On Wednesday, October 4, 2023, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced that WGS Professor Imani Perry was the recipient of a 2023 “genius grant.”  The MacArthur Foundation recognized Professor Perry's writing and interdisciplinary scholarship as "giving fresh context to history and the cultural expressions forged by Black Americans in the face of injustice."

“It took a while to sink in,” Professor Perry said in Harvard Gazette article announcing the award. “I find myself on a regular basis feeling grateful that I get to do work that brings me joy and sense of purpose. So, to have it recognized and appreciated is just amazing.”

Professor Perry, a multidisciplinary thinker recognized for her fresh insights on the resilience and beauty of Black American cultural expressions, is the Henry A. Morss Jr. and Elisabeth W. Morss Professor of Studies of Women, Gender, and Sexuality and of African and African American Studies and is also the Carol K. Pforzheimer Professor at Harvard Radcliffe Institute. Her books include the National Book Award-winning South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation (2022), Vexy Thing: On Gender and Liberation (2018), and the Lambda Award-winning Looking for Lorraine: The Radiant and Radical Life of Lorraine Hansberry (2018), which also received awards from PEN, the Publishing Triangle, Phi Beta Kappa, and the Black Caucus of the American Library Association and was a 2018 New York Times Notable Book.

Please join WGS in congratulating Professor Perry on this honor.