Indian-American scholar Shailaja Paik bags MacArthur Foundation grant

Shailaja Paik is a history professor at Cincinnati University and has written extensively about the plight of Dalit women and caste discrimination in India

• Shajil Kumar
• 04 October, 2024

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By: Shajil Kumar

INDIAN-AMERICAN historian and author Shailaja Paik has been awarded the prestigious MacArthur Foundation’s ‘genius grant’ fellowship of $800,000.

Paik is a history professor at Cincinnati University and has written extensively about the plight of Dalit women and caste discrimination in India. She is also affiliate faculty in Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies and Asian Studies.

Paik has published articles in the Journal of South Asian Studies, Gender and History, Journal of Women’s History, and Indian Journal of Gender Studies, among others.

She has also written a few books including ‘Dalit Women’s Education in Modern India: Double Discrimination’ and ‘The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India.

Shailaja Paik did her BA (1994) and MA (1996) from the University of Pune and a PhD (2007) from the University of Warwick.

Shailaja hails from the Dalit community and grew up in a slum in Pune, Economic Times reports.

MacArthur Fellowship is given to individuals who have shown exceptional creativity in their work and the promise to do more.