Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

Illinois history professor awarded Guggenheim Fellowship

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign history professor Kevin Mumford has been awarded a 2021 Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship.

Mumford is one of 184 artists, writers, scholars and scientists who were awarded fellowships. They were chosen through a rigorous peer-review process from almost 3,000 applicants, according to the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation’s press release.

Mumford’s research focuses on race, politics and sexuality in America, and how struggles over social difference and belonging have unfolded in cities and institutions. He also is interested in the writing of biography and public history, particularly in how historians can address important social issues for audiences within and outside the university. He is the author of “Not Straight, Not White: Black Gay Men from the March on Washington to the AIDS Crisis” (University of North Carolina Press, 2016), about the unique challenges faced by Black gay men.

Mumford will use his fellowship to work on a book project, “The Strange Career of Hate: Bias Crime and the Politics of Diversity.” The book traces the anti-hate movement back to the end of the civil rights campaign when Black and liberal legislators pushed for a new kind of policy – the Hate Crime Statistics Act of 1990. The book unearths a series of relatively high-profile bias crimes in the 1980s, including assaults, murders, threats and vandalism aimed toward Blacks, Asian Americans, gays, Jews and Arabs. It specifically locates the rise of hate in the Reagan era and the larger rightward turn in politics and values, Mumford said.

“Of course, this research also provides a historical angle on recent events – from the Black Lives Matter movement to the current surge in anti-Asian violence,” he said.

Mumford is one of four fellows in the area of U.S. history. “They are among the most esteemed historians in the profession, and it is an honor to be among them,” he said.

Mumford also recently received a 2021-22 fellowship from the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences at Stanford University.

Editor’s note: To contact Kevin Mumford, email kmumford@illinois.edu.

Read Next

Campus news Vikram Adve, Rohit Bhargava, Andrew Suarez and Jennifer Teper.

Faculty members honored with 2025 Campus Awards for Excellence in Faculty Leadership

Four University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign faculty members were honored by the Office of the Provost with the 2025 Campus Awards for Excellence in Faculty Leadership.

Campus news University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign students Lindsay Bitner-Mitchell and Cecelia Escobar have been selected to participate in the U.S.-U.K. Fulbright Commission’s Summer Institutes program. Photo collage: Fred Zwicky

Two Illinois students selected for Fulbright’s Summer Institute to the UK

Two University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign students received places in the Fulbright Commission’s Summer Institutes program.

Research news Portrait of Lissette Piedra standing in front of a bookcase wearing a beige jacket and black shirt

Study reveals how social networks shape health in later life

CHAMPAIGN, Ill. ― A new study sheds light on the powerful connection between social networks and health in later life and reveals a surprising path for improving health equity among older adults. Published in the journal Innovation in Aging, the study tracked over 1,500 older adults for a decade using three rounds of data from […]

Strategic Communications and Marketing News Bureau

507 E. Green St
MC-426
Champaign, IL 61820

Email: stratcom@illinois.edu

Phone (217) 333-5010