Queens College Faculty Members Karen Strassler and John Yao Named to 100th Class of Guggenheim Fellows
—Stipends will support Fellows in advanced projects in their respective fields of Anthropology and Music—
Flushing, NY, April 25, 2025—Two members of the Queens College faculty have been awarded prestigious Guggenheim Fellowships for 2025. Karen Strassler, professor of anthropology, and John Yao, assistant professor of trombone in the Aaron Copland School of Music, were appointed to the 100th class of Guggenheim Fellows. They are among the 198 individuals who, after a rigorous process and peer review, were selected from a pool of almost 3,500 applicants from the United States and Canada.
“We are delighted that Professors Strassler and Yao have been recognized with Guggenheim Fellowships, an achievement that is a testament to their hard work,” says President Frank H. Wu. “I am proud that we are a public institution serving mostly middle- and lower-income students, yet we are fortunate enough to have world-class faculty committed to learning and the arts.”
Structured as unrestricted grants, Guggenheim Fellowships give recipients the time and freedom to focus on meaningful projects and pursue excellence in their chosen fields.
Strassler received her doctorate in anthropology from the University of Michigan in 2003; she joined the anthropology department at Queens College in 2005 and the anthropology doctoral faculty at The Graduate Center in 2011. For more than two decades she has studied the visual and media culture of Indonesia, with a particular focus on photography. Her first book (Refracted Visions, 2010) examined the role of popular photography in the formation of modern Indonesian subjects in the postcolonial period. Her second book (Demanding Images, 2020) analyzed the political uses and effects of photography, street art, and other images in a turbulent time of aspiration, reckoning, and fragile democratic transition. She has also written on contemporary art, histories of violence, and the ethnic Chinese minority in Indonesia.
The Fellowship will help her continue research on breast cancer in the United States. “I am deeply honored to receive this award,” says Strassler, “and grateful to my CUNY colleagues and students who inspire me every day. I will be researching how people with breast cancer use images to document their experiences, advocate for themselves and others, and change the ways that we as a society see this devastating disease. I hope that my work can amplify theirs.” She plans to take a leave from teaching to focus on her research and writing.
Yao, who holds a 2007 MA from Queens College, is an innovative jazz trombonist, composer, arranger, and educator. In 2023 the Downbeat Critics Poll listed him in the Rising Star Trombone and Rising Star Big Band categories. Lucid Culture describes him as “one of New York’s elite trombonists.” He has been a sideman for Grammy Award–winning ensembles, such as Vanguard Jazz Orchestra and Arturo O’Farrill and the Afro-Latin Jazz Orchestra, and has performed with jazz legends, including Paquito D’Rivera and Eddie Palmieri. Leading his large and small ensembles in his own compositions, he has released five well-received albums. Numerous other groups have commissioned pieces from him.
Yao’s Fellowship will enable him to work on Let’s Make Some Noise, which he describes as “an immersive, interactive music experience, where the audience participates in the musicmaking in conjunction with my big band called John Yao & His 17-Piece Instrument.” He plans to research, compose music, host workshops, and prepare for a culminating concert to be recorded with audio and video. “I am extremely honored and humbled to be named a Guggenheim Fellow in the field of music composition,” says Yao. “This project has been several years in the making, and I’m thrilled to have the incredible opportunity to bring it to life with the support of the Fellowship.”
Since 1925, the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation has awarded Guggenheim Fellowships to thousands of scholars and artists. Many have gone on to win top honors such as Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes.
Click here to learn more about the Guggenheim Foundation Fellows program.
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