"No strings attached" is not a phrase you hear too often in the world of foundation grants, and that's partly what makes the MacArthur Fellows unique. Another feature: the size of the prize itself. Today the MacArthur Foundation announced that 22 "exceptionally creative people" — including three from California — will each receive grants of $800,000.
This year's Fellows include performing and visual artists, writers, scientists, historians, activists and one filmmaker, Sterlin Harjo. The MacArthur Foundation considers these grants as investments in people whose "ideas, experiments, and solutions expand our expectations of what's possible."
The 2024 class is made up of 11 women, 10 men and 1 non-binary person, and ranges in age from 39 (Shamel Pitts, Martha Muñoz and Loka Ashwood) to 75 (Juan Felipe Herrera). The breadth of their work spans just about every aspect of science and society, from computer technology to evolutionary biology, disability justice to children's literature.
“The 2024 MacArthur Fellows pursue rigorous inquiry with aspiration and purpose," Marlies Carruth, the director of the MacArthur Fellows Program, said in a statement. "They expose biases built into emerging technologies and social systems and fill critical gaps in the knowledge of cycles that sustain life on Earth. Their work highlights our shared humanity, centering the agency of disabled people, the humor and histories of Indigenous communities, the emotional lives of adolescents, and perspectives of rural Americans.”
The 2024 MacArthur Fellows Are:
Joseph Parker of the California Institute of Technology is an evolutionary biologist “uncovering the origins of symbiosis in rove beetles and the evolution of complex organismal traits.”
Alice Wong of Disability Visibility Project, is “a writer, editor and disability justice activist increasing the political and cultural visibility of people with disabilities and catalyzing broader understandings of disability.” She told NPR’s Thomas Lu in 2023: “My work is part of a larger collective body of wisdom by disabled people from the past, present, and future. Some of us may be out of time but we are immortal.”
Juan Felipe Herrera of Fresno, Calif., is “a poet, educator and writer uplifting Chicanx culture and amplifying shared experiences of solidarity and empowerment.” In 2017, NPR visited Herrera at the Library of Congress, where he read poems, shared his creative process, and explained how poems create change in "personal, intimate, and momentary" ways.
Loka Ashwood of the University of Kentucky is a sociologist “shedding light on rural identity and culture, and on the ecological, economic and social challenges facing many rural communities.” MPR News spoke with Ashwood in 2022.
Ruha Benjamin of Princeton University is a scholar and writer, “illuminating how technology reflects and reproduces inequality and championing the role of imagination in social transformation.” Benjamin joined KERA in February to talk about her book Imagination: A Manifesto.
Justin Vivian Bond of New York is an artist and performer “working in the cabaret tradition and weaving cultural critique and an ethic of care into performances that center queer joy.” Bond performed a Tiny Desk (home) Concert for NPR Music in 2022.
Jericho Brown of Emory University is a poet “reflecting on contemporary culture and identity in works that combine formal experimentation and intense self-examination.” Hear a conversation with Brown on On Being with Krista Tippett.
Tony Cokes of Brown University is a media artist “creating video works that re-contextualize historical and cultural moments.”
Nicola Dell of Cornell Tech is a computer and information scientist “developing technology interventions to address the needs of overlooked populations, such as survivors of intimate partner violence.”
Johnny Gandelsman of New Paltz, NY, is a violinist and producer “reimagining classical works and nurturing the creation of new music across styles and genres.” Hear Gandelsman perform Clarice Assad's O, which was one of 22 new works for violin he commissioned in 2020.
Sterlin Harjo of Tulsa, Okla., is a filmmaker “telling stories about the daily lives of contemporary Native Americans with humor and deep affection.” In 2022, he told Fresh Air‘s Terry Gross that he and the other creators of the series Reservation Dogs wanted to give audiences “permission to laugh with us.” Harjo recently joined NPR’s Rachel Martin for a game of Wild Card.
Ling Ma of Chicago is a fiction writer “mixing speculative and realist modes of storytelling to throw into relief the surreal aspects of our contemporary condition.” In 2018, Ma spoke with NPR’s Ari Shapiro about her novel Severance, and in 2022, Fresh Air’s book critic Maureen Corrigan shared this review of Ma’s short story collection Bliss Montage.
Jennifer L. Morgan of New York University is a historian “deepening understanding of how the exploitation of enslaved women enabled the institutionalization of race-based slavery in early America and the Black Atlantic.”
Martha Muñoz of Yale University, is an evolutionary biologist “investigating the motors and brakes of evolution.”
Shailaja Paik of the University of Cincinnati is a historian “exploring the intersection of caste, gender, and sexuality in modern India through the lives of Dalit women.” She spoke with KUOW in 2023 and to NPR in 2024: "History isn’t a dead subject," she said. "Our attitude to the past shapes how we think about the present and how we build our future."
Ebony G. Patterson of Kingston, Jamaica, and Chicago is a multimedia artist “creating visually dazzling works that explore themes of visibility, beauty, race, class, violence, mourning, and regeneration.” Patterson spoke about her artwork on WABE in 2023.
Shamel Pitts of Brooklyn, NY, is a dancer and choreographer “pioneering experimental performance works inspired by Afrofuturism while reimagining collective ways of world-building.”
Wendy Red Star of Portland, Ore., is a visual artist “engaging with archival materials in works that challenge colonial historical narratives.” Red Star was featured in an Oregon Public Broadcasting video in 2019 and spoke about her monograph Delegation on WNYC in 2022.
Jason Reynolds of Washington, D.C., is a children’s and young adult writer “depicting the rich inner lives of kids of color and ensuring that they see themselves and their communities in literature.” In 2022, Reynolds spoke with Morning Edition's A Martínez, about the importance of young people's stories and fostering a love of reading. He visited the show again in 2023 to talk book bans and Spider-Man, and was featured on the TED Radio Hour in 2021.
Dorothy Roberts of the University of Pennsylvania, is a legal scholar and public policy researcher “exposing racial inequities embedded in social service systems and uplifting the experiences of people caught up in them.” She was featured on the TED Radio Hour in 2021, talking about how race can factor into clinical diagnoses – and why that can be dangerous.
Keivan G. Stassun of Vanderbilt University is a science educator and astronomer “expanding opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education and careers for underrepresented populations.”
Benjamin Van Mooy of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, is an oceanographer “investigating how microbial organisms shape cycling of elements fundamental to life in marine environments.” Van Mooy spoke with NPR about oil spills in 2010.
Beth Novey contributed to this story.
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