Who Is Jyoti Puri? The Indian American Scholar Among Guggenheim Fellows 2022

Since Guggenheim Fellowship 2022 recipients were announced recently including six Indian-Americans, internet users have been wondering who is Jyoti Puri. Jyoti Puri is one among the five Indian-American who has been named to the Guggenheim Fellows list for 2022. Among 2,500 applicants, only 180 recipients received the fellowship.  The Guggenheim fellowship is a grant awarded by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those who have provided exceptional abilities and contributions to any form of art in any field of knowledge.

On April 7, 2022, the Board of Trustees of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial awarded the Guggenheim fellowship to 180 exceptional individuals belonging to various fields of knowledge. Among these 180 individuals, there were also six Indian-Americans who were provided with the honorary grant. 51 fields of knowledge and 81 academic institutions were represented in the fellowship programme this year. Many fellows discussed the issues of feminism, racism, identity, climate change and Russia among others in their projects.

Announcing the fellows for the year 2022, the Guggenheim Foundation took to Twitter saying, "Today's the day! Congratulations to our new class of Fellows. These 180 individuals represent 51 fields of study. We're honoured to give them the opportunity to pursue their passions under the freest possible conditions."

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Among the six Indian-Americans who were awarded the grant, three were women which included Jyoti Puri, Manisha Sinha and Suparna Rajaram. Others Indian-American fellows were Shrikanth Narayanan, Prashant K. Jain and Manjul Bhargava. Feminist sociologist Jyoti Puri was thrilled on receiving the fellowship as she wrote in her Twitter post. "Thrilled, grateful to be part of this wonderful group of fellows. Still taking it in. Many thanks to the foundation and my letter writers!" See the post here.

Who is Jyoti Puri?

Jyoti Puri is an Indian-American professor of Sociology at Simmons University, USA. Puri is one of the leading feminist sociologists who advocates transnational approaches towards gender, sexuality and feminism among other disciplines.

The sociologist is the author of three books: Woman, Body, Desire in Post-colonial India, Encountering Nationalism and Sexual States: Governance and the Struggle against the Anti-Sodomy Law in India. 

The sociologist who was born and raised in India is an alumna of Northeastern University. Puri is an active member of the American Sociological Association, has chaired its Section on Sex and Gender and served on committees. She is a founding member of the Caucus on Gender and Sexuality in International Contexts. She was a co-host for the Feminisms Unbound speaker series and the Gender and Sexuality series at the Mahindra Humanities Center at Harvard University.

The scholar has also published several articles as well as chapters in various journals about sexuality and gender. Along with the Guggenheim Fellowship, Jyoti Puri has also received the Rockefeller Research Fellowship and a Fulbright Senior Research award. She served as the deputy editor of the journal Gender & Society and has also co-edited the journal Foucault Studies.