The crafters of the Constitution expected the size of the House to grow as the U.S. population increased. Citing the American Academy report on “The Case for Expanding the House of Representatives,” Kevin Kosar calls for Capitol Hill to consider the proposition.

Ways to Engage with the Academy

Jazz: it has been called both cool and hot, earthy and avant-garde, intellectual and primitive. It is improvisational music touted for the freedom it permits its players, but in its heyday was largely composed and tightly arranged. It tells a story about race in America: not only because African American musicians were so central in its creation and African American audiences so important in their creative responses to it, but because whites played such a dominant role in its dissemination through records and performance venues and its ownership as intellectual and artistic property. But is jazz a relic of the past, or does it continue to have meaning and influence for today’s artists and audiences? And while it may still be present, does it still matter?

Prolific scholar and public intellectual Henry Louis Gates, Jr. has been named the recipient of the Academy’s Don M. Randel Award for Humanistic Studies, which recognizes remarkable scholars whose work shapes our inner lives and our understanding of the world around us.

As I write this message, the specter of COVID-19 still hangs over our country and our world. The Academy’s activities have been entirely virtual throughout 2021 (and for most of 2020), and we have postponed in-person Induction ceremonies for two consecutive years. That was a particular disappointment because it is always wonderful to greet our newly elected class and deeply moving to watch each person cross the stage to sign The Book of Members, attesting to their membership in the Academy. We will do everything possible to recreate that experience when it is finally safe to gather.

Academy member Denis Feeney has spent the last few years trying to understand why the Romans developed a literature in their Latin language, when the balance of historical probability was against this happening.

Though technology and warfare have greatly evolved since Michael Walzer published his seminal text Just and Unjust Wars over forty years ago, the debate on the ethical challenges posed by these changes has been confined mostly within the boundaries of specific disciplines; few attempts have been made to pursue a genuine interdisciplinary debate on this matter.

How might social research contribute to a retreat from mass incarceration, make the world fairer, and promote alternatives to punishment that help communities become safer and healthier? In a presentation at the Academy, Bruce Western explored this topic and the implications of mass incarceration for racial and economic inequality.

There are several ways members may be involved in the life and work of the Academy.

There are several ways members may be involved in the life and work of the Academy.

Watching "peaceful protests sweep across the land even amidst a plague" causes Eric Liu, cochair of the Academy's Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship, to note the strength of spirit and movement he sees even when the nation's neck is broken.

On October 1, 2011, the American Academy inducted its 231st class of Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members at a ceremony held in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The ceremony included presentations by five new members: Frances Hamilton Arnold, David Conrad Page, Sir Adam Roberts, Annette Gordon-Reed, and William I. Miller.

A distinguished theoretical physicist, Herman Feshbach worked throughout his career to advance scientific freedom and East-West exchange—concerns that he brought to the international programs of the Academy.

A new study from the American Academy's Humanities Indicators project reveals trends among U.S. residents, and the impact of respondents’ political leanings, socioeconomic status, gender, and race.

Grants will support the Academy’s Humanities Indicators (www.HumanitiesIndicators.org), the first comprehensive collection of statistical data about the humanities in the United States.

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.

Public Face of Science project will develop new assessments of public interactions with science, technology, medicine.

The Academy’s Francis Amory Prize recognizes major contributions to the field of reproductive biology and was first awarded in 1940. Over the years, the prize recipients have reflected the increasing complexity and remarkable scientific progress in the field of reproductive biology.

New Issue of Journal Dædalus Explores the Global Nuclear Future