MMUF PhD Monica Munoz Martinez wins MacArthur Fellowship

MMUF PhD Monica Muñoz Martinez, currently Associate Professor of History at the University of Texas at Austin, is among the 25 recipients of the 2021 MacArthur Fellowship. She is one of two MMUF PhDs (along with film historian Jacqueline Stewart) in this year's cohort of winners. The $625,000, no-strings-attached fellowship, which is awarded annually to figures whose work has demonstrated exceptional originality and the potential for significant future contributions to their fields, recognizes Monica's scholarship and public activism on racial violence at the U.S.-Mexico border, including her 2018 book The Injustice Never Leaves You:Anti-Mexican Violence in Texas; her nonprofit organization Refusing to Forget; and her digital archive project Mapping Violence. Monica's MacArthur profile can be viewed here.

Monica was originally selected as an MMUF fellow at Brown University, and subsequently earned her PhD from Yale University in 2012. She has since taught at both Brown and UT Austin. We are thrilled to see Monica's accomplishments recognized in this way, and offer our warmest congratulations on behalf of the MMUF program and the Mellon Foundation.