University of Cincinnati Professor named MacArthur Fellow

John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation awards the MacArthur Fellowship also known as "Genius Grant," every year. It is awarded to people between age group of 20 to 30.

Study in US: University of Cincinnati Professor Shailaja Paik, PhD has been named as one of the MacArthur Fellows. She was not expecting it and her ears were numb when she heard this on the phone.

While commenting on this, she said, “I had been named a (MacArthur) fellow, and I wasn’t sure I was hearing correctly, but I tried to keep my cool. I thought, ‘Is this right? I’m going to ask her to repeat herself. I was ecstatic.”

This Fellowship is extremely prestigious and granted annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation to “extraordinarily creative individuals with a track record of excellence in a field of scholarship or area of practice, who demonstrate the ability to impact society in significant and beneficial ways through their pioneering work or the rigour of their contributions." These Fellows are in the age group of 20 to 30. This year, the foundation announced a total of 22 fellows and she is one of them.

After getting selected for this fellowship, the fellows get a grant of $800,000 over five years to follow their academic pursuits. The selected fellows are nominated and endorsed by their peers and based on their recommendations, it is awarded to the receivers. There are no separate interviews in which they need to appear.

“I have had friends and colleagues who have told me that I should be the recipient of this award, but it’s not something I can apply for, so getting the call was a shock. I do know people who have become fellows in the past, and their work is incredible, so to be in the same group of geniuses means a lot to me, and it means a lot for the work I have done over long years. I’m happy to have the ‘big genius’ feather in my cap, now," she said.

UC President Neville G. Pinto congratulated her and said, “This is one of the highest recognitions for intellectual accomplishment and impact that a faculty member can win globally. We are so thrilled that Dr. Paik has been recognized for her remarkable scholarship working with a population of people who have been overlooked and discriminated against for centuries.”

About UC's Professor Shailaja Paik

She is a Charles Phelps Taft Distinguished Research Professor of History and an affiliate in Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Asian Studies and Sociology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Cincinnati. She is the first-ever recipient of this fellowship in both the University of Cincinnati and the city of Cincinnati since the award started in 1981 and is only one of 10 MacArthur Fellows to be named in Ohio.

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