July 2026

Sanyu A. Mojola is Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs and the Maurice P. During Professor of Demographic Studies at Princeton University. She has held numerous fellowships, including at Harvard University’s Hutchins Center for African and African American Research. In 2016, she received the Distinguished Scholarly Book Award (Best Book of the Year) of the American Sociological Association. Her most recent book is entitled “Death by Design: Producing Racial Health Inequality in the Shadow of the Capitol” (University of California Press, 2025).

Margaryta Surzhenko is a writer. She graduated from the Interregional Academy of Personnel Management (IAPM) in Kyiv in 2012 with a degree in political science and published her first book about the war in Luhansk in 2014. In 2015, she founded a website featuring innovative fairy tales, which brings together more than 300 texts. Margaryta Surzhenko has published five novels. Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, she has been living in Germany and teaching creative writing. During her time in Los Angeles, Margaryta Surzhenko reflects on her experiences with the war in Ukraine and the peculiarities of life in multicultural Germany, adding a transatlantic perspective. She processes these thoughts in prose form, focusing on advocating democratic values and a culture of communication that connects people. Surzhenko is a 2026 Thomas Mann Fellow.

Andrew Krastins is a violinist, scholar, and collector whose work bridges musical performance, historical research, and cultural preservation. Based in Los Angeles, he has a longstanding interest in American cultural history, particularly the musical traditions of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. An avid collector of historical scores, recordings, and archival materials, he is deeply committed to preserving and reanimating the material history of music. In addition to his performance work, Krastins has supported scholarly initiatives dedicated to historical collections and archival engagement. His musical interests range from classical repertoire to lesser-known historical works, reflecting a broader fascination with the relationship between music, memory, and cultural transmission. His performances are marked by a deep sensitivity to musical storytelling and historical context, making him an especially compelling collaborator in programs that connect literature, history, and live performance.