APPC’s Institutions of Democracy Director Matthew Levendusky and Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies Marcia Chatelain have been named 2025 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellows.
Levendusky and Chatelain are among 198 chosen in the United States and Canada working across 53 disciplines from nearly 3,500 applicants in this 100th class of Guggenheim Fellows. Chatelain is one of three awardees in the category of intellectual & cultural history, and Levendusky is one of two in the category of political science.
Levendusky is a professor of political science and the Stephen and Mary Baran Chair in the Institutions of Democracy at the Annenberg Public Policy Center, with a secondary appointment in the Annenberg School for Communication. He researches how institutions and elites influence the political behavior of ordinary citizens, including mass polarization, the impact of partisan media, and voter cue taking. Levendusky’s books include “Partisan Hostility and American Democracy: Explaining Political Divisions and When They Matter” and “Our Common Bonds: Using What Americans Share to Help Bridge the Partisan Divide.” He previously served as the Penny and Robert A. Fox Director of the Fels Institute of Government. Levendusky holds a Ph.D. in political science from Stanford University and a B.A. in political science from The Pennsylvania State University. His current project examines the political impact of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision and how it has reshaped the American political landscape. Levendusky will study survey data, campaign finance records, and other data sources to document how Dobbs has led to further polarization of U.S. politics. He argues that it has polarized trust in state courts and changed voter turnout, campaign fundraising, and more.
Chatelain is the Presidential Penn Compact Professor of Africana Studies and the Africana Studies undergraduate chair. Her research emphasis is 20th-century African American life and culture, including women’s and girls’ history, the U.S. Civil Rights Movement, and Black capitalism. Her current research project is an examination of the contentions around who would succeed Martin Luther King, Jr. after his assassination in 1968 and how those debates have informed Black politics. Her most recent book, “Franchise: The Golden Arches in Black America,” won the Pulitzer Prize in History in 2021, as well as many other awards. Her first book, “South Side Girls,” focuses on the history of African American girls in Chicago during the Great Migration. An active speaker, she joined Penn’s faculty in the fall of 2023 after 12 years at Georgetown University, where she earned several teaching awards. Chatelain holds a Ph.D. and master’s degree in American civilization from Brown University and a bachelor’s degree in journalism and religious studies from the University of Missouri-Columbia.
Founded in 1925, the fellowship was created by Simon and Olga Guggenheim in memory of their son John Simon. The award is designed to support a project lasting six to 12 months and to allow fellows to pursue independent work at the highest level under the “freest possible conditions,” according to the foundation.
The original story appeared in Penn Today. Read the full story here.
