A $100 Million Campaign for the American Academy of Arts & Sciences

For 240 years, the nation has looked to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to offer wisdom and insight into the most profound issues of the time. In 1780, that was the formation of a free republic. In the 1850s, it was understanding the changing natural environment through the theory of evolution. In 1960, it was the creation and exploration of a field called arms control – in fact, the Academy coined that term. Today, it includes such questions as how we can sustain the dream of American democracy in the face of widening divides; and how as citizens of our planet we can respond to environmental change and its implications for migration, conflict, public health, and natural resources in order to provide for a more promising global future.

The events of the last decade, including the business failures of 2001-2002 and the economic crisis of 2008-2009, have called into question fundamental assumptions regarding the role of business and its relationship to global financial markets, governments, and society as a whole. The American Academy of Arts & Sciences will convene a working conference, cosponsored by the New York University Pollack Center for Law and Business, at the NYU Law School.

Essays offer insight about the Internet of the (near) future- and its implications

From the Archives

PBS NewsHour reports on the Academy's bipartisan commission on the state of American democracy and its report detailing 31 recommendations for how to strengthen it. Judy Woodruff introduces the report and discusses it with Danielle Allen and Stephen Heintz.

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.

Civil wars continue to be a frequent and debilitating phenomenon in international politics. Of the approximately 200 countries in the world, there are currently 30 civil wars underway, including several in which the U.S. military is directly and deeply enmeshed. In the twelve essays in this issue, the authors explore causative factors of civil war, the connection of intrastate strife and transnational terrorism, the limited successes and failed ambitions of intervening powers in the recent past, and the many direct and indirect consequences associated with weak states and civil wars, including the dangers posed by pandemics, mass migrations of people, and great-power proxy warfare.

​​​​​​​Why has China, for so much of its history, been the most populous country in the world? How were the states that were formed in China able to rule larger territories and populations and maintain centralized structures longer than governments elsewhere?

PBS and the Academy are partnering for a PBS AMERICAN PORTRAIT storytelling project to develop a crowdsourced poem curated by Academy member and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey.

Tuition is the principal revenue source for many of these institutions; Teaching and research remain the two top expenditures.

Academy Publications

Working with the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), the Academy convened college and university presidents and leaders of scholarly societies. Together, they developed and supported a unified defense of learning and higher education. More than 650 leaders signed the statement on behalf of their students, faculty, staff, and communities.

Working with the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U), the Academy convened college and university presidents and leaders of scholarly societies. Together, they developed and supported a unified defense of learning and higher education. More than 650 leaders signed the statement on behalf of their students, faculty, staff, and communities.

Academy’s Commission on the Arts issues Art is Work: Policies to Support Creative Workers, recognizing the importance of artists to the national economy

Working with the American Association of Colleges and Universities (AAC&U) , the Academy convened college and university presidents and leaders of scholarly societies to develop and support a statement in defense of learning and higher education.

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.

Now is the moment to think about the people, places, and practices of democracy, write Hollie Russon Gilman, Darshan Goux, and Elizabeth Youngling in this op-ed.