Learning to cope with the transitory nature of information storage and transmission will eventually become a normal feature of
twenty-first-century scholarship. In the worst cases, one wrong click of a mouse button and weeks of research, years of written text, and decades of preservation can be undermined, effectively making the written word as transitory as the spoken one.

Language education is dwindling at every level in the US, from school to university, and a diminishing share of the country’s residents speak languages other than English, according to a new report from the American Academy.

A growing numbers of parents are either delaying or selectively administering immunizations – or choosing not to vaccinate their children at all. A new Academy report makes clear that reversing this trend requires dedicated research on how vaccine decisions are made and the best ways to communicate factual information to vaccine-hesitant parents.

Induction Weekend 2024 began with an Opening Celebration that featured the first Legacy Recognition Honorees and a performance led by new member bassist Rodney Whitaker. The program also included a conversation between David M. Rubenstein, Co-Founder and Co-Chairman of The Carlyle Group, and Grant Hill, a new member, basketball hall-of-famer, and philanthropist. An edited version of their conversation follows.

A selection of Dædalus essays from MIT Press on the history, culture, and struggles of America’s indigenous peoples

As the nation grappled with the COVID-19 pandemic, venues closed, employment plummeted, and uncertainty affected every facet of the cultural field. Simultaneously, the renewed racial justice reckoning that swept the country last summer spurred an assessment of inequities in the arts. Leaders of arts organizations were confronted by difficult decisions and significant opportunities as they navigated these crises and attempted to support both the arts and artists.

The Academy's publication, Habits of Heart and Mind, was included in an Opinion piece by Daniel Stid (American Enterprise Institute) on the importance of local approaches to rebuilding civic culture and strengthening democracy.

Danielle Allen is a leader of two large-scale efforts to make democracy truly inclusive and reimagine the way we teach new generations of democratic citizens. She joined the Democracy Works podcast to discuss both initiatives, including the Academy’s report, “Our Common Purpose,” and how to build coalitions for effective change.

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

On October 17, 2023, Dava Newman (Director of the MIT Media Lab and former NASA Deputy Administrator) spoke about the MIT Media Lab’s work and the use of vast amounts of data collected by satellites to inform and motivate the public for the fight against climate change. The program included welcoming remarks by Academy President David W. Oxtoby. An edited and condensed version of Dr. Newman’s presentation follows.

We know what a novel is, but can we say the same about the novel? The Winter 2021 issue of Dædalus “On the Novel,” guest-edited by Michael Wood, features fourteen essays that, rather than surveying or summarizing the fate of the novel, offer remarkable insights into the behavior of this versatile literary form, glimpses of where and what it has been and where it may go in the future.

U.S. courts operate as “informationally disabled” institutions that may lack (or intentionally exclude) important facts when making complex legal decisions. In his Dædalus essay, Frederick Schauer discusses why courts may not be suited to the task of “adequate factual determination.”

The humanities, arts, and culture are woven through virtually every Academy program, where artists and humanists add interdisciplinary breadth to projects in science, democracy, and security. However, the Academy also undertakes projects that put humanities, arts, and culture at the forefront, strengthening their practice and highlighting their importance to all aspects of the nation’s thriving intellectual life. These projects call attention to the role the arts and humanities play in enriching the growth and vitality of individuals, communities, and the nation.

Video games as interactive storytelling? Maybe not at first glance, but as Eric Hayot explains in his Daedalus essay, the interplay between game and narrative is real.

Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly present in mental health care.

Kathryn Palmer examines key findings from the latest Humanities Indicators report, which shows that humanities majors outearn people with no degree, as faculty across the nation make the case for continued funding of the humanities.

At the 302nd Meeting of the Academy on December 7, 1847, an Academy committee submitted its opinions on the proposed plan for the Smithsonian Institution...

The American Academy and the British Academy held a joint conference in London that examined the state of humanities research and education in an international context

In the early 1800s, the Academy received reports of a sea serpent, described as 60 to 100 feet long, in what is now Maine’s Penobscot Bay. In 1810, upon hearing that the reports had been lost, minister and politician Alden Bradford, with the assistance of Lemuel Weeks, collected and presented to the Academy sworn statements of witnesses. In doing so, Bradford acknowledged, “Accounts of this sort, I am aware, should be received with caution.”

National Public Radio affiliate KUNM gathered a panel of citizens to discuss and debate the recommendations in Our Common Purpose, the final report of the Academy’s Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship.