President Jimmy Carter and Republican former Senators Olympia Snowe (ME) and Alan Simpson (WY) joined a majority of Americans across the political spectrum to support a Constitutional Amendment - as proposed in the Academy's Our Common Purpose report - addressing the explosive rise in election spending and the civic distrust and division it generates. 

The Humanities Indicators, a project of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, is a nationally recognized source of nonpartisan information about the humanities. The Indicators are available to the public. The information provided is used by journalists and decision-makers to understand and convey the state of the humanities for a range of audiences and purposes—including an array of examples compiled here.

Reflections from Henry Louis Gates, Jr. on Receiving the Don M. Randel Award for Humanistic Studies

As global temperatures rise and extreme weather events become more common, nations face unprecedented safety and security challenges. While communities strive to protect themselves from the harmful impacts of climate change, each measure taken to increase perceived safety can have unintended consequences. As we surpass the 1.5°C threshold outlined in the 2015 Paris Agreement, the question remains: how can we ensure that our short-term security goals are aligned with climate scientists’ mitigation recommendations?

The gap between the richest and poorest communities in the United States has grown significantly, as have differences in population growth, business development, and economic insecurity. The Academy explored this issue with in a conversation with entrepreneur Reid G. Hoffman, sociologist Katherine S. Newman, and founder of End Poverty in California Michael D. Tubbs. The event was inspired by the work of the Academy’s Commission on Reimagining Our Economy and its recommendations to build a people-first economy that ensures no Americans and no communities are left behind.

Select Prizes and Awards to Members

Global challenges, like pandemics, cannot be addressed by one nation alone; scientific capacity is essential in all corners of the globe to deal with COVID-19 today and the threats of tomorrow. A new Academy report, “Global Connections: Emerging Science Partners,” issued by the Challenges for International Scientific Partnerships initiative, describes the importance of strengthening collaborations between the U.S. and emerging science partner countries.

Given growing national attention to community colleges—particularly to the professional and vocational training they provide—the Humanities Indicators convened 22 experts to discuss how to measure the state of the humanities in this sector.

American Academy of Arts and Sciences Sponsors International Conference to Examine Security, Safety, and Nonproliferation Issues

The Spring 2015 issue of Dædalus on “Successful Aging of Societies” explores the opportunities and challenges facing the United States as it undergoes an unprecedented demographic transformation.

On May 18, 2017, the American Academy, in partnership with the Carnegie Institution for Science, hosted a meeting at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, D.C., on “Communicating Science in an Age of Disbelief in Experts.”

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.

Academy President Laurie Patton shares her experience at the Higher Education Forum and how a diverse group of leaders - with an array of divergent viewpoints - answered the question “Is higher education leadership possible?”

The Global Security and International Affairs program fosters knowledge and promotes innovative and evidence-based policies to address crucial issues affecting the international community. It draws on the expertise of a broad range of policymakers, practitioners, and scholars to design and lead projects engaging with the pressing strategic, development, and moral questions that underpin relations among people, communities, and states worldwide.

Martha Nussbaum accepts the Don M. Randel Award for Humanistic Studies and speaks about a philosophical approach to anger and fear.

Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy hosted a Civic Scientist Lecture on the Academy's recent report.

At a program hosted by the Academy’s New Haven Program Committee, Linda Greenhouse (New York Times columnist and Senior Research Scholar in Law at Yale Law School) discussed the United States Supreme Court’s transformational year and the challenges to Roe v. Wade.