Representatives of the Initiative for Humanities and Culture's two major components—the Research Program and the Humanities Indicators Program—came together to refine and elaborate on their future plans and to learn about each other's progress.
Neal Lane and Norman Augustine, cochairs of the Academy project on New Models for U.S. Science and Technology Policy, discuss the project’s latest report on the perils of complacency and how the U.S. can compete with China.
A new report from the Academy issues recommendations for closing the civil justice gap. Developed with an interdisciplinary approach involving legal professionals, scholars, and community leaders offers an array of approaches for delivering and increasing civil justice in America.
In its continued effort to identify common concerns and build consensus for innovative solutions in American public higher education, the Lincoln Project recently convened a series of regional meetings in Austin, Texas; Atlanta, Georgia; New York City; and Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
PBS and the Academy are partnering for a PBS AMERICAN PORTRAIT storytelling project to develop a crowdsourced poem curated by Academy member and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Natasha Trethewey.
Arts education, properly supported and available to all, can play a vital role in our recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. Arts Commission cochairs John Lithgow, Deborah Rutter, and Natasha Trethewey make the case for arts education commitment in the Chicago Tribune.
The Academy's Commission on the Humanities and Social Sciences has hosted a series of regional forums to collect testimony on the value of the humanities and social sciences.
$5.6 million gift to fund The Morton L. Mandel Program for Civic Discourse and Membership Engagement. Funds designated for fellowships, lecture series, and technical enhancements for communication
Artists can help us emerge and heal from the global pandemic — but first we have to create more systems that support them and their work. Laura Zabel, member of the American Academy’s Commission on the Arts, explains how.
The Academy hosted a meeting at the University of California, Los Angeles, on public research universities in the twenty-first century. The speakers included Gene Block, Marcelo Suárez-Orozco, and Kim A. Wilcox.
On December 4, 2015, at the Georgetown University Law Center, the Academy hosted a panel discussion on “The Crisis in Legal Education” with Louis Michael Seidman, Robert A. Katzmann, Philip G. Schrag, Robin L. West, and Patricia D. White.
Christopher B. Field and Anna M. Michalak led a panel discussion on "Water: California in a Global Context" with Annie Maxwell, Holly Doremus, and Isha Ray. The program, which served as the Academy’s 2032nd Stated Meeting, followed from the Summer 2015 issue of Dædalus “On Water.”
On October 16, 2024, the Academy hosted a discussion on the importance of science communication and strategies to bridge the gap between science and the public. The event featured Sean Decatur (American Museum of Natural History) and Naomi Oreskes (Harvard University) in conversation with Holden Thorp (American Association for the Advancement of Science). Shirley Malcom (American Association for the Advancement of Science) offered opening remarks and Cristine Russell (formerly, Harvard Kennedy School) provided some final comments.
While much of the discussion about the state of the humanities tends to focus on the declining number of students majoring in the humanities, the health of the field relies on a much wider array of practices. The American Academy’s Humanities Indicators project has been exploring this wider frame of humanities activity by compiling data from federal sources and conducting the first national survey about the health of the field.
As the Academy continues to look at issues related to public perceptions of risk, uncertainty, and scientific research through its Public Face of Science initiative, it partnered with the University of Chicago to organize a public symposium on “Communicating Scientific Facts in an Age of Uncertainty.” The symposium featured presentations by Olufunmilayo I. Olopade and Arthur Lupia.
Leon Panetta, former Secretary of Defense, echoes the recommendations of Academy report on language learning, saying "we are constrained by our inadequate understanding of other nations and peoples, and by our inability to communicate effectively with them."
For centuries, humans have sought to enhance their natural appearance and abilities through medicine, surgery, exercise, and education. Today, performance enhancement is most often associated with drugs taken by athletes and college students to improve physical and mental performance.
