Talk:MacArthur Fellows Program

Old comments
How much money do the winners get? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.22.37.227 (talk) 22:44, 7 April 2006 (UTC)

Minor edit I replaced the word applicant with nominee. The sentence right before mentions that there is no application process, but then the next sentence mentions applicants. This was confusing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 65.125.163.221 (talk) 08:23, 28 May 2006 (UTC)

Listings
Did the period of the award change in 2001, such that we need to list succeeding fellows using a different format? I'm not sure what it adds to give an end-date, or list the months. --Dhartung | Talk 20:31, 10 September 2006 (UTC)
 * I reformatted such that the year of selection is the section heading. It seems esoteric to list the start and end months. The average person probably doesn't have any interest in whether they are currently receiving the stipend, just that they were listed in the first place. Additionally it was ugly and confusing. Finally, I reversed the years to chronological instead of reverse-chronological since this isn't IMDB and that's a form of recentism. --Dhartung | Talk 07:43, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

The entry for 1991 is listed as "W. Lewis Hyde" which links to a scientist, who is apparently Lewis Hyde's father. I'm pretty sure that the 1991 MacArthur fellow was for Lewis Hyde, the writer and copyright scholar. I'm correcting it, based on the MacArthur website which lists "Lewis Hyde" in class of 1991 as a writer, and my understanding that Lewis Hyde's biography refers to him as a MacArthur fellow. See, e.g., the Exploratorium biography and On the Commons biography. ... But I'm describing this here, just in case there's something going on with W. Lewis Hyde that I'm not aware of. --LQ 16:19, 28 October 2006 (UTC)4

Old comment
Can someone make "genius grant" link to think page? I don't know how, but I think the fellowship is better known by that name to some people, and I see no reason not to. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Geinsei (talk • contribs) 20:25, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

Dr. William Cronan
Dr. Willian Cronan, Frederick Jackson Turner and Vilas Research Professor of History, Geography, & Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is apparently a MacArthur fellow but his name is not listed anywhere. I do not know how to find out the actual date of his fellowship, but perhaps somebody could check this.

Mtrifiro 14:18, 22 August 2007 (UTC)

Question
Just out of curiousity, is it wrong of me to wish this article had some discussion about award winners? Like, for example, have there been any controversial choices? Or criticism or unique praise for the Award in general? Maybe that isn't the proper place for it, but just a thought —Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.237.226.100 (talk) 23:43, 31 March 2008 (UTC)

cultural references
As section of popular cuyltural references to MacArthur fellowships was removed without explanation.I have restored it. Such sections are permtted. If it can be reworked into a more narrative form, so much the better, but there is no basis for removing them. DGG (talk) 06:56, 20 May 2008 (UTC)

Apparently I did it, though I don't actually remember doing so. Some of those entries seem pretty damn trivial though. --Citizen Sykes (talk) 23:15, 22 May 2008 (UTC)

Source of funding?
There's not much meat behind this —Preceding unsigned comment added by 208.255.118.242 (talk) 16:17, 14 May 2009 (UTC)
 * I agree, seems like a lot of money coming from nowhere. Who funds it, and who pulls the strings? Some of that must be in the public realm.Fuzbaby (talk) 03:57, 14 July 2009 (UTC)

2009 fellows have been revealed by the MacArthur Foundation
I don't have time to add the whole list right now, but someone should! --Coolcaesar (talk) 05:08, 22 September 2009 (UTC)

Disambiguation
The disambiguation has been added since "MacArthur Award" redirects here, and that often refers to the Robert H. MacArthur Award--MATThematical (talk) 00:06, 20 February 2011 (UTC)

Not sure how this works. I have suggestions, though. One is to give a bit of the history of the award. I remember the publicity claiming it was attempt to encourage "mavericks" when it was new, for instance. I haven't noticed that any real mavericks have ever gotten a grant, though. It'd be interesting to read what various people have said about it. A comparison of actual geniuses who haven't been recognized by the MacArthur people to the mediocrities who have would be interesting, too. I like the suggestion that awardees be listed by vocation. Also the suggestion that discussions of winners appear--although I suppose one can click to some other entry about them. A question: does the foundation just hand out money or does it ever state the reasons it has chosen such-and-such a mediocrity for an award? --Bob Grumman Bobgrumman (talk) 12:55, 20 July 2011 (UTC)

List by Area of Expertise?
Should I make a list by area of expertise? It would take manual labour on my part, which I'm willing to go through, but I'd prefer to know that my contribution would be appreciated.
 * —67.180.86.254 (talk) 17:18, 30 April 2011 (UTC)

cross-reference from Guggenheim_Fellowship
I noticed that there is a cross-reference to this article from Guggenheim_Fellowship; but I do not know what the "connection" is, -- (other than, of course, the fact the each award is a big honor, and comes with a sizable sum of money.) Should there be an explanation? ("if any") of what the "connection" is? ...and if so, then where? (Here? or there?) --Mike Schwartz (talk) 21:47, 9 March 2012 (UTC)

Improving List Utility; Making the Table of Winners More Useful
Adding data to the table will make the table all the more useful. Each line, each Fellow could easily include: All of this data is provided by the Foundation--@ least for the more recent classes; see: http://www.macfound.org/fellows/search/?fellow_class=34
 * Area of Expertise (as defined by the Foundation)
 * Age (@ time of Award)
 * Location

Formatting: While it looks pretty in two columns these two columns are created by hand (!). Moreover, is there any concrete benefit of two columns over one column?

--TMH (talk) 20:37, 2 October 2012 (UTC)
 * Placing all the information into a sortable table would be useful (3 columns: Date, Name, Expertise).
 * I'm not sure whether age or location are particularly relevant, but I don't object to the addition of those fields.
 * (Tangential note: the list currently uses the old method of (manual) columnation. Nowadays, it'd be automated with the Div col templates.)
 * HTH. —Quiddity (talk) 00:15, 3 October 2012 (UTC)

Obvious
In view of the nick-name, it must be embarrassing to get the award. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 178.16.169.54 (talk) 09:47, 27 March 2014 (UTC)

Brian Bunting
Under the 2014 award winners, "Brian Bunting" is listed, but does this person exist? There is no mention of him on the Foundation's website.--Geracudd (talk) 00:03, 14 March 2015 (UTC)

I have removed "Vincent Almendros" from the class of 1994 list, as he does not appear to have won a grant.--Geracudd (talk) 02:57, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 01:25, 26 December 2018 (UTC)
 * Paul Ehrlich - 1974.jpg

Criticism of the grant
The grant rewards "geniuses" before they accomplish anything notable. This is counterproductive with the healthy process of young prodigies working hard to achieve recognition, respect and wealth and instead gives them a life changing sum just for existing. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.194.96.74 (talk) 19:04, 23 November 2019 (UTC)

Orphaned references in MacArthur Fellows Program
I check pages listed in Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting to try to fix reference errors. One of the things I do is look for content for orphaned references in wikilinked articles. I have found content for some of MacArthur Fellows Program's orphans, the problem is that I found more than one version. I can't determine which (if any) is correct for this article, so I am asking for a sentient editor to look it over and copy the correct ref content into this article.

Reference named "HF": From List of Puerto Ricans: Nicolas Kanellos, "Hispanic Firsts", Visible Ink Press; ISBN 0-7876-0519-0; p. 40 From Hispanic and Latino Americans: "Hispanics Firsts"; by: Nicolas Kanellos; pp. 210–211; Publisher: Visible Ink Press; ISBN 0-7876-0519-0 From Northwestern University:  

I apologize if any of the above are effectively identical; I am just a simple computer program, so I can't determine whether minor differences are significant or not. AnomieBOT ⚡ 19:54, 28 November 2022 (UTC)

Donate
How to donate to your programs or students or you? 47.185.14.133 (talk) 16:58, 25 January 2023 (UTC)

List of Institutions
On the list of recipients, why does the subsection begin with the list of colleges they are alumni of (not necessarily institutions that they are even currently affiliated with)? Since many Macarthur fellows did not attend these institutions and some did not attend or complete college at all, it seems like a strange addition to the article. I suspect its inclusion is an attempt at prestige-gathering by the institutions themselves, and its relevance is questionable at best. 73.170.220.50 (talk) 18:23, 25 February 2023 (UTC)