Two MSU professors have been named 2026 Guggenheim Fellows: Xuefei Ren, a professor of sociology in the College of Social Science, and Lara Shipley, assistant professor of photography in the College of Arts and Letters’ Department of Art, Art History and Design.

“I’m deeply honored to be named a Guggenheim Fellow and to be recognized alongside such an inspiring community of scientists, artists and scholars. I’m grateful for the support this fellowship provides and for the opportunity to continue pursuing work that I care deeply about,” said Ren.

“It’s encouraging and deeply meaningful to have institutions like the Guggenheim Foundation that continue to champion the arts. Their support helps sustain creativity and innovation at a time when funding for the arts remains critically important,” said Shipley.

Ren and Shipley are among this year’s 223 fellows working across 55 disciplines and artistic fields to be appointed by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to its 101st Fellowship Class. More than 5,000 applicants were judged on “both prior career achievement and exceptional promise,” the foundation said.

“Our new class of Guggenheim Fellows is representative of the world’s best thinkers, innovators and creators in art, science and scholarship,” said Edward Hirsch, award-winning poet and president of the Guggenheim Foundation. “As the foundation enters its second century and looks to the future, I feel confident that this new class of 223 individuals will do bold and inspiring work, undaunted by the challenges ahead. We are honored to support their visionary contributions.”

The monetary stipend allows the fellows to “pursue independent work at the highest level under the freest possible conditions.”

The full list of 2026 Guggenheim Fellows is available on the foundation’s website. The Guggenheim Foundation held its traditional reception honoring the new fellows on June 1, 2026, at Harvard Club of New York City.