The criminalization of immigrants in America has been a decades-long project advanced by Democrats and Republicans alike with Donald Trump's campaign a sharp turn toward explicit nativism. The essays in the Spring 2021 issue of Dædalus offer a bleak assessment of how we got here, but some still find room for optimism.

Randy Schekman will present the recommendations of the ARISE report to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).

Congressman Jim Himes (D-CT) and Congressman Bryan Steil (R-WI) were the featured speakers when the Academy hosted a bipartisan conversation about the economy and the future of democracy. They are the  chairman and ranking member, respectively, of the U.S. House Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth. The event - now available for viewing - was an opportunity to hear how members of Congress think about economic issues—from trade wars and globalization to inflation and its impact on the day-to-day lives of their constituents.

In an effort to draw attention to the extent of the humanities at two-year colleges, the Academy's Humanities Indicators conducted a national survey of community colleges and today releases the findings.

Danielle Allen featured on BYU Radio about what she learned cochairing the Academy's bipartisan Commission on democratic citizenship and how recommended reforms can help Americans increase trust in one another and their institutions.

The American Academy has received one of the largest donations since its founding in 1780. David M. Rubenstein, co-CEO of The Carlyle Group, a global alternative asset manager, has donated $5 million to establish the David Rubenstein Enhancement Fund at the American Academy. This gift will provide funding for new Academy projects (both major commissions as well as exploratory initiatives), and it will also enhance the visibility of the Academy and its projects and commissions among policymakers and the general public.

On November 22, 1788, the General Court of Massachusetts approved the Academy’s petition to hold a public lottery. Proceeds would go toward the purchase of a unique, grand model of the solar system for Harvard College.

What do we want for the future of our democracy? Danielle Allen, cochair of Academy project on the practice of democratic citizenship, explores, citing feedback from engagement sessions held by the Commission.

Africa is at the center of the global water predicament and climatic upheaval. The Fall 2021 issue of Dædalus, “Water Security in Africa in the Age of Global Climate Change,” guest-edited by Allen Isaacman, Muchaparara Musemwa, and Harry Verhoeven, features fourteen essays that explore policy debates and conflicts over water use as well as the efforts to mitigate these tensions.

The Academy organized a workshop in Washington, D.C. that gathered investigators from the government, academic, and industry sectors to discuss novel approaches to understanding and overcoming the social and behavioral barriers to the adoption of new energy technologies.

Like many other organizations, the Academy has been reviewing its policies related to members accused of crimes or other inappropriate actions (e.g., sexual harassment, falsification of research results, intentional plagiarism, and other breaches in professional ethics or academic misconduct). While the Academy’s 1780 charter and the current bylaws provide for expelling or disenfranchising members for cause, there is no record that the Academy has taken any action related to expelling a member nor any policy to guide the practice.

Global challenges, like the COVID-19 pandemic, underscore the value of international coordination and collaboration. In the case of pandemics, this need comes into play not only in managing and mitigating the spread of the disease, but also in the development of treatment therapies and vaccines. Indeed, the first COVID-19 vaccine approved by the U.S. Federal Drug Administration in December 2020 arose from an international collaboration between U.S. and German-based biotech companies, each led by immigrants from Greece and Turkey, respectively.

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.

Paul Wise will cochair the latest Academy project on “Rethinking the Humanitarian Health Response to Violent Conflict,” designed to help define new strategies for the provision of essential health services in areas of violent conflict.