Two $625K 'Genius' Grant Winners Are Based In LA

LOS ANGELES, CA —A Los Angeles-based film scholar, archivist and curator, and a UCLA internet studies and digital media scholar were two of 25 people who on Tuesday were announced as winners of the of the MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, sometimes known as the "genius" grant, according to the Chicago-based John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Jacqueline Stewart is a University of Chicago professor who currently is working as the chief artistic and programming officer at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles. She is credited with "illuminating the contributions that overlooked Black filmmakers and communities of spectators have made to cinema's development as an art form," according to the MacArthur Foundation.

In 2005, Stewart's study "Migrating to the Movies: Cinema and the Black Urban Modernity," examined Black spectatorship of silent movies in Chicago at the time of the Great Migration.

Since 2019, Stewart has been the host of "Silent Sunday Nights" on Turner Classic Movies, where she explains the cultural significance and historical context of featured silent films.

In a profile of Stewart in Chicago's South Side Weekly, writer Sonya Alexander explained how Stewart's research has added to the public's knowledge of film history.

"Black contributions to the nascent days of film are often overlooked, but thankfully current-day torchbearers are working to preserve and disseminate little-known facts about Black film and filmmakers," Alexander wrote.

"University of Chicago film studies scholar Jacqueline Stewart is one such leader—a griot by nature but an inquisitive film analyst and archivist by trade."

Safiya Noble is an associate professor of gender studies and African American studies and co-founder of the UCLA Center for Critical Internet Inquiry. The MacArthur Foundation said she was honored for highlighting the ways digital technologies and internet architectures magnify racism, sexism and harmful stereotypes.

Noble is the author of the bestselling book "Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism," which examines racist and sexist bias in the algorithms used by commercial search engines.

"Noble's work deepens our understanding of the technologies that shape the modern world and facilitates critical conversations regarding their potential harms," the MacArthur Foundation said in a statement.

According to the MacArthur Foundation, the fellowship is a $625,000, no-strings-attached award to "extraordinarily talented and creative individuals as an investment in their potential."

The three criteria for selection are:

• Exceptional creativity
• Promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishments
• Potential for the fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work

"The MacArthur Fellowship will have a transformative impact on the work I do to abolish the harmful and discriminatory effects of digital technologies," Noble said in a statement put out by UCLA. "It's a great and unexpected honor, and I'm grateful to the selection committee and all my colleagues who made this possible. I plan to use this award to accelerate and amplify the work of other Black women and women of color."

There were two additional fellowship winners with local ties, both from Pasadena: Christina Ibarra, a documentary filmmaker, and Alex Rivera, a filmmaker and media artist.