Dalit scholar Shailaja Paik awarded prestigious MacArthur ‘genius’ grant

Shailaja Paik, a historian of Indian origin, has become the first Dalit scholar to win the prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, often referred to as the “genius grant.”

Paik, 50, was recognised for her groundbreaking work in Dalit studies, gender, and sexuality in modern India. She will receive $800,000 (around ₹67 lakh) to further her research.

Raised in the Yerwada slum of Pune, Paik’s journey from modest beginnings to becoming a professor at the University of Cincinnati is an inspiring tale of perseverance,  as reported by First Post. Her father, a restaurant worker, pursued night school to earn a degree in agricultural sciences, the first Dalit man in his village to do so. Her mother, with only a sixth-grade education, worked hard to ensure her children focused on their studies. Despite difficult living conditions, Paik said that education and employment were key to escaping poverty.

Paik received a scholarship to Savitribai Phule Pune University, where she earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in history. Later, with a Ford Foundation grant, she completed her PhD at Warwick University, UK. Her academic work focusses on the intersection of caste and gender, particularly the discrimination faced by Dalit women.

Her first book, Dalit Women’s Education in Modern India: Double Discrimination (2014), examines how Dalit women face dual marginalisation due to their caste and gender. Her second book, The Vulgarity of Caste: Dalits, Sexuality, and Humanity in Modern India, explores the lives of Tamasha artists, a form of folk theater predominantly practiced by Dalits in Maharashtra. Both works highlight the deep-rooted inequalities within Indian society, the First Post said.