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Rebecca Sandefur, a researcher at the University of Illinois, strives to expand access to civil justice, which allows her to pursue a full and effective academic career, but can also go largely unnoticed by the culture. at large.
One of the reasons the MacArthur Foundation has created its annual MacArthur Scholarship, better known as the "Engineering Grants," is one of the reasons why Chicago philanthropy is awarding its badge this year. recognition worth $ 625,000 in the United States, including an investigative reporter looking for a small newspaper. At the expense of coal in West Virginia, the first-generation Nigerian-American choreographer exploring the inner life of women and an analytical chemist whose work helps cancer surgeons differentiate healthy tissue from the sick.
In the awards announced Thursday, the foundation is awarding the prize to 25 people across the United States, "individuals on the brink of great discovery or a revolutionary idea," the foundation said. Everyone will receive his bonus over the next five years without any conditions, with the exception of the obligation to pay taxes.
Several of the 2018 laureates have ties to Chicago, including playwright Dominique Morisseau, whose plays have been staged in Detroit, composer Matthew Aucoin, who was apprenticed to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and writer John Keene, who taught at Northwestern.
Sandefur, a sociologist in the 47-year-old Faculty of Law and Sociology, is currently the only laureate to work here.
"My reaction was a shock," she said. This week, on the phone, in Champaign. "You do not expect something like this to happen, and then you feel really humble because you think of all the amazing things that people do."
But it is grateful that civil justice – the non-criminal side of the law including areas such as housing, employment and family relations – can be given the necessary attention, given the frequency with which people have what they call civil justice problems.
Part of its purpose was to find ways to solve such problems without simply integrating more lawyers, for example using non-lawyers who might nonetheless have some training in tenants' law.
Sandefur's work, said MacArthur in his quotation, "provides the empirical evidence needed to guide and implement large-scale reforms to address the civil legal needs of low-income people".
"I do not think that criminal justice has been in the news," said Sandefur, who earned his PhD at the University of Chicago. "Criminal justice is a mess; the attention he receives, he needs. But there are challenges on the civilian side, and I look forward to receiving the attention it needs. "
To that end, she said, she intends to place her earnings where her research is. "It's a start-up capital to mobilize more activity on these issues," Sandefur said.
Below you will find a description of the other 24 winners, including seven from New York. Fourteen are graduates and / or professors at Ivy League universities. More detailed information can be found at www.macfound.org.
Dominique Morisseau, 40, New York: "No American dramatic author has gone so fast," writes Tribune critic Chris Jones, reviewing Morisseau's "Skeleton Crew" production at Skokie's Northlight Theater. This is the third part of his "Detroit Project" game cycle, which allowed for a comparison with August Wilson's works in the Pittsburgh set.
John Keene, 53, Newark, N.J .: Keene, director of Rutgers University's Department of African American Studies and African Studies, works in the fields of fiction, translation, poetry and cultural criticism, "corrects and expands our partial and distorted view of American history and culture, "said the foundation.
Matthew Aucoin, 28, New York City: The composer ("Crossing" and "Second Nature" operas of 2015), conductor and pianist, founder of the American Modern Opera Company, has performed at Lyric Opera in Chicago and from 2013 to 2015 at Solti Conducting Apprentice of the CSO.
Wu Tsang, 36, New York: A graduate of the Chicago School of the Art Institute, Tsang is a filmmaker and performance artist exploring the boundaries between fiction and documentary in such works as "Dulian" and "Wildness", the latter exploring an immigrant gay bar in Los Angeles.
Okwui Okpokwasili, 46, New York City: In works such as "Bronx Gothic" and "Poor People's TV Room" (recently at MCA), the multidisciplinary works of choreographer Okpokwasili draw viewers into the inner life of women of color.
Julie Ault, 60, New York: As an artist, curator and co-founder of the Art Group Group Material, Ault has championed the work for social change.
William J. Barber II, 55 years old, Goldsboro, N.C .: Based in the Greenleaf Christian Church in Goldsboro, where he is a pastor, and as part of the "Moral Monday" march outside the state capital, he advocated for causes such as human rights. LGBTQ and the emancipation of voters.
Clifford Brangwynne, 40, Princeton, N.J .: Brangwynne, a Princeton biophysics engineer, is studying cell compartmentalization, a work "likely to shed light on the biochemical dysfunctions that can lead to disease," MacArthur said.
Natalie Diaz, 40, Tempe, Arizona: Mojave American and Latina, the poet Diaz, an English professor at Arizona State, wrote the 2012 poetry collection entitled "When My Brother Was an Aztec".
Ken Ward Jr., age 50, Charleston, West Virginia: Writing for the Charleston Gazette-Mail, a newspaper sold in bankruptcy earlier this year and now for the ProPublica Local Reporting Network, Ward has highlighted the sometimes invisible impacts of coal, chemical and gas extraction natural at home, on people and the environment. State.
Livia S. Eberlin, age 32, Austin, Texas: Eberlin, an analytical chemist at the University of Texas, uses mass spectrometry to improve the accuracy of cancer-related diagnoses and surgeries.
Deborah Estrin, 58, New York: Computer teacher at Cornell Tech, Estrin uses it to use the "little data" collected in our digital lives to improve, for example, the management of personal health.
Amy Finkelstein, 44, Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Health Economist uses innovative research to show the "hidden complexities" in health care and suggest future solutions.
Gregg Gonsalves, 54, New Haven, Connecticut: Former ACT UP activist, currently a faculty member as an epidemiologist at Yale, Gonsalves uses data to develop HIV / AIDS treatment plans and advocacy activities to help them put into practice these plans.
Vijay Gupta, 31, Los Angeles: First violinist of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Gupta co-founded Street Symphony, which offers music and music education programs in non-traditional venues.
Becca Heller, 36, New York City: A human rights lawyer who leads the international refugee assistance project, Heller is working to provide legal protection for refugees and other at-risk populations.
Raj Jayadev, 43, San Jose, CA: Jayadev, a community organizer and writer, has created the now-popular model of "participatory defense," which empowers inmates, their families, and their communities.
Titus Kaphar, 42, New Haven, Connecticut: Kaphar is "an artist whose paintings, sculptures and installations explore the intersection of art, history and the civic agency," said the foundation.
Kelly Link, 49, Northampton, Massachusetts: The fiction writer and editor Link combines sci-fi and horror in emotionally realistic news such as the ones collected in "Get in Trouble" in 2015. She and her husband run Small Beer Press.
Kristina Olson, 37, Seattle: Olson, a psychologist at the University of Washington, is leading the first large-scale, long-term study of transgender and non-conformist children.
Lisa Parks, 51, Cambridge, Mass .: As a media specialist at MIT, Parks is studying the impact of information technologies on their spread around the world.
Allan Sly, 36, Princeton, N.J .: Sly, a Princeton mathematician, uses probability theory to solve unresolved problems in theoretical computer science and statistical physics.
Sarah Stewart, 45, Davis, California: A global scientist at the University of California at Davis, Stewart studies high-energy impacts on bodies such as planets and has advanced a new theory on the formation of the Earth's moon.
Doris Tsao, 42, Pasadena, CA: The neuroscientist Tsao is conducting research at the California Institute of Technology, which has helped to better understand how primates recognize faces, which could help in the understanding of many other "sensory processing functions".
Twitter @StevenKJohnson
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