Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture at SMU Announces Prestigious 2026 Hiett Prize Recognizing Emerging Voices in the Humanities

DALLAS (SMU) – Philosophers, theologians, historians, poets, literary critics, documentarians and others from around the world are considered for the prestigious Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture Hiett Prize in the Humanities.

Today, the Dallas Institute and its peer-juried panel of judges announce this year’s Hiett Prize laureate: Dr. Roosevelt Montás. The 2026 award is especially meaningful, as it is the first since the Dallas Institute joined SMU in 2025.

Differing from lifetime achievement awards, the Institute’s Hiett Prize honors rising stars in the humanities whose work shows extraordinary promise for the future and who are already making a difference in the way we think about the world. 

Established and endowed in 2005 by philanthropist Kim Hiett Jordan, a $100,000 cash prize – one of the largest of its kind – is awarded biennially with the aim of invigorating civic life and culture through serious thought informed by scholarship in the humanities. The Hiett Prize celebrates new imagination in disciplines that deepen our understanding of what makes us human. 

“Hiett Prize winners are selected for their ability to open our minds and widen our horizons – to help us see beyond the limits governing our normal discourse,” noted Dr. Seemee Ali, Director of the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture at SMU. “The work of each nominee is as timely as it is timeless. Each Hiett Laureate shows the relevance of the humanities – freshly conceived – to the deepest crises of our bewildering times. Each sheds light on the latest iterations of perennial problems concerning the meaning of humanity itself. Each provides a brilliant model of what the study of the humanities can offer our culture, how the humanities remain vital.”

“I am deeply honored to receive the Hiett Prize in the Humanities,” said Dr. Montás. “I have devoted my career to the conviction that the humanities are not a luxury but the most powerful means we have for cultivating free minds, enlarging our moral imagination, and preparing us for lives of purpose and responsible citizenship.  At a time when the question of what it means to be human is becoming ever more urgent, the Hiett Prize is a bold affirmation that the humanities remain indispensable to our common life.  I receive this honor not as a culmination but as a promissory note—a vote of confidence in work that is still unfolding.  That confidence, and this extraordinary recognition, inspires my profound gratitude and renewed commitment to the work.”

“As part of Dedman College, the Dallas Institute reflects our shared commitment to the humanities and their continued relevance in the twenty-first century. For more than forty years, the Institute has created a space for thoughtful engagement with ideas that shape our communities and our understanding of the world. The Hiett Prize builds on that tradition by recognizing scholars whose work demonstrates the extraordinary impact the humanities can have on how we think, learn and engage with one another,” said Janan Jayawickramarajah, Elisabeth Martin Armstrong Dean of Dedman College of Humanities and Sciences at SMU.

This year’s Hiett Prize Award Program events celebrating Dr. Montás will take place on October 15 and 16 at SMU. The October 15 event will be held for SMU students and faculty, in partnership with SMU’s University Honors Program.

The Dallas Morning News and Dallas Institute are partnering on an October 16 luncheon gala that will include remarks from the winner. Dr. Montás’ mentor and frequent collaborator Dr. Andrew Delbanco, president of the Teagle Foundation and Alexander Hamilton Professor of American Studies at Columbia University, will introduce Dr. Montás. Space is limited. To request an invitation, please email Kate Kimmis at kkimmis@smu.edu.

Prior Hiett Prize winners include Tiya Alicia Miles (2007), whose work in Black, Native and U.S. Women’s histories earned 2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction and the 2011 MacArthur Foundation “genius” grant; William Deresiewicz (2013), author of Excellent Sheep: the Miseducation of the American Elite, who has been called “one of America’s best young public intellectuals”; and Jared Farmer (2014), a historian and “geohumanist” who writes about culture, nature, and water in the American West. For a complete list of past Hiett Prize winners, go here. 

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Press may download Dr. Montás’ headshot and bio here. 

About Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture at SMU:

The Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture was established in 1980 by Dallas civic visionaries as a nonprofit educational organization whose purpose is to enrich and deepen the practical life of the city with the wisdom and imagination of the humanities. Its mission was propelled in 1982 when its six founding Fellows, Drs. Robert Sardello, Gail Thomas; the late Drs. Louise Cowan, Donald Cowan, James Hillman, and Joanne Stroud; and several civic leaders convened to publish Imagining Dallas, a short book of essays exploring what makes a great city. Now more than forty years later, the Dallas Institute at SMU continues to present courses of study, public seminars, professional programs for educators, publications, conferences, and civic involvement opportunities that bring thought, imagination, language, and sensibility to bear on the convergence between the visible shaping of the world and the permanent values necessary for the crafting of culture. More information about Dallas Institute can be found online at https://dallasinstitute.org.

The Dallas Institute’s Board of Directors is chaired by Don Glendenning. View the board member listing here. For a list of Dallas Institute Fellows, go here.

About Southern Methodist University:

SMU is the nationally ranked teaching and research university in the dynamic city of Dallas, and a member of the prestigious Atlantic Coast Conference. SMU’s alumni, faculty and more than 12,000 students in eight degree-granting schools demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit as they lead change in their professions, communities and the world.