There are a few professors, a couple of writers and one hydroclimatologist around the country who today feel happy, proud, financially stable and, perhaps, optimistic about their futures. That is because they are among the 20 people who have been named 2023 recipients of fellowships from the Chicago-based MacArthur Foundation.
These fellowships, formally announced Wednesday, consist of monetary awards of $800,000, delivered in five annual installments of $160,000 with no strings attached. Buy a car? Sure. Purchase a home? Go ahead. A trip to Europe or Asia or Africa? Your plane is waiting.
Many have and will use this windfall to fund further research and creative pursuits. This is not like winning a lottery. The choices, the foundation states, are not a “reward for past accomplishment, but rather an investment in a person’s originality, insight and potential.” Of course, the foundation hopes that the money will be used by recipients “for the financial freedom that might allow them to pursue their most innovative ideas and, in so doing, enrich the planet.”
What a hopeful, empowering notion.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation was founded in 1970 by the insurance millionaire and his wife. One of the largest private foundations in the country, it has over the decades given billions of dollars to a wide variety of nonprofit organizations around the planet. One of the most notable, in this area, was its recent financial support of the partnership between WBEZ and the Sun-Times through the paper’s acquisition by Chicago Public Media.
The fellowships, its most public endeavor, come with considerable prestige.
That is because from the first awards presentation in 1981, the press began calling the fellowships “genius grants” and the recipients “geniuses.”
Many of them have come from this area. One of last year’s recipients was Tomeka Reid, a then 44-year-old jazz cellist, composer and improviser who the MacArthur folks described as “forging a unique jazz sound that draws from a range of musical traditions.” She told me, “(This) will help so much. It will buy me time to do so many things, to launch projects I have been thinking about, to have creative freedom.”
This year, there is but one recipient from the Chicago area, Rina Foygel Barber, a 40-year-old Louis Block Professor in the Department of Statistics at the University of Chicago, cited for “developing tools to reduce false positives and improve confidence in high-dimensional data models.”
This year’s 2023 MacArthur Fellows are spread across the country. In alphabetical order in addition to Barber:
E. Tendayi Achiume, Los Angeles, 41: Legal scholar with the University of California focusing on immigration and human rights, “reframing foundational concepts of international law at the intersection of racial justice and global migration.”
Andrea Armstrong, New Orleans, 48: Incarceration law scholar at Loyola University New Orleans, “bringing transparency to detention policies, conditions of confinement and deaths in U.S. prisons and jails.”
Ian Bassin, Washington, D.C., 47: Lawyer and executive director of Protect Democracy, an organization he co-founded in 2016, “working to strengthen the structures, norms and institutions that make the United States a democracy.”
Courtney Bryan, New Orleans, 41: Composer and pianist affiliated with Tulane University “melding elements of jazz, classical, and sacred music in works that reverberate with social and political issues.”
Jason D. Buenrostro, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 35: Cellular and molecular biologist in the Department of Stem Cell and Regenerative Biology at Harvard University “developing methods and technologies that advance our understanding of the mechanisms regulating gene expression.”
María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Nashville, 64: Multidisciplinary artist at Vanderbilt University “exploring personal and collective histories across the Caribbean with a distinctive and expansive visual style.”
Raven Chacon, Red Hook, New York, 45: Composer and artist “creating musical works that cut across boundaries of visual art and performance to illuminate landscapes, their inhabitants and histories.”
Diana Greene Foster, San Francisco, 52: Demographer and reproductive health researcher with the University of California, “investigating how reproductive health care policies and access impact individuals’ physical, mental, and socioeconomic well-being.”
Lucy Hutyra, Boston, 47: Environmental ecologist in the Department of Earth and Environment, Boston University, “investigating impacts of urbanization on environmental carbon cycle dynamics.”
Carolyn Lazard, Philadelphia, 36: Artist working in 3D visual art and moving images “exploring the aesthetic dimensions of disability and deploying accessibility as a creative tool for collective practices of care.”
Ada Limón, Lexington, Kentucky, 47: Poet whose most recent book is “The Hurting Kind” (2022), who works in “counterbalancing grief with wonder in works that heighten our awareness of the natural world and our connections to one another.”
Lester Mackey, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 38: Computer scientist and statistician “pioneering statistical and machine learning techniques to solve data science problems with real-world relevance.”
Patrick Makuakāne, San Francisco, 62: Kumu hula (master teacher) and cultural preservationist “blending traditional hula with contemporary music and movements and uplifting Hawaiian culture and history.”
Linsey Marr, Blacksburg, Virginia, 48: Environmental engineer in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Virginia Tech, “examining indoor and outdoor air quality and the airborne transmission of infectious bioaerosols.”
Manuel Muñoz, Tucson, Arizona, 51: Fiction writer affiliated with the University of Arizona, “depicting with empathy and nuance the Mexican American communities of California’s Central Valley.” His most recent collection is “The Consequences” (2022).
Imani Perry, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 51: Interdisciplinary scholar and writer at Harvard University, “giving fresh context to history and the cultural expressions forged by Black Americans in the face of injustice.”
Dyani White Hawk, Shakopee, Minnesota, 46: Multidisciplinary artist who is Sičáŋǧu Lakota and works in visual art and moving images, “illuminating the enduring strength, presence and influence of Indigenous artistic practices within modern and contemporary art.”
A. Park Williams, Los Angeles, 42: Hydroclimatologist in the Department of Geography, University of California, “uncovering new insights into how climate change influences drought, wildfires and tree mortality.”
Amber Wutich, Tempe, Arizona, 45: Anthropologist at Arizona State University, “documenting the impact of water insecurity on human well-being and the social infrastructure communities use to cope with inadequate water.”