On October 24, 2023, the Academy released Forging Climate Solutions: How to Accelerate Action Across America, the final report of the Commission on Accelerating Climate Action. Prompted by a statement by the Academy’s Board in 2021, the report addresses the need for a climate strategy that breaks through the divisions that characterize politics in the nation today.

The collection of essays explores Russia under Vladimir Putin and the prospects for significant political changes today and in a post-Putin era.

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.

Since the release in June 2020 of Our Common Purpose: Re­inventing American Democracy for the 21st Century, the final report of the Academy’s Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizen­ship, there have been a number of surprising and inspiring stories about the impact the report has had. From giving the report away as Valentine’s Day presents to ordering a copy for everyone in the city government of Boise, Idaho, Our Common Purpose has been shared, read, downloaded, viewed, and discussed around the country.

Profile of Kathy Cramer, professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, and her leadership of the Academy's Commission on Reimagining Our Economy and the work to advance an American economy that works for its people.

On January 7, 2019, the Academy published the first open-access issue of Dædalus in the journal’s sixty-four-year history. “Access to Justice,” the Winter 2019 issue, is a multidisciplinary examination of the national crisis in legal services, from the challenges of providing quality legal assistance to more people, to the social and economic costs of an of- ten unresponsive legal system, to the opportunities for improvement offered by new technologies, professional innovations, and fresh ways of thinking about the crisis.

The place of the military in the public consciousness has changed dramatically over time. In a Gallup poll from 2011 that measured the public’s confidence in sixteen major institutions, the military ranked higher than any other institution, with 78 percent of respondents stating their respect for and confidence in the armed forces. On December 7, 2011 – the seventieth anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor – the Academy convened a panel of scholars at Stanford University to discuss the military and international relations.

Robert J. Birgeneau to Lead American Academy Lincoln Project: Excellence and Access in Public Higher Education

What are the lessons learned when community college leaders, researchers, area employers, policymakers and philanthropists get together to discuss how to provide postsecondary students with the skills they need for meaningful employment?

The environmental costs of war and how to minimize them were a focus of an Academy seminar, writes participant Saleem H. Ali in Forbes. In his article, Ali explores meeting themes including the costs of military greenhouse gas emissions, the "greening of warfare," the costs and impact of post-conflict reconstruction, and the ways military forces could engage in environmental remediation.

The CORE Score website and infrastructure, developed at the Academy as part of its work to understand how Americans experience the economy, is moving to Yale for further growth, support, and analysis. Academy President Laurie Patton described the development as "a great example of how intellectual and institutional partnership makes us all stronger.”

The Fall 2020 issue of Dædalus on “Witnessing Climate Change” features sixteen personal narratives about climate-related work by professionals from multiple fields, backgrounds, and generations who feel a responsibility to share what they know and take action.

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is pleased to announce the creation of a new endowed fund to support its premier fellowship program in science-related policy. Previously named the Hellman Fellowship in Science and Technology Policy, the rebranded program will now be known as the Hellman and Simons Fellowship in Science and Technology Policy. The new name reflects the contributions of two families, the Hellman Family on the West Coast and the Simons Family on the East Coast, with strong philanthropic ties to the Academy and longstanding commitments to the critical importance of basic and academic science research in America.

There are several ways members may be involved in the life and work of the Academy.

Over the last few years, organizations across the United States – corporations, universities, and nonprofits like the American Academy – have begun to reflect on their ties to slavery, Native genocide, and other troubling elements of American history. The Academy’s virtual event on “Reckoning with Organizational History” explored why historical self-examination matters and what can be gained from these studies.

On March 31, 1999, Jared Diamond presented a condensed version of his talk on "How to Get Rich."

On October 17, 2023, Dava Newman (Director of the MIT Media Lab and former NASA Deputy Administrator) spoke about the MIT Media Lab’s work and the use of vast amounts of data collected by satellites to inform and motivate the public for the fight against climate change. The program included welcoming remarks by Academy President David W. Oxtoby. An edited and condensed version of Dr. Newman’s presentation follows.

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American Academy of Arts and Sciences Paper Assesses How Industry, Regulators Have Applied Lessons Learned