This study examines the backgrounds of the winners of the MacArthur Fellowship grants from 1981 to 2018, from the conceptual framework of the term “ genius ” . The study finds that of the 1014 Fellows, Whites account for over eight out of every ten; minorities account for almost 20%; men account for almost 63%; White men account for 51.3%; Blacks account for 12.5%; Asians account for 5.9%; and Native Americans account for 1.2 percent. Of 965 terminal or highest degrees earned by 928 Fellows, 540 (56%) are doctorates, with the Ph.D. accounting for 514 (53.3%). White men earned the majority of all degrees (50.8%). Harvard University awarded the highest number of degrees, 119: Yale University, 61; University of California, Berkeley, 51; Columbia University, 44; and Princeton University, 41. All eight Ivy league institutions awarded 306 (31.7%) degrees to 300 (32.3%) Fellows. The 2020 U.S. News and World Report Top 25 institutions combined awarded 522 degrees (54.1%) to 514 Fellows (55.5%). There is a link among earned doctoral degrees, foreign-born males, and the overall gender gap in the study.
About MacArthur Fellows Program (2019). MacArthur Fellows Program. https://www.macfound.org/programs/fellows/strategy/
ACS Demographic and Housing Estimates, 2017 (2020). American Community Survey. United States Census Bureau. https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?d=ACS%205-Year%20Estimates%20Data%20Profiles&table=DP05&tid=ACSDP5Y2017.DP05
Andrews, D. (2018). The Genius Effect: What Makes One a genius, and Who Can Rightly or Wrongly Claim the Title. Credit Management, 26-27.
Benzon, W. L. (2018). The Genius Chronicles: Going Boldly Where None Have Gone Before. https://www.academia.edu/7974651/The_Genius_Chronicles_Going_Boldly_Where_None_Have_Gone_Before
Brinkman, A. (2010). Sudden Genius: Creativity Explored Through Ten Extraordinary Lives (Book Review). Library Journal, 135, 124.
Conrad, C. (2013). 5 Myths about MacArthur ‘Genius’ Grants. Washington Post. washingtonpost.com/opinions/five-myths-about-the-macarthur-genius-grants/2013/09/20/833963b8-213f-11e3-b73c-aab60bf735d0_story.html
Conrad, C. (2014). Geography of Geniuses: New Data about MacArthur Fellows Shows Creative People Move More. Time Magazine. https://time.com/3225774/macarthur-fellows-genius-geography-creative-people-move-more/
Conrad, C. (2017). Does Alma Mater Really Matter? Where MacArthur ‘Genius’ Fellows Went to College. MacArthur Fellows Program. MacArthur Foundation. https://www.macfound.org/media/files/MacArthur_Fellows_Program_Article_Reprint_-_Does_Alma_Mater_Really_Matter_oL0ntBJ.pdf
Coutu, D. (2007). Picking Winners: A Conversation with MacArthur Fellows Program Director Daniel J. Socolow. Harvard Business Review, 45, 121-126.
Cox, J., & Daniel, N. (1984). The MacArthur Fellows Look Back. Gifted Child Today, 35, 18-25. https://doi.org/10.1177/107621758400700608
Epstein, J. (2013). I Dreamed of Genius: A Consideration of the Most Elusive Human Quality. Commentary. https://www.commentarymagazine.com/articles/i-dream-of-genius/
Fellows Location at Award (2018). MacArthur Fellowship Program. https://www.macfound.org/maps/2/
Fellows Location at Birth (2018). MacArthur Fellowship Program. https://www.macfound.org/maps/1/
Gans, H. J. (2012). “Whitening” and the Changing American Racial Hierarchy. Du Bois Review, 9, 267-279. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1742058X12000288
Garber, M. (2002). Our Genius Problem. The Atlantic Monthly. theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2002/12/our-genius-problem/308435/
Goldberg, S. (2017). Genius Takes Many Forms. National Geographic, 231, C5.
Hernandez, L. (2013). 11 in Region Win MacArthur Genius Grants. WNYC News. https://www.wnyc.org/story/macarthur-foundation-announces-2013-genius-fellows/
Isaacson, W. (2017). The Making of Genius. Time Magazine, 190, 60-67.
Jilani, S. (2020). My Daughter Passes for White: She belongs in a Way I Never Could. I’m Comforted and Worried (pp. 9). New York Times.
Kaba, A. J. (2012a). Analyzing the Anglo-American Hegemony in the Times Higher Education Rankings. Education Policy Analysis Archives, 20, 1-53. https://doi.org/10.14507/epaa.v20n21.2012
Kaba, A. J. (2012b). Talented Tenth: An Analysis of the 2011 Root Magazine’s 100 Most Influential Young Black Americans. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 2, 1-31.
Kaba, A. J. (2013a). Profile of Contributors to the American Economic Review, 2010: Human Capital Theory, Gender and Race. Irvine, CA: Scientific Research Publishing, Inc. http://file.scirp.org/pdf/PCAER_chapter_2014091914502967.pdf
Kaba, A. J. (2013b). Profile of Contributors to the American Political Science Review, 2010. Journal of Politics and Law, 6, 54-82. https://doi.org/10.5539/jpl.v6n2p54
Kaba, A. J. (2015). Contributors to the American Sociological Review, 2010. Sociology Mind, 5, 114-146. https://doi.org/10.4236/sm.2015.52012
Kaba, A. J. (2016). Conceptualizing Tolerance as Recognition: Black American Endowed and Distinguished Professors of Education in US Colleges and Universities. Sociology Mind, 6, 1-31. https://doi.org/10.4236/sm.2016.61001
Kaba, A. J. (2017a). America’s ‘Great Immigrants’: An Analysis of Carnegie Corporation’s Honorees, 2006-2015. London: Adonis & Abbey Publishers Ltd.
Kaba, A. J. (2017b). Educational Attainment, Citizenship, and Black American Women in Elected and Appointed National Leadership Positions. The Review of Black Political Economy, 44, 99-136. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12114-017-9245-1
Kalb, C. (2017). Genius. National Geographic, 231, 30-55.
Kinsley, M. (1981). What’s So Great about Excellence? Michael Kinsley on the MacArthur Grants. The New Republic. newrepublic.com/article/108017/whats-so-great-about-excellence
MacArthur Fellows: The First 25, 1981-2005. (2005). The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. 140 South Dearborn Street. Chicago, Illinois (410 p). https://www.macfound.com
Miller, C. C., Quealy, K., & Sanger-Katz, M. (2018). The Top Jobs Where Women are Outnumbered by Men Named John. New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/24/upshot/women-and-men-named-john.html
Moritz, C. (1998). Exploring Cultural Geography. Syracuse University Magazine, 15, 28-29.
National University Rankings, 2020 (2019). U.S. News and World Report. https://www.usnews.com/best-colleges/rankings/national-universities
Orner, R. (2016). Genius. Salem Press Encyclopedia (5 p).
Pais, A. J. (2011). Genesis of a Genius (pp. 20-21). India Abroad. https://doi.org/10.12968/eqhe.2011.1.2.20
Patchett, A. (2017). Tribute to Primatologist Jane Goodall (pp. 64). Time Magazine.
Pick, G. (1995). The MacArthur Manner. Chicago Tribune. https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1995-12-03-9512030398-story.html
Powell, K. (2008). Best in Class. Nature, 455, 455-458. https://doi.org/10.1038/455455a
Review Affirms Impact and Inspiration of MacArthur Fellows Program (2013). MacArthur Fellowship Program. https://www.macfound.org/press/evaluation/macarthur-fellows-program-review-summary/
Rocca, A. (2017). ‘I Don’t Feel Like a Genius’: David Foster Wallace, Trickle-Down Aesthetics, and the MacArthur Foundation. Arizona Quarterly: A Journal of American Literature, Culture, and Theory, 73, 85-111. https://doi.org/10.1353/arq.2017.0003
Schimke, D. (2016). Pure Genius. Public Art Review, 298, 38-49.
Selected Population Profile in the United States: 2017 American Community Survey 1 Year-Estimates (2020). American Indian and Alaska Native. American Community Survey. United States Census Bureau. https://data.census.gov/cedsci/table?d=ACS%205-Year%20Estimates%20Data%20Profiles&table=DP05&tid=ACSDP5Y2017.DP05
Silka, L. (2014). Encouraging Innovation: Thoughts from Ted Ames, Prize Winner. Maine Policy Review, 23, 82-85.
Simonton, D. K. (2017). Intellectual Genius in the Islamic Golden Age: Cross-Civilization Replications, Extensions, and Modifications. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 12, 125-135. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000110
Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity (1995). Standards for the Classification of Federal Data on Race and Ethnicity. United States Federal Register. Executive Office of the President of the United States, Office of Management and Budget (OMB), Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/omb/fedreg_race-ethnicity
Sternberg, R. J. (2006). The Nature of Creativity. Creativity Research Journal, 18, 87-98. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15326934crj1801_10
Table 1. Educational Attainment of the Population 18 Years and Over, by Age, Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 2018 (2019). Table 1. Educational Attainment of the Population 18 Years and Over, by Age, Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 2018. United States Census Bureau. census.gov/data/tables/2018/demo/education-attainment/cps-detailed-tables.html
Von Gunten, C. F. (2009). Genius. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 12, 5. https://doi.org/10.1089/jpm.2009.9699
Wallerstein, M. B. (2002). Wither the Role of Private Foundations in Support of International Security Policy. Nonproliferation Review, 9, 83-91. https://doi.org/10.1080/10736700208436875
Ward, F. C. (2001). The Birth of the MacArthur Fellows Program. Foundation News and Commentary, 42, 38-40.
Wooster, M. M. (2010). The MacArthur Mistake. Commentary, 130, 39-44.
Wooster, M. M. (2014). Those Unassailable ‘Genius Grants’. Philanthropy Daily. https://www.philanthropydaily.com/those-unassailable-genius-grants/
Yancey, G. (2003). Who Is White: Latinos, Asians, and the New Black/Nonblack Divide. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
Zuckerman, H. (1992). The Proliferation of Prizes: Nobel Complements and Nobel Surrogates in the Reward System of Science. Theoretical Medicine, 13, 217-231. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02163629