MacArthur grant winners include 2 law profs and democracy lawyer, all Yale Law grads
A democracy lawyer and legal scholars studying global migration and incarceration practices will each receive $800,000 after being named 2023 MacArthur Foundation fellows. Image from Shutterstock. Adjacent photos from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.
Updated: A democracy lawyer and legal scholars studying global migration and incarceration practices will each receive $800,000 after being named 2023 MacArthur Foundation fellows.
The MacArthur Foundation fellowships, commonly known as “genius grants,” were awarded to 20 people who also include poets, artists, a hula choreographer preserving Hawaiian culture, environmental experts and an anthropologist studying water insecurity, according to the list of winners revealed Wednesday and stories by the Chicago Tribune, the New York Times and the Associated Press.
All but one of the legal-related award winners are graduates of Yale Law School. They are:
Ian Bassin.
• Ian Bassin, 47, a lawyer, a democracy advocate and the executive director of Protect Democracy. Bassin co-founded the group in 2016 to safeguard free and fair elections and counter misinformation. A national task force assembled by Bassin and his colleagues recommended reforms to the Electoral Count Act, including setting limits on the vice president’s and Congress’ ability to object to or challenge Electoral College votes. Most of the recommendations were enacted into law in December 2022.
Andrea Armstrong.
• Andrea Armstrong, 48, a professor at the Loyola University at New Orleans College of Law, who has created a database of everyone who has died in a prison, a jail or a youth detention facility in Louisiana since 2015. The database also includes descriptive memorials of those who died to bring humanity to each death. She has created a guide for law professors who want to replicate her approach.
E. Tendayi Achiume.
• E. Tendayi Achiume, 41, a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law, who contends that people from formerly colonized territories should have the right to migrate to colonizer nations. She also has worked as the United Nations special rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance.
Imani Perry.
• Imani Perry, 51, an interdisciplinary scholar and writer. Perry is a professor of women, gender and sexuality and of African and African American studies at Harvard University. Perry had a JD from Harvard Law School and an LLM from the Georgetown University Law Center. She has written books about patriarchy and racial inequality and argues that people are socialized into racism through racial narratives.
The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation grants will be awarded over five years and have no strings attached. The intent is “to encourage people of outstanding talent to pursue their own creative, intellectual and professional inclinations.”
See also:
“Health justice lawyer is among 25 recipients of MacArthur ‘genius grants’”
Updated Oct. 16 at 8:40 a.m. to add Imani Perry to the list of winners. Hat tip to Original Jurisdiction.
