At the 3rd Meeting of the Academy held on August 30, 1780, Academy members voted to appoint “a Committee to confer with the Reverend and Honorable Corporation of the University of Cambridge upon pursuing measures to procure an accurate observation of the Solar eclipse...”

Vanesha Pravin, a lecturer in UC Merced’s Merritt Writing Program, receives prestigious May Sarton Prize for Poetry from the American Academy.

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What are the lessons learned when community college leaders, researchers, area employers, policymakers and philanthropists get together to discuss how to provide postsecondary students with the skills they need for meaningful employment?

For the past two years, members of the Academy’s Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship have engaged in research, round tables, and discussions about strengthening American democracy in the 21st century. Now, as the impact of COVID-19 surges through every aspect of American society, Commission members are applying their expertise in public policy and civic and political engagement to meet and understand critical challenges at the local and national levels.

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

When I took office as President in 2019, I quickly realized that one of the great joys of this role is the opportunity to travel to meet with members of our remarkable community. During 2019–2020, I visited some of our largest member communities in New York, Chicago, and the San Francisco Bay area; smaller member groups in locations such as Dallas, St. Louis, and Nashville; and many international members in places such as Colombia, Japan, and the United Kingdom.

On October 6, 2012, the American Academy inducted its 232nd class of Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members at a ceremony held in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The ceremony featured historical readings by Daniel Day-Lewis, new member Bonnie Berger, and Tom Leighton. It also included presentations by five new members: Steven H. Strogatz, Margaret J. McFall-Ngai, Maureen E. Mahoney, David Blight, and Penny Pritzker. The ceremony concluded with a memorable performance by Thomas Hampson (baritone).

In today’s high-tech and hyperconnected world, threats from insiders go far beyond leakers and lone-wolf shooters. How can we better protect against the enemy within, no matter what it is that needs to be protected?

The Academy holds events around the country and the world. These gatherings bring members and others in their communities together to explore topics of national and global concern through an interdisciplinary lens that draws on the breadth and expertise of the Academy’s membership.

NASA astronaut Jessica Meir made history in October 2019 when she participated in the first all-female spacewalk. After 205 days in the isolation of space, she returned to a planet experiencing its own form of isolation: the global COVID-19 pandemic. As an astronaut and a marine biologist, Dr. Meir’s research into the impact of extreme environments has brought her to the depths of the Antarctic and the heights of space. At a virtual program, hosted by the Academy’s San Diego Program Committee, Dr. Meir described her research and her experiences in space and participated in a conversation with Brian Keating (University of California San Diego) about the perspectives that her work provides about our world.

The Academy holds virtual events as well as in-person events around the country and the world that bring members, representatives of the Affiliates, and others together to explore topics of national and global concern.

For the third time in our long history as an independent republic – the Civil War, the Civil Rights movement, and now this movement of civil unrest – we see the possibility of real progress in escaping the long shadow of White Supremacy in our country that dates back to its beginnings. The Academy was founded, as was our nation, during the Enlightenment, a moment in which prominent thinkers and philosophers – including Thomas Jefferson – codified notions of racial difference and hierarchy, the bedrock of White Supremacy and racism. These ideas, intrinsic in our national story, are embedded in our institutional history as well, and we certainly cannot advance if we refuse to have frank conversations about the past and the present of racism in our country.

Scott D. Sagan, Joseph H. Felter, and Paul H. Wise discussed “A Collective Moral Awakening: Ethical Choices in War and Peace,” which is, in part, the subject of the Winter 2017 issue of Dædalus.

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