AWARDS: Guggenheims for Meena Alexander, Ashutosh Varshney, Sumit Guha, et al

The Guggenheim Foundation just announced its 2008 fellows and there are several desi names on the (ultra swank) list. The foundation handed out $8.2 million to a total of 190 scholars, artists, journalists and others. There were 2,600 applicants.

• Meena Alexander - poet - Hunter College, City University of New York (CUNY) - "Quickly Changing River: Poem"
  
• Ashutosh Varshney - political scientist - Univ. of Michigan - "Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life: Hindus and Muslims in India" (full list of books)
• Sumit Guha - South Asian studies scholar - Rutgers University
• Chandrashekhar B. Khare - mathematician - UCLA
• Tony D'Souza - author of "The Konkans"

NDTV has coverage here.

Though not many Indian-Americans have been receiving this fellowship as compared to other ethnic groups in US, their numbers have steadily increased by every passing year.

Pulitzer Prize winner novelist Jhumpa Lahiri; mathematicians Manil Suri and Santosh Srinivas Vempala; curator Meenakshi Wadhwa and historian Sumathi Ramaswamy, are among the previous Indian-American recipients of this award.

Musician Pandit Pran Nath is said to be one of the earliest Indian-American recipient of Guggenheim fellowship, way back in 1974.

The NDTV article touches on each of the winner's accomplishments:

 

However, this year, writer D'Souza at the age of 32 is possibly one of the youngest recipients of this fellowship. Born and raised in Chicago, his first novel Whiteman received the prestigious Sue Kaufman Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His second novel, The Konkans was released in February this year.

Allahabad-born Meena Alexander has been living in New York for past several decades and is known worldwide for her autobiography Fault Lines, which traces her growth as a writer and a woman. Distinguished Professor of English at Hunter College and the City University of New York Graduate Centre, Meena recently published Quickly Changing River: Poem.

Sumit Guha, the professor of History at Rutgers University, is the author of several books including the well-known Environment and Ethnicity in India: 1200-1991 and Health and Population in South Asia from Earliest Times to the Present.

Eminent mathematician Chandrashekhar Khare had helped cracking a mathematical puzzle - Serre's conjucture - which gave him an instant international recognition. Khare is a professor at the University of California.

Ashutosh Varshney, the professor of political science at the University of Michigan, is one of the rare few to be awarded with two major fellowships. Besides the Guggenheim, he has also bagged the prestigious Carnegie Corporation Scholar fellowship worth $1,00,000.

More on Varshney's work from the U Mich release:

Building on his work on Hindu-Muslim violence in India published in "Ethnic Conflict and Civic Life," Varshney will analyze ethnic conflict in 15 cities from four countries: Indonesia, Nigeria, Malaysia and Sri Lanka. His work concentrates on three areas: cities that used to be violent but have become peaceful, cities that used to be peaceful but have become violent and peaceful cities that remained riot-free. The emphasis is on change, which should allow him to inquire into how enduring peace is established or broken.

"Apart from the fact that this award will allow me some free time to work further on my project, it is the confidence expressed by the Guggenheim selection committee in my ability to answer a very difficult question in a multi-country framework that gives me profound satisfaction," Varshney says."