Across the aisle from one another, but committed to strengthening democracy together, Eric Liu and Pete Peterson discuss the importance of finding shared ways to move with Michel Martin on Amanpour and Company.

PBS NewsHour reports on the Academy's bipartisan commission on the state of American democracy and its report detailing 31 recommendations for how to strengthen it. Judy Woodruff introduces the report and discusses it with Danielle Allen and Stephen Heintz.

A new photojournal produced by the Academy’s Commission on Reimagining Our Economy is part of their work to put the American people and their well-being at the center of discussions about the nation’s economy.

Hear from class speakers for the 2023 Induction Ceremony for new members of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.

Responds to Congressional Request

Recent Dædalus Issues

The final report was released on February 28, 2017, during a series of events in Washington, D.C.

A recent episode of VISION, an online series presented by the Knight Foundation – at kf.org/vision – featured Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century, the final report of the Academy’s Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship.

One of the recommendations for strengthening democracy proposed in Our Common Purpose - the report of a bipartisan Academy commission - is expanding national service. To support that initiative, the Academy partnered with organizational leaders in the national service field to develop a better understanding of why people serve and how to increase engagement. This article shares key findings from that effort.

Mandel Family Support Now Exceeds $11 Million Overall

The overarching recommendation of the Academy's report on America's Languages was to establish “a national strategy to improve access to as many languages as possible for people of every region, ethnicity, and socioeconomic background—to value language education as a persistent national need.”

Recent Member Events

On December 15, 2015, the Language Commission convened its first meeting at the Academy’s headquarters in Cambridge, MA, under the leadership of Paul LeClerc.

Since our nation’s founding, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has celebrated excellence in every domain of scholarship and cultivated knowledge from many perspectives to advance the public good. The Academy is an independent, nonpartisan institution. Central to our work is a commitment to intellectual freedom–the freedom to teach, to learn, to speak, and to inquire without strictures of ideological or political orthodoxy. Freedom to pursue knowledge, without fear of censorship or discipline, is a bedrock value of our constitutional democracy and a practical condition for crafting the most effective solutions to our society’s toughest challenges.

The House has passed one bill, and is likely to pass another, that would provide funding for people to enroll in certificate programs, apprenticeships, bootcamps and other technical education programs. But a new study from the American Academy questions the quality of these programs, as well as the evidence that demonstrates their efficacy.

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.

A reflection on work done to advance democratic renewal rooted in the recommendations of the Our Common Purpose report, issued by a bipartisan Academy Commission in 2020.

Martha Nussbaum Will Receive Randel Award and Deliver Remarks at April Event

The American Academy delivered its final report on the future of language education to the U.S. Congress yesterday, recommending “a national strategy to improve access to as many languages as possible for people of every region, ethnicity, and socioeconomic background.”