Kristina Douglass ’16 PhD named 2025 MacArthur Fellow

Award-winning archaeologist Kristina Douglass ’16 PhD (Anthropology) is among the 22 recipients of the 2025 MacArthur Fellowship, a prestigious award known informally as the “genius grant.”

Awarded annually by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the fellowships help support people of outstanding talent — and working in a range of fields and disciplines —pursue their own creative, intellectual, and professional inclinations for the betterment of human society.

Each recipient receives an $800,000 stipend over five years which they can spend however they wish. They are nominated anonymously by leaders in their respective fields and are evaluated by an anonymous selection committee.

Douglass is an archaeologist investigating how human societies and environments co-evolved and adapted to climate variability. Her research focuses on coastal communities in southwest Madagascar, a biodiversity hot spot that is particularly vulnerable to present-day climate change pressures. She is currently associate professor of Climate at Columbia Climate School.

“Kristina Douglass is defining figure in community-centered field archaeology and climate studies, and since her graduate school days has been a shining model of what anthropological archaeology can do for science and for the world,” said Douglas Rogers, Professor and Chair of Anthropology at Yale. “No one is more deserving of this recognition by the MacArthur Foundation!”

Douglass is one of three Yale affiliates to receive the fellowship this year. Other recipients include Kareem El-Badry ’16 and Nabarun Dasgupta ’03 MPH. Read more in YaleNews

A full list and biographies of all recipients can be found on the MacArthur Foundation’s website.