Generic vanishing filtrations and perverse objects in derived categories of coherent sheaves

This is a mostly expository paper, intended to explain a very natural relationship between two a priori distinct notions appearing in the literature: Generic Vanishing in the context of vanishing theorems and birational geometry, and Perverse Coherent Sheaves in the context of derived categories. I describe homological and commutative algebra criteria for checking either condition, and then recall applications to geometric situations. A few new results, and especially new proofs, are included as well.