Tressie McMillan Cottom, a sociologist, writer and associate professor at UNC, earned a distinguished honor on Tuesday, as she was revealed to be one of 21 people to receive a MacArthur Fellowship this year.

Cottom, who is known for her various work examining issues like race, gender, education and digital technology, is a recent addition to the UNC faculty after joining in July. Beyond her work in both the UNC School of Information and Library Science and the Center for Information, Technology, and Public Life, she recently published a collection of essays titled THICK and co-founded a Black feminist podcast series called Hear to Slay.

Tressie McMillan Cottom is the recipient of the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship. (Photo via John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation)

The MacArthur Fellowships are given out each year by the MacArthur Foundation, which seeks to “enable recipients to exercise their own creative instincts for the benefit of human society,” according to its website. The award entails a “genius grant” of $625,000 over five years to facilitate the recipients individual work, with no stipulations beyond pursue their creative or professional goals.

“When I say that I write stories to make problems for power,” Cottom describes of her work in her MacArthur profile, “I mean that I rewrite the metaphors we use to rationalize big inequalities in the small decisions that make up our everyday lives — how we go to school, how we work, how we consume and how we love. My life’s creative challenge is wielding the tension between powerful narrative and compelling data to center Black intellectual lives as craft and method.”

UNC Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz congratulated Cottom on Twitter Tuesday following the reveal of her award, saying the university is “honored” to have her among its faculty. Guskiewicz was a recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship himself in 2011 for his work in the sports medicine research field of concussions.

More information about others in the 2020 class of MacArthur Fellows can be found on the MacArthur Foundation’s website.

Photo via John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

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