Two Brown faculty members win Guggenheim fellowships

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] - The John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation has awarded fellowships to Brown University professors Ieva Jusionyte and Matthew Kraft, the organization announced on Tuesday, April 14.

Jusionyte, a professor of international security and anthropology, and Kraft, a professor of education and economics, are among the 223 scientists, scholars, writers and artists from 10 countries selected this year from nearly 5,000 applicants.

"I was shocked and so honored to be among a group that includes artists and authors that I've admired all my life," Kraft said.

Jusionyte was similarly grateful and surprised, particularly on the heels of receiving a MacArthur Foundation "genius grant" just six months earlier.

"This has been an extraordinary year for me, and I am deeply grateful to the people who believed in my work and wrote the letters of recommendation on my behalf," Jusionyte said. "I am humbled and honored to receive the Guggenheim fellowship and join such an incredible community of scholars and artists whose work I admire."

Ieva Jusionyte: Advancing research on extraditions and justice

Jusionyte plans to use the award stipend that comes with the Guggenheim honor to support the research and writing for her next book, which will focus on the practice of extraditing organized crime leaders from Mexico and other Latin American countries to the United States.

"It is a project I began a couple of years ago with the goal to understand what impact extraditions of organized crime members from Mexico to the U.S. and prosecuting them in our courts have on justice on both sides of the border," said Jusionyte, who directs the Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Studies at Brown's Thomas J. Watson Jr. School of International and Public Affairs.

Jusionyte, who specializes in ethnographic research, is the author of three books including "Exit Wounds: How America's Guns Fuel Violence Across the Border" (2024), which explores how the large volume of firearms that flows south from the U.S. to Mexico fuels homicide rates.

In February, she published a report on extradition from Mexico to the U.S., which she co-authored with a team of undergraduate researchers supported through Brown's Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award program. The study found most Mexicans extradited to the U.S. are charged with various counts of drug trafficking, money laundering and racketeering conspiracies, she said, and most plead guilty.

"The book I am researching and writing will delve into the legal, political and social dimensions of extraditions to understand their impact on justice: Do extraditions aid it or impede it?" Jusionyte said. "I still have some field research to do - travel to observe court hearings and trials in several extradition cases in the U.S. and interview family members of victims of organized crime in Mexico - which I hope to complete in the next year and which the fellowship will allow me to do."

Matthew Kraft: Elevating the U.S. teaching profession

Kraft, an economist of education, plans to use the fellowship to support his ongoing research on K-12 schools.

"I aim to use this time to think deeply about what it would take to revitalize the K-12 teaching profession in the United States," said Kraft, a former public school teacher and current school board member in Belmont, Massachusetts. "My goal is to develop an evidence-based blueprint to elevate teaching to be among the most prestigious and sought after careers students consider for their future."

At Brown, Kraft is the founding director of the Sustainable Education Research Initiative, which advances original research and cross-sector collaboration to inform how education systems can adapt to support student success and contribute to a healthier, more sustainable future.

He said he will use the Guggenheim award to advance his commitment to rigorous, original research to help strengthen U.S. schools and advance research-informed solutions.

"This award was made possible by the many amazing educators and mentors in my life who have pushed my thinking and inspired me to never stop learning," Kraft said.