Tara Zahra ’98—‘Genius’ Grant Recipient

The MacArthur Foundation named Tara Zahra ’98 a 2014 fellow, an honor that recognizes extraordinarily creative individuals. The program provides a stipend to its 21 recipients across five years to financially support their ongoing pursuits in the arts, academia, or professional life. Zahra, an East European history professor at the University of Chicago, studies the history of migration, the family, and nationalism in modern Europe.

Zahra has written books about nationalist mobilization around children in the Bohemian Lands from 1900-1948 and humanitarian mobilization around refugee children in Europe after World War II. Her current work examines emigration from East Central Europe to Western Europe and the United States.