Princeton faculty members Bhargava, Guenther, Schor and Weisenfeld and Hodder Fellow Gibson receive 2022 Guggenheim Fellowships

Manjul Bhargava (left), Katja Guenther, Esther Schor and Judith Weisenfeld. Photos of Manjul Bhargava, Katja Guenther and Judith Weisenfeld by Denise Applewhite; photo of Esther Schor by Isometric Studio.

The faculty members are Manjul Bhargava, the Brandon Fradd, Class of 1983, Professor of Mathematics; Katja Guenther, associate professor of history; Esther Schor, chair of the Humanities Council and the Leonard L. Milberg ’53 Professor of American Jewish Studies and Professor of English; and Judith Weisenfeld, the Agate Brown and George L. Collord Professor of Religion.

Current Hodder Fellow in Lewis Center for the Arts Mark Thomas Gibson is also among the recipients. The actor and director Robert De Niro has underwritten Gibson’s Fellowship in Fine Arts in honor of his father, the painter Robert De Niro Sr., a 1968 Guggenheim Fellow. Gibson’s paintings, inspired by comics, provide commentary on American history and explore Black representation. 

Matthew Reeck, a PIIRS translator in residence in spring 2021, whose residency was supported by the Humanities Council, received a Guggenheim fellowship for translation.

In addition, four graduate and one undergraduate alumni received 2022 Guggenheim Fellowships.

The Princeton scholars are among 180 to receive fellowships from a pool of almost 2,500 applicants — a diverse group of scholars, artists, writers and scientists — appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise.

Faculty recipients

Manjul Bhargava

Bhargava joined the Princeton faculty in 2003 and is a 2001 graduate alumnus. His research focuses on number theory, the study of whole numbers and their relationship to each other. 

He was awarded the Guggenheim in the field of mathematics.

Katja Guenther

Guenther joined the Princeton faculty in 2009. She specializes in the history of modern medicine and the mind sciences. Her research focuses on the history of subjectivity and the ways in which modern ideas of the self have been constituted through the interplay of cultural and scientific norms. 

She was awarded the Guggenheim in the field of history of science, technology and economics.

Esther Schor

Schor joined the Princeton faculty in 1986. Her scholarship focuses on two areas — Modern Jewish Culture and British Romanticism. She is chair of the Humanities Council and co-director of “Migration: People and Cultures Across Border,” an interdisciplinary research community of PIIRS.

She was awarded the Guggenheim in the field of intellectual and cultural history.

Judith Weisenfeld

Weisenfeld joined the Princeton faculty in 2007. Her research and teaching focus on African American religious history, religion and race, and religion in modern American culture

She was awarded the Guggenheim in the field of religion.

Graduate and undergraduate alumni recipients

• Patricia Alessandri *08, a composer and assistant professor of music, Stanford University, for music composition.
• Keisha Blain *14, associate professor of history, University of Pittsburgh, and current member of the School of Social Science at the Institute for Advanced Study, for U.S history.
• Kimberly Bowes *02, professor of classical studies, University of Pennsylvania, for classics.
• Yoav Di-Capua *04, professor of history, University of Texas-Austin, for Near Eastern studies.
• Ladee Hubbard ’93, a writer based in New Orleans, for fiction.
• Cynthia Rudin *04, professor of computer science and electrical and computer engineering, Duke University, for computer science.