Maharashtra-born and US-based historian and writer Shailaja Paik has made history by becoming the first Dalit woman to receive the $800,000 MacArthur Fellowship, commonly known as the 'Genius Grant.' This prestigious award will allow Shailaja to collaborate with individuals engaged in caste and social justice initiatives across various parts of the world.

Who is Shailaja Paik?

Shailaja Paik was born into a poor Dalit family in rural Maharashtra, growing up in a one-room house in a slum in Yerwada, Pune. Her father was a graduate and the first Dalit individual from his village to earn a degree. Paik graduated from Savitribai Phule Pune University and later received a Ford Foundation grant to pursue her PhD at the University of Warwick in the UK. She is now a history professor at the University of Cincinnati.

Dalit history writing

Through her studies and writings, Shailaja Paik highlights the stories of discrimination and dignity in the daily lives of Dalit women. Her literature spans English, Marathi, and Hindi, tackling the challenge of documenting the history of the Dalit community at a time when research on this topic is scarce in mainstream Indian universities. For years, there has been a lack of formal documentation of Dalit history, and Paik is actively working to address this gap by gathering oral histories through interviews and fieldwork.

MacArthur Foundation Fellowship 

The MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, often referred to as the 'no-strings-attached' grant, is awarded to creative artists and researchers over a period of five years. So far, the fellowship has been awarded to three Indians, including mathematician Subhash Khot and bioengineer Manu Prakash in 2016, as well as environmental engineer Kartik Chandran in 2015, all of whom are IIT alumni.