Co-Founder of United We Dream Wins “Genius” Award
Cristina Jimenez Moreta, co-founder of United We Dream and one of the 2017 MacArthur Fellows, photographed in New York last month. (John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation)
Here is some good immigration news. The co-founder and executive director of United We Dream, a Washington-based advocacy group that helped put the cause of young undocumented immigrants on the national radar, Cristina Jiménez Moreta, recently learned that she was among the 24 winners of 2017 MacArthur Foundation fellowships — a recognition widely known as the “genius grants.”
The new class also includes a striking number of fellows whose work is tied to themes of global migration, the experiences of marginalized people and cultural drift across borders.
In addition to Jiménez Moreta, grants were awarded to Jason De León, a University of Michigan anthropologist who uses forensic science and archaeological methods to study the journeys of migrants from Latin America to the United States; Sunil Amrith, a Harvard historian studying migration and the consequences of colonization in South and Southeast Asia; and Greg Asbed of Florida, who has worked to improve working conditions for migrant farmhands.
Others include Rhiannon Giddens, a North Carolina singer-songwriter and founding member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops who highlights African American influences in folk and country music; and Rami Nashashibi, recognized for his work as co-founder of the Inner-City Muslim Action Network on Chicago’s South Side. Nguyen, the novelist, came to the United States from Vietnam as a child after the fall of Saigon, and has made the refugee experience central to his writing.
KJ