Shailaja Paik, an Indian-American professor has been awarded a $800,000 "genius" grant from the MacArthur Foundation for her research work on Dalit women. The foundation gives out awards every year to people with extraordinary achievements or potential.
"Through her focus on the multifaceted experiences of Dalit women, Paik elucidates the enduring nature of caste discrimination and the forces that perpetuate untouchability," the Foundation said, announcing the grant.
Paik is a distinguished research professor of history at the University of Cincinnati, where she is also affiliated with the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Asian Studies programs.
"Paik provides new insight into the history of caste domination and traces the ways in which gender and sexuality are used to deny Dalit women dignity and personhood," the Foundation said.
The MacArthur Fellowships, commonly referred to as "genius" grants, are awarded to individuals across various fields, including academia, science, arts, and activism. According to the Foundation, these grants are an investment in "extraordinarily talented and creative individuals" based on their potential.
Selections are made anonymously based on received recommendations, and applicants cannot lobby for the grants, which are given without any strings attached and distributed over five years.
The Foundation noted that Paik's recent project focuses on "the lives of women performers in Tamasha, a popular form of bawdy folk theater traditionally practiced by Dalits in Maharashtra for centuries."
"Despite the state's efforts to reframe Tamasha as an honourable and quintessentially Marathi cultural practice, ashlil (the mark of vulgarity) sticks to Dalit Tamasha women," it said.
Based on her project, she published a book titled "The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India." The Foundation stated, "Paik also critiques the narrative of Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, the twentieth century's most influential caste abolitionist" and the architect of India's Constitution.
In an interview with National Public Radio (NPR), the US government-subsidised broadcaster, she shared that she is a member of the Dalit community who grew up in a slum area in Pune, inspired by her father's dedication to education.
After earning her master's degree from Savitribai Phule University in Pune, she pursued her PhD at the University of Warwick in the UK. She also served as a visiting assistant professor of South Asian history at Yale University.
Since the program began in 1981, fellowships have been awarded to 1,153 individuals.
Previous MacArthur Fellows include writers Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and Ved Mehta, poet A.K. Ramanujan, economists Raj Chetty and Sendhil Mullainathan, mathematician L. Mahadevan, computer scientists Subhash Khot and Shwetak Patel, physical biologist Manu Prakash, musician Vijay Gupta, community organizer Raj Jayadev, and lawyer and activist Sujatha Baliga.
(With agency input)