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Sociology Alumnus Awarded MacArthur Fellow Genius Grant

Congratulations to Dr. Reuben Jonathan Miller, an alum of the Sociology Ph.D. Program, who was awarded a 2022 MacArthur Fellow Genius Grant. MacArthur Fellows are selected from a nationally competitive pool of nominees and granted an “$800,000, no-strings-attached award…as an investment in their potential.” Recipients are selected on the basis of their “exceptional creativity … promise for important future advances based on a track record of significant accomplishments … [and] potential for the Fellowship to facilitate subsequent creative work.” Only 1,061 people have received this award since its inception in 1981.

Dr. Reuben Jonathan Miller graduated from the Loyola University Chicago School of Social Work in 2013. He completed the basic fieldwork for his 2021 book, Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration, as part of his dissertation. Dr. Rhys Williams, Dr. Kelly Moore (Emerita), Dr. Phil Nyden (Emeritus), and Dr. David Embrick (now at the University of Connecticut) served as members of Miller’s committee. Dr. Miller currently serves on the faculty of the Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice at the University of Chicago. According to his profile on the MacArthur Foundation website, Dr. Miller’s research “examin[es] the long-term consequences of incarceration on the lives of individuals and their families, with a focus on communities of color and those living in poverty.” Dr. Miller was recently profiled by the Chicago Sun Times, along with two other Chicagoans who were granted MacArthur Fellowships.