Institutions are critical to our personal and societal well-being. They facilitate relationships; they regulate behavior. They develop and disseminate knowledge, enforce the law, keep us healthy, and uphold social and religious norms.

Weekend events include panel discussions on the Constitution (with retired Associate Supreme Court Justice David Souter) and the American Military (with Maj. Gen. Gregg Martin, Commandant, U.S. Army War College)

The opening program of the 2023 Induction weekend included a reflection from actor and author John Lithgow, who encouraged the new members to engage with the Academy. He talked about his experience as a cochair of the Academy’s Commission on the Arts and shared a preview of his new television series on PBS—Art Happens Here—which grew out of the Academy’s work. The program also featured a conversation between David M. Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of The Carlyle Group, and Sheila Johnson, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of the Salamander Collection, that illuminated aspects of Johnson’s childhood, her success in a range of business ventures, and her lifelong involvement in the arts. An edited version of their conversation follows.

“Access to Justice,” the Winter 2019 issue of Dædalus, the Journal of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, is a multidisciplinary exploration of the challenges, costs, and opportunities related to the crisis of limited civil legal services.

On October 25, 2011, the Academy convened a panel of global experts at Stanford University. Scott D. Sagan, Harald Müller, Noramly bin Muslim, Olli Heinonen, and Jayantha Dhanapala considered the global nuclear future in light of the accident at Fukushima.

Noteworthy

One hundred years ago, the United States ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, granting women the right to vote. The publication of the Winter 2020 issue of Dædalus “Women & Equality,” guest edited by Nannerl O. Keohane (Princeton University; Stanford University) and Frances McCall Rosenbluth (Yale University), at the centennial is a celebration of this victory for women’s rights. Yet while the inclusion of women in the electorate was a momentous occasion, it notably left behind most Black women, and while all women have taken significant steps toward equality since then, there is still a long way to go. This collection of essays is therefore not only a celebration of the accomplishments of women around the world toward equality, it is also an invitation to further reflection and a call to action, assessing remaining obstacles and pointing a way toward workable solutions.

The Academy’s new strategic framework presents four animating principles and seven strategies that are designed to ensure that the Academy continues to produce high-quality, interdisciplinary work that addresses urgent societal challenges. In 2025, the Academy’s programmatic work laid the groundwork for new projects and initiatives that will implement this framework and built on ongoing efforts to increase impact and raise the visibility of the institution with external audiences. These audiences include policymakers at the federal, state, and local level; leaders in philanthropy, higher education, nonprofit organizations, and business; scholars and students; advocacy groups; professional groups and practitioners; and the public.

As part of the Academy’s 2018 Induction weekend, Sonia Sotomayor (Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court) participated in a conversation with David M. Rubenstein. The program, which served as the Academy’s 2072nd Stated Meeting, was the second Annual David M. Rubenstein Lecture.

Although global child mortality has dropped by 50 percent since 1990, neonatal mortality has declined much more slowly. Newborns now represent more than 40 percent of under-five deaths, and preterm birth is the world’s leading killer of children.

The world is witnessing the emergence of new nuclear states that have acquired or are pursuing nuclear capabilities. These new nuclear actors pose significant threats to global security as they challenge the existing nuclear order and nonproliferation regime.

At an Academy event held in Seattle, Washington, author Annie Proulx described some surprising places her research has led: from accusations of plagiarism against Alfred, Lord Tennyson to obsessive lepidopterists and images of long-lost swamplands. Following her opening remarks, she joined Shawn Wong, professor of English, in conversation.

Rolena Adorno offers an abbreviated version of the remarks she made at the 130th Modern Language Association Annual Convention on January 10, 2015.

Harold Varmus, Susan R. Wente, Tania Baker, and Mark C. Fishman participated in a conference on ensuring the stability of the biomedical research enterprise in the United States. Richard H. Brodhead introduced the panel discussion, which was moderated by Nancy C. Andrews and Sally Kornbluth.

The 2011 Induction weekend included a symposium on American Institutions and a Civil Society, which featured two panel discussions: The American Military and American Democracy and The Constitution, the Practice of Democracy, and Unintended Consequences.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has unleashed a humanitarian catastrophe, but Ukraine is only the most visible example of contemporary conflicts subjecting populations to systematic violence and depriving them of life-saving humanitarian assistance. In Ethiopia, Sudan, Yemen, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the eroding purchase of international humanitarian law, combined with intensifying geopolitical competition and the rapidly changing character of modern warfare, have put enormous strain on humanitarian actors. An issue of Daedalus explores the conflicts and the implications.

On May 15, 2014, at the Academy’s 2008th Stated Meeting, five experts discussed how institutions protect against the threat of nuclear terrorism.