Pitt professors Keisha Blain, Yona Harvey named 2022 Guggenheim Fellows

Pitt historian Keisha Blain and poet Yona Harvey were recently named 2022 Guggenheim Fellows. Blain, an associate professor of history, and Harvey, an associate professor of English, are among the 180 individuals awarded grants by the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation.

The fellowship grants between $35,000 and $45,000 to the recipients from across 51 fields of expertise, including writers, scientists and artists.

Blain is a historian and writer whose work focuses on African American history, modern African diaspora and women and gender studies. Blain, who has been at Pitt since 2017, received her bachelor’s of history and Africana studies from Binghamton University and her doctorate in history from Princeton University. She also authored several books, including “Set the World on Fire,” which won the 2019 Darlene Clark Hine Award, and “Until I am Free: Fannie Lou Hamer’s Enduring Message to America,” which was recognized by Smithsonian Magazine as one of the best history books of 2021. 

Harvey’s work as a poet includes her poetry collections, “You Don’t Have to Go to Mars for Love,” which won the Believer Book Award for Poetry, and “Hemming the Water,” which won the Kate Tufts Discovery Award. She earned her undergraduate degree from Howard University, masters of fine arts from The Ohio State University and masters of library and information science from Pitt. Harvey has also received the inaugural Lucille Clifton Legacy Award in poetry from St. Mary’s College of Maryland.