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.

Rebecca Sandefur, cochair of Academy project on access to justice, believes America needs a new model for handling everyday legal issues.

The American Academy has presented the prestigious Scholar-Patriot award to Louis W. Cabot for his distinguished service to the Academy and to the nation. The recognition is granted for the extraordinary contributions of individuals who share the founding fathers' vision of service.

Research funding is not unlike food production; it is not the amount, but the distribution of research funds that matters.

The White House’s proposed budget cuts to language and exchange programs will make America less able to communicate with and understand our allies and potential adversaries abroad, argues Karl Eikenberry, citing Academy report.

Academy Publications

In January I had the opportunity to travel to London to participate in the continuation of one of the Academy’s longest institutional relationships: our shared pursuit of knowledge with the Royal Society, the oldest scientific society in existence. The first interaction between our two societies occurred in 1785, when Royal Society member Benjamin Gale contributed to the first volume of the Academy’s Memoirs. A few years later, in 1788, Royal Society President Sir Joseph Banks was elected a Foreign Honorary Member of the Academy.

An exploratory meeting at the Academy convened international legal experts, policymakers, and global security scholars to examine the effectiveness, limitations, and trajectory of international humanitarian law in the context of the changing character of armed conflict and a weakening commitment to the rule of law.

Our focus on issues of inequality in many areas of the Academy’s work – from convenings, to commissions and projects, to issues of Dædalus – illustrates what the Academy does best: explore contemporary challenges, identify solutions, and offer ways forward to advance the public good.

In light of the 2023 U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Students for Fair Admissions v. President and Fellows of Harvard College and v. University of North Carolina, which bans the consideration of applicants’ racial status in admissions decision-making, the Academy’s Education program area engaged senior leaders of Affiliate institutions with the goal of supporting these leaders’ commitments to equity in higher education.

Highlights Include Readings by Academy Award-winning Actor Sally Field and Emmy Award-winning Filmmaker Ken Burns and a Performance by Internationally Renowned Jazz Musician Herbie Hancock

While COVID-19 cases and mortality surged in spring and summer 2020, the U.S. government seemed to lack the capacity to respond. Mixed messaging and insufficient testing, ventilators, personal protective equipment, and contact tracing raised disturbing questions about the will of the executive and the health of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But were these challenges particular to the pandemic? Or, as one author asks in the newest issue of Dædalus, “is the failed pandemic response a symptom of a diseased administrative state?”

Scott D. Sagan published an op-ed later developed into his Daedalus essay "The Face of Battle without the Rules of War: Lessons from Red Horse & the Battle of the Little Bighorn."

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences has published a new collection of essays, Using Imaging to Identify Deceit: Scientific and Ethical Questions, examining the scientific support for using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to recognize deception.

Terence Blanchard, a member of the Academy and of the Commission on the Arts, is a jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and educator. His contribution to Mixtape – an online gallery of poems, stories, song, videos, and visual art – is an illustrated and illuminating video in which he shares the journey from his musical childhood to becoming the first Black composer presented on the Metropolitan Opera stage.

The Fall 2020 issue of Dædalus on “Witnessing Climate Change” features sixteen personal narratives about climate-related work by professionals from multiple fields, backgrounds, and generations who feel a responsibility to share what they know and take action.