Challenges to American institutions, the future of the humanities, critical issues in higher education, changes in scientific research and science education, threats to international security and prospects for expanding educational opportunities worldwide are among the issues at the center of the Academy’s research program. Over the past half-century, the Academy has made its voice heard on a wide range of critical social and intellectual issues, from arms control and the rise of fundamentalist movements to poverty, immigration, and corporate responsibility. Today, it continues to expand on these areas of long-term interest and to explore emerging problems, often before their importance is widely recognized. Its independence, its unequalled intellectual resources, and its ability to convene experts from many different disciplines and institutions enable the Academy to develop an innovative, nonpartisan approach to the complex issues of the day. Academy studies clarify issues, offer new insights and perspectives, and help to illuminate choices for policy leaders, journalists, and the broader public.

Science and Global Security

The Initiative for Science and Technology

Science and engineering in the United States are facing new political, social, and economic challenges. Institutional arrangements for public and private funding of science are undergoing significant change. Some have questioned whether the U.S. science and engineering workforce will be adequate to meet future needs. At the same time, controversy surrounds public support for important areas of research. The Initiative for Science and Technology is especially timely in light of the growing concern about the capabilities and diversity of the nation’s workforce, issues of federal funding and regulation, and science education.

Alternative Models for the Federal Funding of Science and Their Potential to Nurture the Next Generation of Scientists—An examination of current funding policies and processes, including the proper balance of capacity-building versus merit in funding considerations, the proportion of funds set aside for high-risk versus incremental research, and whether the current system of distributing funds is effective in supporting and retaining early-career scientists.

Scientists’ Understanding of the Public—An analysis of public attitudes about science and technology as informed by a variety of sources and anchored by ethical considerations, religious beliefs, and cultural norms and values. The capacity of scientists to gain adequate funding for their work and to provide sound advice to policy makers depends on their understanding of the social implications and likely public responses to their research.

Science and the Liberal Arts Curriculum—An evaluation of general education science requirements, teaching practices, and student outcomes to determine effective means of developing science literacy among non-science majors and, by extension, in a significant sector of the general population.

Securing the Internet as Public Space—A project on the social, political, economic, and legal factors that affect the evolving design of the Internet, bringing together perspectives on both the social and technical requirements for Internet security.

International Security Concerns

Global Nuclear Future —Key rules and norms for the control of nuclear weapons have been abandoned, undermined, or damaged as states struggle to cope with new realities of the post–Cold War and post–9/11 eras. This study considers the implications of current trends in nuclear proliferation, their compatibility with U.S. interests, and alternative pathways to a more secure nuclear future.

Reconsidering the Rules of Space—The United States pursues various competing interests in space: military support operations, commercial activities, and scientific exploration. To provide the basis for an informed space policy, this project examines the global security implications of these expanding interests, and the politics of and potential for greater international cooperation in space.

Social Policy and American Institutions

The Media in Society

New technologies and evolving pattern of news consumption are changing economic models that have long supported traditional print and broadcast media. To examine the impact of these changes on the way the public learns about important policy issues, the Academy has organized two projects: one on how information about science and technology is diffused through the media, and a second on the future of news, with attention to how journalism can become more professional and how the quality of journalism can be sustained as it is translated to the Web.

Examining Leadership in America

What factors have compromised sound leadership in the professions over the past half-century? How has a growing emphasis on the need to advance fiscal goals affected personal integrity and civic responsibility? How can the professions foster strong leadership skills? The Academy is sponsoring a series of discussions and publications on leadership in three areas critical to American society: business, law, and the university. As a follow-up to its study on Restoring Trust in American Business, the Academy is responding to a felt crisis in leadership with discussions and a potential publication on how the business and law communities can balance professional integrity and civic responsibility and develop sound business practices as well as foster public gain.

Congress and the Courts: The Independence of the Judiciary

Threats to judicial independence at both the federal and state level are at the center of this project, which has included public meetings and off-the-record conversations with members of Congress, Supreme Court justices, and federal judges. Among the other issues that have been addressed to date are the selection and removal of judges, partisan confirmation battles, judicial pay, and the relationship of the court to other branches of government and to the press.

Humanities and Culture

The Initiative for Humanities and Culture examines the humanities and their importance in American civic and cultural life. It sponsors the collection and analysis of data, scholarly studies, conferences, and lectures.

Scholarship in the Humanities

Two recent publications examine the evolution and direction of the humanities. On the Humanities, an issue of the Academy’s journal, Daedalus, recounts the changes that shaped key humanities disciplines—from American literature, comparative literature, history, and art history to law, African-American Studies, and philosophy—in the twentieth century. The Humanities and the Dynamics of Inclusion since World War II centers on social forces that have transformed the humanities since World War II. A new study will highlight the importance of the humanities in American life.

Data in the Humanities

Humanities Indicators: The Academy, in collaboration with humanities institutions throughout the country, is leading an effort to establish a framework for the compilation and analysis of data. Its goal is to define the state of the humanities and to provide information on the future of the liberal arts as a whole. A prototype set of indicators covers six key areas: 1) primary and secondary education, 2) postsecondary education, 3) graduate education and career paths, 4) humanities research and funding, 5) the humanities workforce, and 6) the humanities in American life.

Humanities Departmental Survey: Template Project: The purpose of this activity is to gather and produce new data from humanities departments across disciplines as a means of revealing trends in such areas as faculty teaching and research, distribution of teaching loads, the tenure process, and jobs secured by graduates. In the initial stage, the project will gather information for the disciplines of history, modern languages and literatures, art history, linguistics and religion from several hundred departments. The data will be included in the Humanities Indicators effort.

Education

Higher Education

For the past half-century, the Academy has been deeply concerned about the future of higher education in America. In 2006, it launched a new initiative to consider many of the issues now facing America’s colleges and universities beginning with an examination of the challenges facing traditional precepts of academic freedom. The immediate goal is to develop a new formulation of academic freedom that will be widely circulated in an effort to help to defuse the current tensions threatening the open exchange of ideas throughout our higher education system and playing themselves out on campuses and in state legislatures.

Primary and Secondary Education

K-16 Education and Evidence-based Policy: Sound personal and public decision-making requires clarity about the values at stake and an understanding of relevant facts. The premise of this study is that primary, secondary, and tertiary educations in the U.S. do not provide citizens with adequate knowledge and skills to assess the tradeoffs among competing values, deal with probabilistic facts, and make informed decisions under conditions of uncertainty. It will document the means by which critical thinking skills are taught in existing K-16 curricula and propose ways in which such skills might be strengthened through additional interventions.

Educating All Children Well: Universal Basic and Secondary Education : A far-reaching international initiative has been examining the rationale, means, and consequences of providing education for all children, ages six to sixteen; it has produced a number of publications, articles, and papers, in a variety of languages. The next phase of the project will focus on the challenges of implementing UBASE, with particular attention to regions of concern in Africa and South Asia.

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