One of the recommendations for strengthening American democracy proposed in Our Common Purpose - the report of a bipartisan Academy commission - is to move to a system of proportional representation where elected seats in the U.S. House of Representatives are based on the share of votes each party or candidate receives. This article examines legislative progress at the federal and state levels concerning proportional representation.

The Academy holds virtual events as well as in-person events around the country and the world that bring members, representatives of the Affiliates, and others together to explore topics of national and global concern.

On October 26, 2017, the American Academy hosted a conversation at the University of California, Berkeley, on "Priorities for Progress: Advancing Higher Education in America," which highlighted two Academy projects – The Lincoln Project: Excellence and Access in Public Higher Education and the Commission on the Future of Undergraduate Education.

Robert Ballard tells the story of his passionate career in ocean exploration and discusses the educational initiatives he has created to engage a new generation of scientists.

A profound lack of awareness of the unique, sovereign, and central role that Native Americans have played in the United States persists. And there is little recognition of how the knowledge of Indigenous people could contribute to a better shared future.

In a new release today, the Humanities Indicators reports on substantial declines in the number of bachelor’s degrees conferred in the field. NCA Director Trevor Parry-Giles responds.

The Academy is honoring author Margaret Atwood and linguist William Labov, whose exceptional accomplishments include decades of new ideas and transformative impact.

Public-private partnerships, new sources of revenue among recommendations for strategic directions

Alexander Graham Bell’s paper “Researches in Telephony” was presented at a Stated Meeting of the Academy on May 10, 1876. In it, he considers the “three varieties of currents”–intermittent, pulsatory, and undulatory–that produce telephonic effects, and he also describes one of his experiments.

There is no resource more central to life on Earth than water, and it is impossible to overstate its role in shaping human history. Humanity’s need for water is inextricably linked to its need for security, energy, food, and community. The Summer 2015 issue of Dædalus moves beyond the problems and failures.

Despite the many challenges to higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic, the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded by every field except the humanities increased through the end of the 2021 academic year.

Howard Mumford Jones was president of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences from 1944 to 1951. He was instrumental in transforming the Academy into a national organization dedicated to the interdisciplinary analysis of broad-scale intellectual issues.

Compared with our knowledge about students who take courses in the sciences, we know very little about who takes humanities courses in college. With the sciences, most of what we know is about majors rather than courses taken because data on majors are more readily available. Therefore having basic information about relative course-taking by students who majored in particular subjects is extremely important.

Three of the nation’s leading private foundations have awarded funds totaling more than $1.6 million to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences to support its initiative on the Global Nuclear Future.

On behalf of the Development and Communications Committee, I would like to extend my deep gratitude to all the Fellows, friends, and foundations who supported the Academy this year.

The nation’s public research universities serve approximately 3.8 million students each year and perform much of the country’s groundbreaking research.

Mandel Family Support Now Exceeds $11 Million Overall

The American Academy of Arts & Sciences named Toni Morrison as the recipient of the 2016 Emerson-Thoreau Medal for her distinguished achievement in the field of literature. Established in 1958, the medal is awarded to an individual for his or her total literary achievement rather than for a specific work.

This Annual Report comes at an important moment in the life of the Academy. After years of primarily virtual engagement, our members are again gathering in person with a renewed sense of energy, vitality, and hope. During the last year, we held major Academy events in a dozen U.S. cities, and this fall we visited international members in Mexico City and London. In September, we hosted a historic Induction weekend for the classes of 2022 and 2023, welcoming 366 new members and more than one thousand total guests—the largest single in-person event the Academy has ever hosted. And in October and November, we released the final reports of two major Academy commissions: the Commission on Accelerating Climate Action and the Commission on Reimagining Our Economy.

Wendy Freedman gives the remarks for Class I – Mathematical and Physical Sciences at the 2010 Induction ceremony.