Her current status as one of the 22 beneficiaries of this year’s coveted MacArthur “genius” fellowship is evidence of a career devoted to studying the intricate lives of Dalit women, who were born into the caste that India’s hierarchical society views as “untouchable.”
In addition to acknowledging her work on caste, gender, and sexuality, the MacArthur Foundation award—which includes a $800,000 [£615,000] stipend spread over five years—strongly supports her continued goal of rewriting the stories of the downtrodden.
The goal of the multidisciplinary award, according to Marlies Carruth, head of the MacArthur Fellows Program, is to “enable” individuals who have demonstrated exceptional work and the capacity to do so in the future.
The Foundation stated when announcing this year’s candidates that Paik “elucidates the enduring nature of caste discrimination and the forces that perpetuate untouchability through her focus on the multifaceted experiences of Dalit women.”
