Anna Deavere Smith is many things: an actress, playwright, author, and founding director of the Institute on the Arts and Civic Dialogue at New York University, where she is also University Professor at Tisch School of the Arts. In 2019, she became a member of the Academy and was a featured speaker at the Annual David M. Rubenstein Lecture held during the Induction weekend. After performing two original pieces that combine art, commentary, and journalism, she joined David M. Rubenstein in conversation. Their discussion explored a wide range of topics, from auditions and growing up in Baltimore to memorization and the school-to-prison pipeline.

Achieving the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons will require the increased engagement of nations that currently do not posses nuclear arms of their own. In a new occasional paper from the Global Nuclear Future initiative, the authors move beyond the traditional cycle of complaints from the “have-nots” and retorts from the “haves” to suggest new ways to realize the shared goal of nuclear disarmament.

Select Prizes and Awards to Members

Three of the country’s leading philanthropic organizations are supporting the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in its goal to ensure safety and security amid the anticipated expansion of nuclear energy around the world.

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

Attendees of the 21st Annual Conference of the Association of Governing Boards of Colleges and Universities were urged today to consider advancing new strategies to sustain and strengthen public research universities by members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Lincoln Project.

In 1860, zoologist-geologist Louis Agassiz and botanist Asa Gray, both members of the Harvard faculty, took part in a debate held at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences on the recently published Origin of Species.

On January 29, 2026, the Academy’s San Diego Committee, in partnership with the San Diego Natural History Museum, organized a discussion on the importance of science in our everyday lives and its impact on our future. The program featured Rommie Amaro (University of California, San Diego) and J. Craig Venter (J. Craig Venter Institute) in conversation with Peter Cowhey (University of California, San Diego). Judy Gradwohl (San Diego Natural History Museum) and M. Margaret McKeown (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit) provided welcome remarks. An edited transcript of the program follows.

The Spring 2010 issue of Dædalus explores the impact of new technologies and evolving patterns of news consumption on American media. Sixteen authors join guest editor Loren Ghiglione, a veteran of almost four decades in journalism and the Richard A. Schwarzlose Professor of Media Ethics at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism, in an in-depth look at the revolution occurring in the news media and the future of investigative journalism.

​​​​​​​Why has China, for so much of its history, been the most populous country in the world? How were the states that were formed in China able to rule larger territories and populations and maintain centralized structures longer than governments elsewhere?

The decennial census is the longest continuous scientific project in American history. It is also the largest applied social science project undertaken in this country.

On March 6, 2019, Douglas E. Soltis and Pamela S. Soltis spoke at the Academy about a project that harnesses algorithm development, computer power, and DNA sequencing to create a comprehensive visual Tree of Life. The program, which served as the 2079th Stated Meeting of the Academy, included a welcome from President David W. Oxtoby and an introduction from Scott Vernon Edwards.

Immigration is not only where the people come from, and why they come, and whether they are forced to come; it's also how and, in the long run, whether they are received.

Higher education continues to be one of the most important avenues of opportunity in American society. But the education landscape is changing rapidly: there are more options for how and when Americans receive some form of higher education.

To celebrate the arts, artists, and the work of the Academy’s Commission on the Arts, Stephen Colbert, host of “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert,” talked with Commission Cochairs John Lithgow, Deborah Rutter, and Natasha Trethewey. The program included poetry, music, and a discussion of the recommendations developed by the Commission to elevate the arts, support artists, and promote arts education in America. The event also introduced Mixtape, an online collection of arts experiences that features members of the Commission and members of the Academy.

Although declarations and prophesies of doom for the humanities abound, they provide no consistent facts about the current or past situation of the collection of academic interests loosely defined as the humanities. The Academy is trying to provide a body of information and of ideas that will support intellectual community and intellectual action.

Remembrance of Stephen R. Graubard

The American Academy of Arts & Sciences and The MIT Press are today announcing that Dædalus, Journal of the American Academy, will now be an open access publication.

Ellen T. Harris spoke at the Academy about Handel’s life and his inner circle of friends.