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Muscogee (Creek) Citizen Sarah Deer Among MacArthur ‘Genius Grant’ Recipients

William Mitchell College of Law professor and 2014 MacArthur fellow Sarah Deer
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John D. & Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
William Mitchell College of Law professor and 2014 MacArthur fellow Sarah Deer

A law professor from Minnesota and citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma has been named one of nearly two dozen MacArthur Fellows.

Sarah Deerhas served as an assistant professor of law at William Mitchell College of Law since 2009, where she focuses on violent crime on Native American reservations.

"A citizen of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation of Oklahoma, Deer has documented in academic scholarship the historical and ideological underpinnings of the failure to adequately protect victims of physical and sexual abuse in Indian Country, and she has worked with grassroots and national organizations attempting to navigate the complex legal and bureaucratic hurdles facing Native victims of violence," the MacArthur Foundation writes.

Each so-called ‘genius grant’ recipient receives $625,000 over five years to spend as they wish on work and research, and Deer told the Associated Press she’ll likely spend the stipend on a project involving native women who have been victims of sexual assault.

She highlighted sexual violence in Indian Country in a 2007 report for Amnesty International called Maze of Injustice.

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Brian Hardzinski is from Flower Mound, Texas and a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. He began his career at KGOU as a student intern, joining KGOU full time in 2009 as Operations and Public Service Announcement Director. He began regularly hosting Morning Edition in 2014, and became the station's first Digital News Editor in 2015-16. Brian’s work at KGOU has been honored by Public Radio News Directors Incorporated (PRNDI), the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters, the Oklahoma Associated Press Broadcasters, and local and regional chapters of the Society of Professional Journalists. Brian enjoys competing in triathlons, distance running, playing tennis, and entertaining his rambunctious Boston Terrier, Bucky.
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