The Academy typically holds events around the country and the world that bring members and others in their communities together. Although the COVID-19 pandemic suspended in-person events, the Academy continued to explore topics of national and global concern through a series of virtual activities. Academy President David W. Oxtoby provided opening remarks and moderated most of the virtual meetings and events.
*Activity of a Local Program Committee or Representative
July 7, 2020
Technology and Empathy After COVID-19
Featured Speaker: Sherry Turkle (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
July 16, 2020
Reflections on the State of the Humanities in Colleges and Universities
Featured Speakers: Jonathan Holloway (Rutgers University); Melissa Nobles (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
July 20, 2020
Democratic Citizenship: A Discussion with the Commission’s Leaders and Academy Members
Featured Speakers: Danielle Allen (Harvard University); Stephen Heintz (Rockefeller Brothers Fund); Eric Liu (Citizen University)
August 20, 2020
The Dilemma Facing America’s Schools During COVID-19*
Featured Speakers: Austin Beutner (Los Angeles Unified School District); Sara Bleich (Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health)
August 24, 2020
Does Meritocracy Destroy the Common Good?
Morton L. Mandel Public Lecture
Featured Speakers: T. J. Jackson Lears (Rutgers University); Michael Sandel (Harvard University); Anna Deavere Smith (New York University)
September 16, 2020
Earning Trust in the Age of the Pandemic
Cosponsored with the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
Featured Speakers: Francis Collins (National Institutes of Health); Evelynn Hammonds (Harvard University); Seth Mnookin (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Monica Schoch-Spana (Johns Hopkins University); Introduction: Victor J. Dzau (National Academy of Medicine); Moderator: Erica Kimmerling (Association of Science and Technology Centers)
September 24, 2020
Launching a New Report, “Civil Justice for All”
Featured Speakers: Kenneth Frazier (Merck & Company); John Levi (Legal Services Corporation; Sidley Austin LLP); Martha Minow (Harvard Law School); Moderator: David M. Rubenstein (The Carlyle Group)
September 25, 2020
Can We Rebuild Social Cohesion in the United States?
Cosponsored with the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University
Featured Speakers: Danielle Allen (Harvard University); Eric Klinenberg (New York University); Shaylyn Romney Garrett (Washington, Utah); Robert Putnam (Harvard University); Moderator: David Brooks (The New York Times)
September 30, 2020
Inadequate Investment: America, China, and the Future of Innovation
Featured Speakers: Norman Augustine (Lockheed Martin Corporation); Neal Francis Lane (Rice University); Jeanette Wing (Columbia University); Moderator: Nancy C. Andrews (Duke University)
October 7, 2020
Celebration of New Members
Featured Speakers: Danielle Allen (Harvard University); Nancy C. Andrews (Duke University); Karl Eikenberry (Stanford University); John Lithgow (Actor; Author); Marcelo Suárez-Orozco (University of Massachusetts Boston); Geraldine Richmond (University of Oregon); David M. Rubenstein (The Carlyle Group); Natasha Trethewey (Northwestern University)
October 17, 2020
Reinventing Democracy for the 21st Century: A University of Chicago Humanities Day Discussion*
Featured Speakers: William Howell (University of Chicago); Tracey Meares (Yale University); Susan Stokes (University of Chicago); Diane Wood (United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit); Moderator: Eric Slauter (University of Chicago); Introduction: Anne Walters Robinson (University of Chicago)
October 22, 2020
Telling Our Regional Story: The Narratives that Unite and Divide in North Carolina: A UNC Research Week Discussion*
Featured Speakers: John Aldrich (Duke University); David Price (U.S. House of Representatives); Phoebe Stein (Federation of State Humanities Councils); William Sturkey (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill); Introduction: Paula D. McClain (Duke University); Terry Magnuson (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)
October 27, 2020
Civil Justice for All: Law Schools and the Civil Justice Gap
Featured Speakers: Tonya Brito (University of Wisconsin Law School); Margaret H. Marshall (Choate, Hall, and Stewart LLP; formerly, Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court); Martha Minow (Harvard Law School); Dayna Bowen Matthew (George Washington University Law School); Andrew Perlman (Suffolk University School of Law); Quinten Steenhuis (Suffolk University School of Law)
November 16, 2020
A Toast to New Members in Chicago*
Featured Speaker: John W. Rogers, Jr. (Ariel Investments, LLC); Introduction: Young-Kee Kim (University of Chicago)
November 18, 2020
Exploring the Humanities in American Life
Featured Speakers: Kenneth Burns (Florentine Films); Brenda Thomson (Arizona Humanities); Kevin Young (New York Public Library); Introduction: John Parrish Peede (National Endowment for the Humanities)
December 2, 2020
A Conversation with Astronaut Jessica Meir*
Featured Speaker: Jessica Meir (NASA); Moderator: Brian Keating (University of California, San Diego); Introduction: Thomas Evan Levy (University of California, San Diego); Geoffrey Myles Wahl (Salk Institute for Biological Studies)
December 8, 2020
Health and Civil Justice: Innovative Partnerships Between Medicine and the Law
Cosponsored with the National Center for Medical-Legal Partnership at the George Washington University
Featured Speakers: Jay Chaudhary (Indiana Family and Social Services Administration); Bethany Hamilton (George Washington University); Sharad Kohli (People’s Community Clinic); Keegan Warren-Clem (University of Texas); Moderator: Allison Rice (Duke University)
December 9, 2020
Steps Toward International Climate Governance*
Cosponsored with Yale University’s MacMillan Center
Featured Speakers: Scott Barrett (Columbia University); Pinelopi Goldberg (Yale University); William Nordhaus (Yale University); Introduction: Steven Wilkinson (Yale University)
December 14, 2020
Making the Case for International Scientific Partnerships
Featured Speakers: Arthur Bienenstock (Stanford University); Shirley Malcom (American Association for the Advancement of Science); Peter Michelson (Stanford University); Olufunmilayo Olopade (University of Chicago)
January 6, 2021
Honoring William Labov
Cosponsored with the Linguistic Society of America
Featured Speaker: William Labov (University of Pennsylvania); Introduction: Penelope Eckert (Stanford University); Wendell Pritchett (University of Pennsylvania)
January 31, 2021
Making Sweet Tea: A Discussion with E. Patrick Johnson*
Featured Speaker: E. Patrick Johnson (Northwestern University); Introduction: Young-Kee Kim (University of Chicago), Richard I. Morimoto (Northwestern University)
February 3, 2021
Honoring Ruth Lehmann and Gertrude Schüpbach
Featured Speakers: Ruth Lehmann (Massachusetts Institute of Technology); Gertrude Schüpbach (Princeton University); Introduction: Nancy C. Andrews (Duke University); Shirley Tilghman (Princeton University)
February 8, 2021
A Timely Confluence: The Backstory of Moderna’s COVID-19 Vaccine
Featured Speaker: Melissa Moore (Moderna Therapeutics)
February 9, 2021
Introducing “Measuring Civil Justice for All”
Featured Speakers: John Mark Hansen (University of Chicago); Rebecca Sandefur (Arizona State University); James Sandman (University of Pennsylvania Carey Law School)
February 11, 2021
A Circle of Notable Native American Scholars
Cosponsored with Harvard University Native American Program (HUNAP) and the Stanford American Indian Organization (SAIO) and Native American Cultural Center (NACC)
Featured Speakers: Philip Deloria (Harvard University); K. Tsianina Lomawaima (Arizona State University); Henrietta Mann (Montana State University); Greg Sarris (Sonoma State University); Robert Warrior (University of Kansas)
February 21, 2021
Southern California Members Reception*
Featured Speakers: Louis Geoffrey Cowan (University of Southern California); Antonia Hernández (California Community Foundation); John Lithgow (Actor; Author); Ernest Wilson (University of Southern California)
February 23, 2021
American Democracy and Civic Participation in 2021: A Conversation with Danielle Allen and Eric Liu
Cosponsored with the Chicago Community Trust
Featured Speakers: Danielle Allen (Harvard University); Eric Liu (Citizen University); Moderator: Helene Gayle (Chicago Community Trust)
March 3, 2021
Why America Needs Service Now, More Than Ever
Featured Speakers: Josh Fryday (State of California); Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg (Tufts University); Darryl Lester (Institute for Building Communities by Design); Fareed Zakaria (CNN; The Washington Post)
March 10, 2021
Empathy and Our Future
Morton L. Mandel Public Lecture
Featured Speakers: Eric Liu (Citizen University); Sherry Turkle (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
March 11, 2021
Using Civic Media to Build a Better Society
Cosponsored with the Library of Congress
Featured Speakers: Danielle Allen (Harvard University); Talia Stroud (University of Texas); Brendesha Tynes (University of Southern California); Richard Young (CivicLex)
March 16, 2021
The COVID-19 Pandemic and Vaccine Development*
Featured Speakers: Rommie Amaro (University of California, San Diego); Natasha Martin (University of California, San Diego); Robert Schooley (University of California, San Diego); Introduction: Thomas Evan Levy (University of California, San Diego); Geoffrey Myles Wahl (Salk Institute for Biological Studies)
March 18, 2021
America’s Black-White Divide: Looking Back, Looking Around, Looking Forward
Cosponsored with the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences, Stanford University
Featured Speakers: Lawrence Bobo (Harvard University); Henry Louis Gates Jr. (Harvard University); Claude Steele (Stanford University); Moderator: Margaret Levi (Stanford University)
March 24, 2021
Honoring Margaret Atwood
Featured Speaker: Margaret Atwood (Toronto, Ontario, Canada); Moderator: Gish Jen (Cambridge, Massachusetts); Introduction: Nancy C. Andrews (Duke University)
March 24, 2021
Ash Center Presents: “Our Common Purpose: Reinventing American Democracy for the 21st Century”
Cosponsored with the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation, Harvard University
Featured Speakers: Danielle Allen (Harvard University); Stephen Heintz (Rockefeller Brothers Fund); Eric Liu (Citizen University); Moderator: Archon Fung (Harvard Kennedy School)
April 6, 2021
The American Mythology of Racial Progress*
Featured Speaker: Jennifer Richeson (Yale University)
April 8, 2021
HBO Documentary Films’ “Our Towns” Virtual Screening and Q&A
Featured Speakers: Steven Ascher (West City Films); Dee Davis (Center for Rural Strategies); Deborah Fallows (New America); James Fallows (The Atlantic); Jeanne Jordan (West City Films)
April 15, 2021
How Political Institutions Shape Outcomes and How We Might Reform Them
Cosponsored with the Library of Congress
Featured Speakers: Danielle Allen (Harvard University); Lee Drutman (New America); Katie Fahey (Of the People); Cara McCormick (National Association of Nonpartisan Reformers)
April 21, 2021
Investing in Civic Education and Our Democracy
Featured Speakers: Danielle Allen (Harvard University); Allonah Ashworth (Houston, Texas); Sam Buker (Wellesley, Massachusetts); Mae Ciezki (Chula Vista, California); Shawn Healy (iCivics); Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg (Tufts University); David McCullough III (American Exchange Program); Tammy Waller (Arizona Department of Education)
April 23, 2021
The Post-Pandemic Future of Higher Education
Featured Speakers: Richard Arum (University of California, Irvine); Ana Mari Cauce (University of Washington); Robert Jones (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign); Christina Paxson (Brown University)
May 6, 2021
A Conversation with Architect Jeanne Gang
Featured Speaker: Jeanne Gang (Studio Gang)
May 13, 2021
Finding a Shared Historical Narrative
Cosponsored with the Library of Congress
Featured Speakers: Danielle Allen (Harvard University); Samuel Goldman (George Washington University); Natalia Molina (University of Southern California); Cathy Park Hong (Rutgers University–Newark)
May 20, 2021
Artists at Work
Cosponsored with Springboard for the Arts
Featured Speakers: Oskar Eustis (The Public Theater); Thelma Golden (The Studio Museum in Harlem); Laura Zabel (Springboard for the Arts)
May 27, 2021
Reflections on a Full, Consequential, and Lucky Life: Science, Leadership, and Education*
Cosponsored with the University of Chicago Physics Department
Featured Speakers: Walter Massey (School of the Art Institute of Chicago); Don Michael Randel (formerly, University of Chicago); Introduction: Young-Kee Kim (University of Chicago)
June 1, 2021
Exploring the Future of International Large-Scale Science
Featured Speakers: Arthur Bienenstock (Stanford University); E. William Colglazier (Science & Diplomacy, American Association for the Advancement of Science); France Córdova (Science Philanthropy Alliance); James Curran (Emory University); Jonathan Manne Dorfman (Stanford University); Kaye Husbands Fealing (Georgia Institute of Technology); Peter Michelson (Stanford University)
June 10, 2021
The Hybrid Workforce of the Future
Featured Speakers: James Manyika (McKinsey and Company; McKinsey Global Institute); Indra Nooyi (formerly, PepsiCo); Robert Pozen (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
June 14, 2021
Reckoning with Organizational History
Morton L. Mandel Public Lecture
Featured Speakers: Claudia Rankine (Yale University); John DeGioia (Georgetown University); Susan Goldberg (National Geographic); Brent Leggs (African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund); Moderator: Ben Vinson (Case Western Reserve University)
June 30, 2021
American Democracy Under Construction
Featured Speakers: Hahrie Han (Johns Hopkins University); Wallace B. Jefferson (Alexander Dubose & Jefferson LLP); Yuval Levin (American Enterprise Institute); Norman J. Ornstein (American Enterprise Institute; The Atlantic); Moderator: Judy Woodruff (PBS NewsHour)
July 15, 2021
“Good Enough” Governance and Peacekeeping
Cohosted with the United Nations Department of Peace Operations
Featured Speakers: Karl Eikenberry (U.S. Department of State; Tsinghua University); Vanda Felbab-Brown (Brookings Institution); Stephen Krasner (Stanford University); Clare Lockhart (Yale University); Stephen Stedman (Stanford University); Introduction: Jean-Pierre Lacroix (United Nations)
September 15, 2021
Now What? An Action Plan for Advancing Arts Education
Cohosted with the Arts Education Partnership
Featured Speakers: Porché Hardy (The Wallace Foundation); John Lithgow (Actor; Author); Sonia Manzano (Actress; Author); Mario Rossero (National Art Education Association); Nemisa Samanthapudi (Student); Moderator: Allentza Michel (American Academy of Arts and Sciences)
September 28, 2021
Online Celebration of 2021 New Members
Featured Speakers: Nancy Andrews (Duke University); Ann Fudge (formerly, Young & Rubicam Brands); John Lithgow (Actor; Author); Eric Liu (Citizen University); Geraldine Richmond (University of Oregon); David Rubenstein (The Carlyle Group); Marcelo Suárez-Orozco (University of Massachusetts Boston); Natasha Trethewey (Northwestern University)
October 18, 2021
A Virtual Welcome to New Members in Philadelphia
Moderators: Kathleen Hall Jamieson (University of Pennsylvania); Nora Newcombe (Temple University)
October 27, 2021
New Horizons: Elevating the Arts in American Life
Featured Speakers: John Lithgow (Actor; Author); Deborah Rutter (The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts); Natasha Trethewey (Northwestern University); Moderator: Stephen Colbert (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert)
November 1, 2021
A Toast to New Members in Chicago
Featured Speaker: Helene Gayle (Chicago Community Trust); Introduction: Young-Kee Kim (University of Chicago); Richard Morimoto (Northwestern University)
November 8, 2021
Future Founders Initiative–Boston Biotech Working Group Meeting
November 9, 2021
The Afterlife of the Humanities Major
Cohosted with the National Humanities Center
Featured Speakers: Pam Hendrickson (The Riverside Company); Rebekah Paré (University of Wisconsin-Madison); Ben Vinson (Case Western Reserve University); Moderator: Robert Newman (National Humanities Center)
December 1, 2021
The Role of Higher Education in American Democracy: A Convening of American Academy Affiliates
Featured Speakers: Melody Barnes (University of Virginia); Ronald Daniels (Johns Hopkins University); Moderator: Lisa García Bedolla (University of California, Berkeley)
December 7, 2021
The Supreme Court’s Transformational Year: A Conversation with Linda Greenhouse*
Morton L. Mandel Public Lecture
Featured Speaker: Linda Greenhouse (Yale Law School)