culture since January 2026, Vicky works on modern Japanese writing and culture in the Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies. 

She first came to the subject as an undergraduate at Cambridge and returned to the University in 2017, after a PhD at Leeds and time studying and working in Tokyo.

Dr Zeina Al Azmeh, a Fellow of the College, has been promoted to Senior Teaching Associate. A political sociologist in the Department of Sociology, she studies the politics of knowledge, memory and exile, with a focus on the contemporary Middle East. She co-chairs the Syrian Research and Academic Network, which supports Syrian scholars working in exile. Zeina previously served as Director of External Relations and later Assistant Vice-President for Strategic Communications and Outreach at Qatar University. Zeina’s book Syrian Intellectuals in Exile was published by Cambridge University Press in 2025. 

We congratulate all three on their promotions.