A professor whose research is helping a California police department improve its strained relationship with the black community and a lawyer who advocates for victims of domestic abuse are among the 21 winners of this year’s MacArthur Foundation “genius grants.”
The Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation yesterday announced this year’s recipients, who will each receive US$625,000 to spend any way they like.
The professor and lawyer, part of an eclectic group that also includes scientists, mathematicians, historians, a cartoonist and a composer, are among several recipients whose work involves topics that have dominated the news in the past year.
“I think getting this [grant] speaks to people’s sense that this is the kind of work that needs to be done,” said recipient Jennifer Eberhardt, a Stanford University social psychologist who has researched racial stereotypes and crime.
Her work prompted the Oakland, California, police department to ask for her help studying racial biases among its officers and how those biases play out on the street — topics that have been debated nationally in the wake of the police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old in Missouri.
Eberhardt, who is also studying the use of body cameras by police — another topic of particular interest since Brown’s shooting — said: “I hope this will show the work matters, holds value and promotes social change.”
The justice system is also at the heart of Sarah Deer’s work as a legal academic and advocate for Native American women living on reservations, who suffer higher-than-average rates of domestic abuse and sexual violence.
Deer, a Native American who teaches law in Minnesota, met with women who simply stopped reporting such attacks because their tribal governments had been stripped of the authority to investigate and because federal authorities were often unwilling to do so, she said. The foundation pointed to her instrumental role in reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act by Congress last year that restored some of those abilities to tribes.
“For the first time since 1978 ... tribes [can] prosecute non-Indians who have committed acts of sexual assault and domestic violence on reservations,” she said.
Like Deer, fellow recipient Jonathan Rapping has worked to improve the lives of others.
A former public defender, Rapping founded Gideon’s Promise after seeing a legal system that he said valued speed over quality representation of the indigent.
The organization trains, mentors and assists public defenders to help them withstand the intense pressure that can come with massive caseloads.
The awards, given annually since 1981, are doled out over a five-year period. This year’s class brings the number of recipients to more than 900.
Shrouded in secrecy, the selection process does not involve applications. Instead, anonymous groups make nominations and recommendations to the foundation’s board of directors.
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