Wendland receives 2026 Guggenheim Fellowship

Huge congratulations to Claire Wendland, MD, PhD, professor in the Division of Reproductive and Population Health and the UW–Madison Department of Anthropology! Wendland was selected as a Class of 2026 Guggenheim Fellow, as awarded by the Board of Trustees of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. She receives the award for her work in African Studies.

Wendland, who is a trained obstetrician-gynecologist as well as a medical anthropologist, has been an impactful researcher, teacher, and mentor, with a career focused on the complex relationships involved in practicing medicine on people around the world.

The Guggenheim Fellowship provides a monetary stipend to each recipient to support their independent work under “the freest possible conditions.” Wendland’s award will support the research and drafting of a manuscript built around the remarkable story of Dr. Daniel Malekebu, Malawi’s first doctor — but that also illustrates ties between Central Africa and the Jim Crow South in the U.S. in the early twentieth century.

Congratulations on this well-deserved honor, Dr. Wendland!