Roxane Gay
Please join me in congratulating Roxane Gay, associate professor of English, who was named a 2018 Guggenheim Fellow by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.
Roxane was one of 173 scholars, artists, and scientists whom the Guggenheim Foundation’s board of trustees approved as fellowship recipients on Wednesday. The organization announced the list of winners – “individuals who have already demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts” – on Thursday morning. According to the official press release, “appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise, the successful candidates were chosen from a group of almost 3,000 applicants in the Foundation’s 94th competition.”
The Guggenheim Fellowship provides grants to its recipients for six to 12 months, providing them with “blocks of time in which they can work with as much creative freedom as possible.” Fellows may spend their grant funds in any manner they deem necessary to their work.
This year’s grant recipients represent 49 different scholarly disciplines and artistic fields. A bestselling author and essayist, Roxane was selected in the general nonfiction field. She plans to complete a forthcoming essay collection, TV Guide, where each essay will focus on a television network and how that network’s programming reflects – or does not reflect – American culture.
Congratulations, Dr. Gay!
David A. Reingold
Justin S. Morrill Dean
College of Liberal Arts