Sophia Goodfriend Named 2025 Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Fellow at Pembroke College Cambridge June 23, 2025 Sophia Goodfriend (CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom) — Pembroke College at the University of Cambridge has appointed Dr. Sophia Goodfriend as its next Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Fellow. Goodfriend will take up her post in October 2025. Goodfriend is a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Middle East Initiative. Her research examines the impact of big data and machine learning on military conflict in the Middle East. Outside of academia, she is an independent researcher with civil society organizations in the region and a freelance journalist. The Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Fellowship was established at Pembroke College in 2011. It is a three-year award supporting post-doctoral research that increases the understanding of the causes, manifestations, and control of violence in the present world. Priority is given to candidates who make a compelling case for the relevance of potential findings for policies intended to reduce these ills. Goodfriend will be the fourth holder of the fellowship, which is sponsored by The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. “Sophia Goodfriend is an outstanding scholar, and she is doing sharply contemporary research work on how AI impacts military conflict in the Middle East,“ said Lord Smith of Finsbury, Master of Pembroke. “This is important and challenging work, and her inclusion in Pembroke’s fellowship will enhance our knowledge and the breadth of our understanding of the world around us and its geopolitical fault lines.” “I am delighted to join Pembroke College as the Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Fellow,” Goodfriend said. “My research and writing examine the impact of AI on military conflict in the Middle East and beyond. This research fellowship will provide a valuable opportunity to finish my first academic manuscript, an ethnographic account of how algorithmic surveillance and weapons systems are upending what it means to wage and live with war in Israel and Palestine. I hope that this research will further The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation’s essential work to understand the causes and controls of contemporary violence. I am honored to have the support of the foundation and to join a robust community of students and scholars at Pembroke College.” “At a time when the rapid development of AI is having a profound effect on so many areas of human society, Sophia Goodfriend’s research on its uses in military conflict is crucial to our understanding of its developing impact on war and the people affected by it,” said Daniel F. Wilhelm, president of The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. “We are pleased to be able to support such important scholarship through the Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Fellowship and our continued partnership with Pembroke College.” About Pembroke College Founded in 1347, Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Its mission is to bring together the brightest students from the broadest range of backgrounds; nurture outstanding research; provide the very best educational opportunities; and by doing so, help to make a difference to the world. Today, Pembroke is home to 440 undergraduate students, 300 postgraduate students, seventy-five fellows, and 180 staff. It supports a wide range of academic activities, including public lectures, seminars, conferences, and visiting scholar schemes. The fifty-fourth and current Master is Lord Smith of Finsbury PC. He will be succeeded as Master by Professor Polly Blakesley on October 1, 2025. About The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation The Foundation was established in 1929 by Harry Frank Guggenheim (1890–1971). An alumnus of Pembroke College, Guggenheim was a business leader, diplomat, and newspaper publisher. He served in both world wars and later focused the work of the Foundation on problems of violence, believing that humanity had failed to match its progress in science, technology, medicine, and industry with similar improvements in human relations. Following Guggenheim’s death, a bequest established the Foundation’s current program of research grants to support distinguished and emerging scholars investigating pressing issues of violence worldwide. For more information, contact:Nyeleti Honwana, Senior Program Officerinfo@hfg.org | 646.428.0971
Surer Mohamed Named 2021 Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Fellow at Pembroke College Cambridge March 11, 2021 Surer Mohamed (CAMBRIDGE, United Kingdom) — Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, has appointed Surer Mohamed as the next Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Fellow. The fellowship will commence in October 2021. Ms. Mohamed, a fourth-year Ph.D. student in Politics and International Studies at Queens’ College Cambridge, is studying post-conflict urban reconstruction and conflict-related property disputes in Mogadishu, Somalia. The Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Fellowship was established at Pembroke College in 2011 in honor of Harry Frank Guggenheim, an alumnus of Pembroke and veteran of both world wars, who recognized the need for research into the origins and problems of human violence. The fellowship is a three-year award supporting post-doctoral research that increases the understanding of the causes, manifestations, and control of violence in the present world. Priority is given to candidates who make a compelling case for the relevance of potential findings for policies intended to reduce these ills. Ms. Mohamed will be the third holder of the Fellowship. Taking up this Research Fellowship will allow me to contribute meaningfully to questions of political violence and its aftermath in African urban spaces - Surer Mohamed Lord Smith of Finsbury, Master of Pembroke College, said, “Surer is an outstanding scholar, doing ground-breaking research work on Mogadishu, and enhancing our understanding of the issues of violence and property rights in this important part of Africa. We will be proud to welcome her into our Pembroke Fellowship.” “I am honored and delighted to have been appointed as the next Harry Frank Guggenheim Research Fellow at Pembroke College,” said Ms. Mohamed. “Taking up this Research Fellowship will allow me to contribute meaningfully to questions of political violence and its aftermath in African urban spaces. My research specifically focuses on the politics of post-conflict urban reconstruction in Mogadishu, which is an under-researched part of the political landscape of Somalia. I hope that in pursuing this line of inquiry, I can make a scholarly contribution that centers how everyday Mogadishians understand their political lives and their intersection with violence. “I would not be able to conduct this research without the generous support of The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation and Pembroke College. I am deeply grateful to the Foundation for this opportunity, and I look forward to contributing to its work addressing issues of contemporary violence. I am also very excited to join the vibrant community of scholars and students at Pembroke College, and I look forward to contributing meaningfully to college life during my tenure.” Daniel F. Wilhelm, President of The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, said, “We are very pleased to honor Harry Frank Guggenheim’s legacy at Pembroke College with the research fellowship that bears his name. It is an essential opportunity to support rigorous scholarship on violence that has resonance both within and beyond the academy. Surer Mohamed’s work promises an important examination of the nexus of conflict, politics, and property in Somalia’s capital city.” About Pembroke College Founded in 1347, Pembroke College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Its mission is to bring together the brightest students, from the broadest range of backgrounds; nurture outstanding research; provide the very best educational opportunities; and by doing so help to make a difference to the world. Pembroke is a medium-sized Cambridge college and offers places in every undergraduate subject studied at the University. The letters patent granted to Marie de St. Pol by Edward III provided for a house of 30 scholars. Today Pembroke is home to 492 undergraduate students and 309 postgraduate students. It has 75 Fellows, and the 54th, and current, Master is Lord Smith of Finsbury PC. The college is a vibrant community, that believes academic success comes not only from the excellence of teaching, and the leading research that underpins it, but also from a supportive and caring environment. It supports a wide range of academic activities including public lectures, seminars, conferences, and visiting scholar schemes. About the Foundation The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation is a leader in creating and disseminating knowledge on the nature, consequences, and reduction of violence in its many forms, including war, crime, and human aggression. It is committed to funding scholarly research into the causes and amelioration of violence, especially urgent and contemporary problems of violence. For more information contact: Nyeleti Honwana, Program Officerinfo@hfg.org | 646.428.0976
