Ashley Fellowship

The Ashley Fellowship is administered by the Colleges at Trent University and is awarded to a visiting scholar each year. The Ashley Fellowship Committee is now requesting nominations for the 2025-2026 Ashley Fellow. Nominations may come from fellows of any of the Colleges or from any college affiliated departments. This is a wonderful opportunity for the University community to benefit from the presence of a distinguished intellectual who enhances our academic programs and collegiate life.

The fellowship is funded by a bequest from the late Professor C.A. Ashley, long-time friend of Trent University and an enthusiastic proponent of the importance of collegiate life in the academic pursuits of the University. The Ashley Fellow is therefore a visiting scholar who is a resident guest in one of Trent's residential Colleges. By the terms approved by Senate in 1976, and in keeping with Professor Ashley's wishes, "scholar" should be broadly interpreted to include persons not necessarily holding an academic appointment.

Subhankar Banerjee: Trent University's 45th Ashley Fellow

Subhankar Banerjee is a photographer, writer, curator, and conservationist. He is a professor of Art & Ecology and founding director of the Center for Environmental Arts & Humanities at the University of New Mexico.

Since 2002, he has been working closely with Indigenous Gwich’in and Iñupiat elders, and scientists and conservationists in Alaska. His first book and the companion exhibition Seasons of Life and Land: Arctic National Wildlife Refuge contributed significantly to the campaign to protect the internationally significant wildlife nursery and a place important to Indigenous peoples from oil and gas development.

Subhankar most recently served as the director and cocurator (with Dr. Jennifer Garcia Peacock) of “a Library, a Classroom, and the World,” an award-winning project for the 2022 Venice Biennale art exhibition Personal Structures organized by the European Cultural Centre in Venice, Italy. His photographs have been exhibited widely, including the 18th Biennale of Sydney, Hood Museum of Art at Dartmouth College, Princeton University Art Museum, Nottingham Contemporary, and the Amon Carter Museum of American Art.

Subhankar is currently working on four books on biodiversity: Shorebirds in Modern Times; Coexistence: Biodiversity in New Mexico (editor); a book on Sundarban, the largest mangrove forest on earth, and a book on the global history of biodiversity and justice (cowriting with Finis Dunaway).

Renowned for its commitment to both the arts and social justice across its academic departments and collegiate environment, the LEC community eagerly anticipates welcoming Subhankar, who will reside within the college throughout his stay. Trent students and fellows will have the chance to engage with Subhankar and his work through workshops, guest lectures, and appearances at LEC Events. His visit will conclude with an Ashley Fellow College Dinner and a Public Talk, open to students, staff, alumni, and community members.

"We are honoured to welcome Subhankar to LEC as this year's Ashley Fellow" says Dr. Christine Freeman-Roth, Principal, Lady Eaton College. "Subhankar perfectly represents both the ideals of the Ashley Fellowship, and those of Lady Eaton through his lived experiences and unique perspective through a lens of both art and ecology."

As Ashley Fellow, Mr. Banerjee visited Trent’s Peterborough campus from September 26th - October 10th, 2024. He gave many guest lectures in a variety of classes and workshops and lead his own public lecture which you can watch below.

Beyond Extinction: Ashley Fellow Public Lecture

The Ashley Fellowship, featuring Subhankar Banerjee presents "Beyond Extinction: Art & Visual Culture for Biodiversity & Justice" 

Subhankar will share his recent and ongoing work from three places: the Arctic in the Canada-US borderland (where he first became an environmental artist and advocate); the Chihuahuan desert in the Mexico-US borderland (where he now lives); and the Sundarban mangrove of the Bangladesh-India borderland (near where he was born). In each instance, he will offer a long view—spanning decades, centuries, even millennia—to show how art and visual culture can reframe our understanding of the intensifying biodiversity crisis. He will also explain how images can help shape a more inclusive and just framework for biodiversity conservation that honors the rights and needs of Indigenous and other rural peoples.

Nominate the next Ashley Fellow

The Ashley Fellow Committee invites nominations for the 2025-2026 Ashley Fellowship

Download the nomination package

Historical List of Ashley Fellows