Creating a “new normal” of multiliteracy and multiculturalism is key to the future of the United States as a leader on the world stage.

American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Affiliates
Consolidated Statement of Financial Position as of June 30, 2023

Notice received through November 3, 2020

Cultural institutions across the United States—regardless of type or size—are facing unprecedented uncertainty, which is challenging long-standing models for communicating the value of arts and culture, for supporting these institutions, and for collaborating across the sector. To help address this uncertainty, the Academy held three virtual roundtable discussions in the fall of 2025 that brought together leaders from the arts and culture sector to reflect on these challenges and begin to outline strategies to move forward. To encourage open and candid dialogue, the discussions were held under the Chatham House Rule, so neither participants nor their comments can be identified in any materials related to the roundtables.

With generous support from Carnegie Corporation of New York, the Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education is conducting an analysis of American undergraduate education and looking ahead several decades at the educational challenges and opportunities facing Americans.

On March 26, 2024, stem cell biologist Haifan Lin received the Francis Amory Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. First awarded in 1940, the Amory Prize recognizes significant scientific advances in reproductive biology and medical care. The award ceremony included remarks by Yale University President Peter Salovey and Academy President David W. Oxtoby, a reading of the Amory Prize citation by Dean of the Yale School of Medicine Nancy J. Brown, and a presentation by Professor Lin. An edited version of the remarks and presentation follows.

The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands partnered with the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in May 2022 to host Strengthening American Democracy through Civic Investment, a historic effort to bring attention to the chronic underinvestment in the civic health of our nation’s communities and to mobilize resources to support the development of local civic infrastructure.

In "The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good?" Michael J. Sandel argues that the divide between winners and losers has poisoned our politics and pulled us apart. The problem, he contends, is not only that we have failed to live up to the meritocratic ideals we profess, but that a meritocratic society is a flawed aspiration. It produces hubris among the successful and humiliation among those left behind. In the first virtual Stated Meeting in the history of the Academy, Michael J. Sandel joined T. J. Jackson Lears and Anna Deavere Smith in a conversation about his new book and the destructive consequences of linking socioeconomic status with personal worth.

An article and embedded video exploring what the Commission on Reimagining Our Economy learned from listening sessions in Indian Country, which Commission recommendations would have the greatest impact on tribal nations, and the unique economic challenges and opportunities facing Indian Country.

On November 15, 2016, the Academy’s San Diego Program Committee hosted Veerabhadran Ramanathan and David G. Victor for a discussion on the state of scientific understanding of climate change and the implications of this knowledge for the development of future policy.

Scientists and the journalists who cover their research approach their roles from very different perspectives, yet they depend on each other to keep the public informed about scientific issues. Science and the Media, a new volume from the American Academy, examines this dynamic though a series of essays by scientists, journalists, and public relations specialists.

Recent Member Events

In 2015, the Academy established The Exploratory Fund to support Members who wish to look over the horizon for issues and opportunities not well understood, to think of problems in a fresh way, and to search for connections between research and policy that advance the common good.

Announcing Tacoma, Washington as a new city joining the Our Common Purpose Communities Project, led by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. The city of Tacoma becomes part of a larger effort to advance local approaches to strengthening democracy.

In today’s world—characterized by great-power competition and ongoing crises in Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East—missile defense, previously a Cold War concern, has resurfaced as a prominent issue. State and non-state actors are relying on missile capabilities to achieve their military objectives. This article explores how missile strikes and missile threats are shaping new and ongoing global tensions.

Katalin Karikó and Drew Weissman, elected to the Academy in 2022, have been awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 2023. They shared insights into their pioneering work on mRNA vaccines in an Academy conversation earlier this year.

The Supreme Court’s written code of ethics is a start, writes Danielle Allen, who argues that the next step is term limits for Supreme Court justices -- citing a recent Academy publication.

An Archives feature published in the Winter 2022 Bulletin recounted the accidental discovery of a broadside advertising the Marquis de Lafayette’s 1824–1825 U.S. tour. Previously unknown to Academy staff, the broadside had been found hidden behind another framed engraving and was accessioned into the Academy’s collections in recognition of Lafayette’s status as a Foreign Honorary Member, elected in 1785.

2106th Stated Meeting | April 20, 2022 | Virtual Event
Jonathan F. Fanton Lecture

Former Vice President Al Gore discusses the world's climate crisis during an Academy event held at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, CA.