Growing up in Alief in southwest Houston, Hahrie Han didn't think she would be a political scientist. Instead, she had her sights set on physics.
"I actually spent the summer before my freshman year in college interning in a physics lab at Rice University," Han, now 50, told Houston Public Media. "And then I went to college and realized that, actually, while I still find physics extremely interesting, that the kind of social-political world was so interesting to me that I wanted to figure out how to make sense of it in a different way."
Now, Han is a Harvard and Stanford-educated professor of political science at Johns Hopkins University. She's also the recent recipient of the MacArthur Fellows Program, commonly referred to as the genius grant — an $800,000, no-strings-attached grant for researchers, educators, and artists.
The grant isn't limited to any single type of research or art. Previous recipients include author Matthew Desmond, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and Lin-Manuel Miranda.
Han’s recognition as a genius grant recipient is unique, as she’s the first political scientist to receive the grant since 2001.
"In the immediate moment, I was like, ‘Is this a prank?'" Han said. "And then, I think after it sort of sunk in for a little bit, I honestly was just really flabbergasted. It's such an incredible honor to be part of this cohort of other people who received the award."
Much of Han's work focuses on activism and what drives it, which Han calls pulling people off the sidelines into public life. Her most recent book, "Undivided: The Quest for Racial Solidarity in an American Church," discusses a Cincinnati megachurch focused on anti-racist work, was published in 2024.
"Even if it is a little bit cliche, it is true that one of the great things about places like Houston and Texas is that there’s a spirit of entrepreneurialism and independence, in which people just go out and seize good ideas and act on them," Han said. "And I think that’s one thing that I’ve always carried with me, is the kind of courage to try different things, even if they don’t necessarily seem like they’re the most probable, or expected, thing to have done. And so that sort of independence of spirit is something that I think probably does come from growing up in a place like Houston."
Copyright 2025 Houston Public Media News 88.7