Ato Malinda is one of the awardees of the Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship.
She is in residence at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington DC from July 29 until September 13 2015, researching the proliferation of binary thought through the representation of African objects in western museums, working with curators from the Museum of African Art and the National Natural History Museum, specifically Karen E. Milborne and Mary Jo Arnoldi.