Several Indian-origin winners in 2024 list of Guggenheim Fellows

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The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation (gf.org) selected several accomplished individuals of Indian origin as Fellows, among its 188 Artists, Scholars, Photographers, Novelists, Essayists, Poets, Historians, Choreographers, Environmentalists, and Data Scientists. Since 1925, almost 100 years to date, Guggenheim has awarded monetary fellowship to at least 19,000 Fellows, and the selection follows a rigorous process and is made on the basis of prior career achievement and exceptional promise.

Now in its 99th year, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation recognizes & awards monetary prizes to the 2024 class of “trail-blazing” fellows across 52 fields of endeavor for this competitive and highly prestigious award, a press release said.

On April 11, the Board of Trustees of the Foundation announced their appointment of 188 Guggenheim Fellowships from a pool of almost 3,000 applicants.

Each fellow receives a monetary stipend to pursue independent work at the highest level under “the freest possible conditions.”

“Humanity faces some profound existential challenges,” Edward Hirsch, award-winning poet and president of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, is quoted saying in the press release. “The Guggenheim Fellowship is a life-changing recognition,” he added.

In all, 52 scholarly disciplines and artistic fields, 84 academic institutions, 38 US states and the District of Columbia, and four Canadian provinces are represented in the 2024 class, who range in age from 28 to 89. More than 40 Fellows (roughly 1 out of 4) do not hold a full-time affiliation with a college or university. Many Fellows’ projects directly respond to timely issues such as democracy and politics, identity, disability activism, machine learning, incarceration, climate change and community.

The Indian-origin 2024 Guggenheim Fellows in varying fields include:

CHOREOGRAPHY

Hari Krishnan, Professor, Department of Dance, Wesleyan University, Middletown, CT.

ENGINEERING

Vivek K. Goyal, Professor and Associate Chair of Doctoral Programs, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Boston University, Cambridge, MA.

GENERAL NONFICTION

Sonia Shah, Writer, Baltimore, MD.

SOUTH AND SOUTHEAST ASIAN STUDIES

Nita Kumar, Historian, Varanasi, Upper Pradesh, India.