Mei-Po Kwan, Katharyne Mitchell and Laura Pulido have been named 2016 fellows by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

Mei-Po Kwan, a professor of geography and geographic information science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was selected for her ground-breaking contributions to the discipline of geography in fields spanning environmental health, sustainable cities, human mobility, socio-economic issues in cities, and GIScience. As noted in a recent award citation: “One of the defining characteristics of her research is that it transcends and eschews boundaries” both within geography and beyond.

Kwan plans to use the Guggenheim fellowship to deepen understanding of the uncertain geographic context problem (UGCoP) and to conceive possible methods for mitigating the problem in social science and health research. Read more information about Kwan’s Guggenheim fellowship.

Katharyne Mitchell, a professor of geography at the University of Washington, was selected for her research on xenophobia, citizenship, and the meaning and practices of belonging.

In her time as a Guggenheim Fellow Mitchell will look at the nature of sanctuary and the role of faith-based movements in migration policy and human rights discourse in Europe. Read more information about Mitchell’s Guggenheim fellowship.

 

Laura Pulido, a professor of American studies and ethnicity at the University of Southern California: Sangre en la Tierra: Towards a Methodology for Engaging with Foundational Racial Violence.

As a Guggenheim Fellow, Pulido will work on a project called, Sangre en la Tierra (Blood in the Soil), which attempts to develop a methodology for encouraging cities to grapple with their histories of foundational racial violence. Read more information about Pulido’s Guggenheim fellowship.

Kwan, Mitchell and Pulido were among 178 scholars, artists, and scientists selected to receive a 2016 Guggenheim fellowship. Guggenheim Fellows are chosen from more than 3,000 highly accomplished applicants “on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise.” Guggenheim Fellows “represent the best of the best.”