“Access to Justice,” the Winter 2019 issue of Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, is a multidisciplinary exploration of the challenges, costs, and opportunities related to the crisis of limited civil legal services.

It is with deep sadness that the Academy notes the passing of business leader, entrepreneur, philanthropist, and dedicated public servant Morton L. Mandel on October 16, 2019, at the age of 98.

To celebrate the arts, artists, and the work of the Academy’s Commission on the Arts, Stephen Colbert, host of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” talked with Commission Cochairs John Lithgow, Deborah Rutter, and Natasha Trethewey. The program included poetry, music, and a discussion of the recommendations developed by the Commission to elevate the arts, support artists, and promote arts education in America. The event also introduced Mixtape, an online collection of arts experiences that features members of the Commission and members of the Academy.

Academy Publications

Peter Grant and B. Rosemary Grant present their research studying evolutionary processes in the Galápagos finches, followed by a conversation with Zackory Burns (Hellman Fellow in Science and Technology Policy).

Since coming to the Academy as President in 2019, I have had the privilege of leading an organization that seeks to connect all forms of knowledge to help shape policy in the areas of American institutions; education and the development of knowledge; humanities, arts, and culture; global security and international affairs; and science, engineering, and technology.

“Anticorruption: How to Beat Back Political & Corporate Graft” explores the nature of modern global corruption – and how to defeat it. Highlighting examples from the United States, Brazil, Canada, China, Hong Kong, Nigeria, and Singapore, the authors in this issue – including both academics and law-makers – offer innovative, strategic, and practical recommendations to target public and private corruption.

Judge Theodor Meron on his experiences being an international criminal judge.

Nicholas Lemann, member of the Academy's Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education, discusses the bigger issue of college completion rates.

Inspired by the Academy report on "America's Languages," Congressmen David Price (D-NC) and Don Young (R-AK) announced the creation of the Congressional Caucus on American Languages, a bipartisan effort to support and enhance foreign language competency and international education in the U.S.

A new interagency partnership between the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) will support the American Academy of Arts & Sciences’ Humanities Indicators project to assess the size and health of the nonprofit humanities, arts, and cultural sectors.

In the early 1800s, the Academy received reports of a sea serpent, described as 60 to 100 feet long, in what is now Maine’s Penobscot Bay. In 1810, upon hearing that the reports had been lost, minister and politician Alden Bradford, with the assistance of Lemuel Weeks, collected and presented to the Academy sworn statements of witnesses. In doing so, Bradford acknowledged, “Accounts of this sort, I am aware, should be received with caution.”

Among the founding documents in the Academy Archives is a large bound volume, in three parts, of manuscript minutes, dating back to the Academy’s first meeting in May 1780. In addition to attendance rolls and descriptions of business trans­acted at these meetings, the volume contains other documents that chronicle the establishment of the organization’s rules, regulations, and practices.

Public broadcaster WGBH News to air in-depth reporting series expanding on <em>Dædalus</em> research and expertise

One of the great strengths of the Academy is its ability to bring together members with other experts from many disciplines and professions to explore contemporary challenges, identify solutions, and offer ways forward to advance the public good.

Commission cochair Michael S. McPherson and education program director Francesca B. Purcell provide an overview of work by the Academy’s Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education, which offers a national strategy to improve the college student experience.

The Global Security and International Affairs program area draws on the expertise of policy-makers, practitioners, and scholars to foster knowledge and inform innovative and more substantial policies to address crucial issues affecting the global community. Projects underway in this area engage with pressing strategic development and moral questions that underpin relations among people, communities, and states worldwide. Each initiative embraces a broad conception of security as the interaction among human, national, and global security imperatives. Project recommendations move beyond the idea of security as the absence of war toward higher aspirations of collective peace, development, and justice.