Does locking up more people reduce crime? More Americans are serving time in prison or jail than at any point in the nation’s history, reflecting an incarceration rate that greatly exceeds those found in other advanced democracies.

Projects in the Education and the Development of Knowledge program area inform policy and practice in support of high-quality, lifetime educational opportunities for all Americans. The program area continues the Academy’s enduring focus on the vital role education and knowledge development play in our nation and in our world. From advancing equitable educational outcomes to leveraging new developments in the learning sciences and digital technologies to questioning how domestic and international scholarly work may be affected by advances in machine learning, the Education and the Development of Knowledge program area draws upon scholars and practitioners from various fields and disciplines to explore the conditions that foster the creation, transfer, and preservation of knowledge in a global context.

An update on state legislative and regulatory activities concerning independent citizen-redistricting commissions.

In my first months as president of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, I have been thinking a lot about the future–particularly “How can the Academy’s mission and members strengthen democracy?”

Dædalus is the journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences and it's published by MIT Press. The Academy made the journal open access in 2021 as part of a commitment to making ideas and information freely available. During the first year of open access, Dædalus experienced an increase in online readership, downloaded articles, and citations.

The Academy cohosted a German-American exchange about the political responsibility of universities for democratic culture as part of ongoing discussions about the importance of democratic values in the twenty-first century.

In December I used my year-end message to highlight the outstanding speeches delivered by new members representing each of the Academy’s five classes at the September 2023 Induction Ceremony. The speakers addressed an extraordinary range of issues, speaking on themes related to artificial intelligence, climate action, creativity, inquiry, and identity. The text of their remarks is included in this issue of the Bulletin, and I hope you will enjoy reading them if you have not already viewed them online.

The annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) provided excellent opportunities to highlight the Academy's interdisciplinary and bipartisan work on accelerating climate action with diverse attendees, from high school students to doctoral candidates, policymakers, science communicators, and science fans of all kinds.

A new report from the American Academy of Arts and Sciences challenges preconceptions about the public face of science.

How did humanities departments fare during the recent recession? How are departments coming to terms with fast-changing technologies, and preparing their students for the workforce? Today the American Academy of Arts and Sciences is releasing the results of a wide-ranging survey of 12 disciplines that offers answers to those questions and many others on the state of the humanities in higher education.

Public research universities contribute to overall economy, research, and infrastructure in support of students, families, and the nation

Why does academe still lack accurate information about non-tenure-track faculty members?

As Board Chair Nancy Andrews notes in her message, the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect every aspect of Academy life. Yet despite the challenges of the last eighteen months, by nearly every measure the strength of our community of members has only increased.

The Academy hosted a meeting at the University of California, Los Angeles, on public research universities in the twenty-first century. The speakers included Gene Block, Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, and Kim A. Wilcox.

Learn about the Academy event -- "What are the Challenges and Opportunities of AI in Mental Health Care?" -- which brought together members of the Academy’s AI and Mental Healthcare project to discuss what they learned and the publication they released.

On June 6, 2012, Internet pioneers Tom Leighton, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, and David D. Clark discussed the future of the Web. The meeting, presented in collaboration with the Royal Society and the British Consulate-General, was the inaugural program in a lecture series on ‘GREAT Science,’ organized by the U.K. government’s Science and Innovation Network to profile international science excellence.

The American Academy of Arts & Sciences and Washington University in St. Louis convened more than 50 community leaders, social entrepreneurs, and professionals - between 18 and 29 years old - from across the political spectrum. The participants were united by a commitment to developing a youth agenda for American democracy.

A publication, The Case for Enlarging the House of Representatives, proposes adding 150 seats to the House of Representatives, followed by regular expansion. Enlarging the House will help restore the connection between the people and “the people’s house” as envisioned by the nation’s founders.

From the President

In light of the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and v. University of North Carolina, which bans the consideration of applicants’ racial status in admissions decision-making, the Academy’s Education program area engaged senior leaders of Affiliate institutions with the goal of supporting these leaders’ commitments to equity in higher education.