A violinist who organizes concerts for the homeless, a professor whose research is being used to increase access to civil justice by poor communities, and an activist pastor are among this year's MacArthur fellows and recipients of so-called genius grants, the AP reports. The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation on Thursday named 25 people , including academics, activists, artists, scholars and scientists, who will receive $625,000 over five years to use as they please. The Chicago-based foundation has awarded the fellowships each year since 1981 to people who have shown outstanding talent to help further their creative, professional or intellectual pursuits. Potential fellows are brought to the foundation's attention by an anonymous pool of nominators. Those selected are sworn to secrecy until their names are announced. Details on some winners:
- Los Angeles Philharmonic first violinist Vijay Gupta said he was "pretty overwhelmed" when he told he was named a MacArthur fellow. The 31-year-old received the honor for being the co-founder and artistic director of Street Symphony, which has performed at homeless shelters, jails and halfway houses for about eight years. "They have reminded me why I became a musician," Gupta said of the homeless. "Artists have a role in telling the truth about what is happening in our world today."
- "It was an extraordinary experience and a complete shock," said Rebecca Sandefur, an associate professor of sociology and law at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, of learning she won. "It was not something you would expect." Sandefur's research is promoting a new approach to increasing access to the justice system by poor communities. The 47-year-old created the first national mapping of civil legal aid providers, revealing which states had the resources to provide such aid and which didn't.
- Fellow Gregg Gonsalves, 54, is a global health advocate and assistant professor of epidemiology at Yale University. A longtime HIV/AIDS activist, his work focuses on the use of quantitative analysis and operations research to improve responses to global public health challenges. He co-founded the Global Health Justice Partnership at Yale to advance human rights and social justice perspectives in public health and legal research and teaching.
- Matthew Aucoin, a 28-year-old composer, conductor and artist-in-residence at the Los Angeles Opera, composes instrumental works, ranging from pieces for solo performers to compositions for chorus and orchestra. His operatic work "Crossing," which drew from Walt Whitman's diary entries during his Civil War work tending to wounded soldiers, premiered in 2015.
- Also named a fellow was William J. Barber II, pastor of Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, NC, and founder of Repairers of the Breach, a leadership development organization. In 2017, Barber began a series of "Moral Monday" rallies outside the North Carolina state Capitol to protest laws that suppress voter turnout.
The
New York Times has a complete list of winners. (More
Genius Grant stories.)
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