RIT graduate Christine “CK” Sun Kim named a 2026 MacArthur Fellow for her innovative work exploring sound and language

Rochester, New York – Christine “CK” Sun Kim, a 2002 graduate of Rochester Institute of Technology, has been named a 2026 MacArthur Fellow, one of the most notable honors given to creative individuals in the United States. The award recognizes Kim for her innovative artistic work examining sound, language and the ways people experience communication and society.

Kim graduated from RIT with a bachelor’s degree in applied science and technology with support from the university’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf. Now based in Berlin, Germany, she has built an international career through artwork that challenges traditional ideas about sound and communication.

The MacArthur Fellowship is often referred to as a “genius grant.” As part of the honor, Kim will receive an $800,000 stipend that she can use as she chooses. She is one of 20 Fellows selected by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation in 2026.

The fellowship is given to people who have demonstrated exceptional originality and a strong commitment to their creative work. The foundation says nominations are made anonymously by leaders in their fields, with candidates then considered by an anonymous selection committee.

For Kim, much of her work centers on something that is part of everyday life but often goes unnoticed — sound. Through drawings, performances, videos and large-scale murals, she examines how sound functions in society and how spoken and signed languages can shape people’s experiences.

Her artwork also looks at the politics surrounding sound and the role oral languages can play as a form of social currency. Rather than treating sound simply as something people hear, Kim uses her work to ask broader questions about communication, access, language and the environments people move through every day.

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Her career has taken that work to major cultural institutions around the world. Kim has exhibited and performed at the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles.

She currently has exhibitions in Luxembourg and Seoul, South Korea. Her work has also reached audiences well beyond museum walls. A TED Talk she delivered in 2016 has received nearly 750,000 views, giving a large audience an opportunity to hear Kim discuss her ideas and artistic approach.

Kim has also brought her work into major public events. In 2020, she signed “America the Beautiful” during the Super Bowl, another example of how her artistic practice connects language, sound and public life.

Her connection with RIT has continued long after graduation. In 2022, Kim was named RIT’s National Technical Institute for the Deaf Distinguished Alum of the Year. Earlier this year, she returned to the Rochester campus as the featured speaker for NTID’s Edmund Lyon Memorial Lectureship Series.

Caroline Solomon, NTID president and RIT vice president, praised Kim’s work and the impact it has had on audiences.

“Christine Sun Kim’s groundbreaking work challenges audiences to experience sound, language, and access in entirely new ways. Her recognition as a MacArthur Fellow is a powerful testament to her creative vision and global impact, and the RIT/NTID community is immensely proud to celebrate her extraordinary achievement.”

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Kim’s selection also adds another name from the RIT community to the MacArthur Fellowship’s history. She joins RIT alum Emily Thompson ’84, who studied physics and received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2005 for her work as a historian of science and technology.

The award places Kim among a group of artists, researchers and other creative figures recognized for original work and long-term dedication to their fields. For RIT and NTID, her achievement also highlights the continuing connection between the university and a graduate whose work has developed an international audience.

From her early studies at RIT to exhibitions and performances across several countries, Kim has built an artistic career focused on questions that can be easy to overlook. Her work asks audiences to reconsider how sound is experienced, how language operates and how access shapes communication.

Now, with the 2026 MacArthur Fellowship, that work is receiving another major recognition. The $800,000 award gives Kim the freedom to continue pursuing her creative projects while deciding how to use the fellowship according to her own needs and goals.