Select Prizes and Awards to Members

Anna Deavere Smith is many things: an actress, playwright, author, and founding director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at New York University, where she is also University Professor at Tisch School of the Arts. In 2019, she became a member of the Academy and was a featured speaker at the Annual David M. Rubenstein Lecture held during the Induction weekend. After performing two original pieces that combine art, commentary, and journalism, she joined David M. Rubenstein in conversation. Their discussion explored a wide range of topics, from auditions and growing up in Baltimore to memorization and the school-to-prison pipeline.

Historian Bernard Bailyn opened the celebration of the 220th annual meeting of the Academy with a commentary on the personal characteristics of John Adams as revealed in his diary and his autobiography.

Select Prizes and Awards to Members, New Appointments, and Publications

“More people worldwide are being displaced from their homes for longer periods than ever before,” noted David Miliband, president and chief executive officer of the International Rescue Committee, at a gathering of Academy members and guests at the inaugural Jonathan F. Fanton Lecture in New York. Miliband, one of the foremost advocates for refugees and a leader in responses to global humanitarian and human rights crises, described the causes of today’s global refugee crisis and offered solutions, both simple and effective.

The decennial census is the longest continuous scientific project in American history. It is also the largest applied social science project undertaken in this country.

On November 26, 2018, Nicholas Kristof (a columnist for The New York Times) spoke at a gathering of Academy Members and guests in New York City about journalists in the age of Trump. He also shared a preview of his forthcoming book on dysfunction in America after fifty years of wrong policy turns.

Members Elected in 2023

By Kathryn Moffat, Senior Program Officer for Global Security and International Affairs at the Academy

Induction Weekend 2025 began with an Opening Celebration that featured the announcement of the new Legacy Recognition Honorees with a special message from John Legend, followed by a conversation between David M. Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of The Carlyle Group, and Kenny Leon, Tony Award–winning stage and television director and new member of the Academy. An edited version of their conversation follows.

A list of all active Members, arranged by Class and Section, Affiliation, or Year of Election, is available on the
Academy’s website at www.amacad.org/directory. IHM designates an International Honorary Member.

Judith Resnik, Jonathan Lippman, Carol S. Steiker, Susan S. Silbey, Jamal Greene, and Linda Greenhouse participated in a conversation on the function of courts in the United States.

The opening program of the 2022 Induction weekend featured a conversation between David M. Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of The Carlyle Group, and cellist Yo-Yo Ma that explored the meaning and honor of Academy membership, the power and universality of music, and the importance of the arts, culture, and education, among other topics. An edited version of their conversation follows.

Frank Wilczek discussed the modern concept of substance and the nature of the Higgs particle following an introduction given by Jerome Friedman.

The Academy hosted a discussion about pressing issues facing the world in 2025. The event featured Kwame Anthony Appiah (New York University), Michael Froman (Council on Foreign Relations), and Adam Tooze (Columbia University) in conversation with Anne-Marie Slaughter (New America). Academy President Laurie L. Patton delivered the opening remarks. Transcript and video online.

Following an introduction from Robert C. Post, Linda K. Kerber discusses her work as part of a new generation of historians who have begun to study law as a cultural formation that both reflects and forms the discursive construction of collective identity in society.

Christopher B. Field and Anna M. Michalak led a panel discussion on "Water: California in a Global Context" with Annie Maxwell, Holly Doremus, and Isha Ray. The program, which served as the Academy’s 2032nd Stated Meeting, followed from the Summer 2015 issue of Dædalus “On Water.”

A dinner discussion on DNA and Art: In Search of the Genome of Leonardo da Vinci, featuring Jesse H. Ausubel, director of the Program for the Human Environment at The Rockefeller University and introductory remarks from Kenneth Wallach (Central National Gottesman Inc.) who cochairs the New York Program Committee.

Timothy J. Colton and George Breslauer gave a presentation on “Russia Beyond Putin,” the subject of the upcoming Spring 2017 issue of Dædalus.