Two faculty members from Temple’s Center for the Performing and Cinematic Arts have been named 2025 Guggenheim Fellows. Rea Tajiri, professor of film and media arts, and Professor Emerita of Dance Merián Soto will join the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation’s 100th class.
“At Temple, our faculty are the cornerstone of our university. It is gratifying to see these two members of our community recognized for their scholarly accomplishments and creative contributions,” said President John A. Fry. “This year’s Temple Guggenheim Fellows embody the passion and dedication that define all our faculty, and through their work they highlight the university's commitment to discovery, creativity and innovation.
This year’s Guggenheim Fellows include 198 trailblazing artists and scholars across 53 fields. Through a rigorous application and peer review process, these distinguished individuals were selected based on prior career achievement and exceptional promise. Each fellow receives a monetary stipend to pursue independent work at the highest level under “the freest possible conditions.”
“It is a genuine honor that Temple has an opportunity to celebrate two faculty who have been awarded Guggenheim Fellowships,” said Provost Gregory N. Mandel. “This award highlights the brilliance and importance of their work, which will inspire future generations. Professors Tajiri and Soto are exceptional members of the Temple community, and I commend their achievements.”
“I am thrilled to see two of our faculty members from Temple’s Center of Performing and Cinematic Arts selected for this impressive distinction,” said Robert Stroker, vice provost for the arts and dean of the Boyer College of Music and Dance and the School of Theater, Film and Media Arts. “Through their visionary work, Rea and Merián truly exemplify what it means to create art with impact.”
Professor of Film and Media Arts Rea Midori Tajiri (Photo courtesy of Rea Midori Tajiri)
Tajiri, an award-winning interdisciplinary artist and educator, will produce a film project titled Non-Alien exploring the history of Japanese American resettlement in major U.S. cities after World War II. This work will draw inspiration from her father, one of the Japanese Americans who relocated to Chicago as part of the government-sponsored program.
“It is a career honor to receive this fellowship and something that I have applied for in the past. It’s a highly competitive process, something you cannot simply ‘count on,’ so the element of surprise is large, making the announcement even more impactful and exciting,” said Tajiri.
Throughout her career, she’s created installation, documentary and experimental films using poetic, nontraditional storytelling forms to encourage dialogue and reflection around buried histories.
“I’m interested in evolving new storytelling shapes and language in documentary film,” explained Tajiri. “Like a lot of documentarians, I am working with what is haunting me, what won’t leave me alone, the thing that cannot be put into words that isn’t solid but needs to be given a form that I develop into a question to explore.”
Previously, Tajiri received fellowships for her work from the United States Artists Fellowship, Pew Fellowships in the Arts, the Leeway Transformation Award, Rockefeller Foundation, NEA Visual Arts, and the New York Foundation for the Arts. She’s also received support from Independence Media, CAAM Documentary Fund, ITVS Open Call, ITVS Diversity Development Fund and JustFilms/Ford Foundation.
Soto, an award-winning choreographer as well as a video artist and filmmaker, will use the Guggenheim Fellowship to support various legacy projects and bring her meditative Branch Dance to her native Puerto Rico.
“I am grateful for this recognition of my 50+ year career in dance. It’s also validation of my continued creative potential,” said Soto.
Creating and presenting solo, group and collaborative pieces since the mid-1970s—including large-scale multidisciplinary works, salsa extravaganzas and her own Modal Practice and Branch Dance somatic forms—Soto received six Choreographers Fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts and an Artist Fellowship by the New York Foundation for the Arts.
She also was awarded numerous project grants from institutions including Dance Advance, The Rockefeller Foundation, The Lila Wallace Arts Partners Program, the New York Foundation for the Arts and more.
Additionally, Soto served as curator of the Temple Boyer College of Music and Dance’s Reflection: Response Choreographic Commission.
Since its founding in 1925, the Guggenheim Foundation has awarded more than $400 million in fellowships to more than 19,000 individuals.
“We believe that these creative thinkers can take on the challenges we all face today and guide our society towards a better and more hopeful future,” said Edward Hirsch, award-winning poet and President of the Guggenheim Foundation, of the 2025 fellows.