Will Receive Amory Prize and Deliver Remarks at April Event

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.

Tom Cech (Howard Hughes Medical Institute) will present the recommendations of the American Academy’s ARISE report to members of Congress and their staff at a Capitol Hill briefing organized by the American Chemical Society.

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.

Drawing largely on original research using federal data sets and the Gallup-Purdue Index survey of college alumni, the new report from the Humanities Indicators finds that college graduates with degrees from fields with below-average earnings are quite similar to graduates from other fields with respect to their perceived well-being.

An article from UC Berkeley’s College of Computing, Data Science, and Society covers an Academy event featuring experts at Berkeley titled “Generative AI Is Terrific, But Is it Really Legal?” The coverage highlights the legal and economic issues at the intersection of artificial intelligence and creative endeavors.

​​​​​​​The Rumford Prize – a storied science award presented by the American Academy of Arts & Sciences – has been given to astrophysicist and experimental cosmologist Charles L. Bennett.

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.

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.

Danielle Allen responds to new national test results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) which revealed a further decline in students’ knowledge in U.S. history and civics.

"Science & the Legal System," the Fall 2018 issue of Dædalus, Journal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, features thirteen essays on topics including the state of the forensic sciences, expert testimony in court, the role of science in abortion law, neuroscience and law, and reforms to the U.S. adversarial system.

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.

By bringing together senior officials from nations that have or are aspiring to have nuclear power, the Academy’s Global Nuclear Future Initiative provided a neutral forum for key players to candidly exchange ideas and approaches, free of posturing that often dominates discussion in the public spotlight.

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.