The Humanities, Arts & Culture
The humanities, arts, and culture are woven through virtually every Academy program, as 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 in all aspects of the nation’s thriving intellectual life. These projects call particular attention to the role the arts and humanities play in enriching the growth and vitality of individuals, communities, and the nation.
Advisory Committee
Johanna Drucker, Chair
University of California, Los Angeles
Louise Henry Bryson
Public Media Group of Southern California
Joy Connolly
American Council of Learned Societies
Oskar Eustis
Public Theater
Rubén Gallo
Princeton University
Margaret Jacobs
University of Nebraska
Marie-Josée Kravis
The Museum of Modern Art
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot
Harvard University
Sarah Maza
Northwestern University
Pedro Noguera
University of Southern California
Oscar Tang
New York Philharmonic
Ayanna Thompson
Arizona State University
Sherry Turkle
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Project Staff
Maysan Haydar
Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Humanities Policy Fellow
Robert B. Townsend
Program Director for Humanities, Arts, and Culture
Advisory Committee Meetings
October 11, 2023 (virtual); May 13, 2024 (virtual)
Members of the Advisory Committee offered recommendations for future priorities in the program area and reviewed projects currently in development.
Staff Presentations
Delaware Humanities 50th Anniversary Event
November 1, 2023
Smyrna, DE
Program Director Robert Townsend participated in a panel on the state of the humanities.
GradFutures Forum
April 10, 2024
Princeton, NJ
Program Director Robert Townsend participated in a panel discussion on “Public Humanities: What For?”
Arts, Entrepreneurship, and Innovation Lab Symposium
June 6, 2024
Virtual
Program Director Robert Townsend chaired a panel about “Arts Engagement in an AI World.”
Project
The Humanities Indicators
The Humanities Indicators provide nonpartisan statistical information about all aspects of the humanities: from early childhood reading, through undergraduate and graduate education in the humanities, to employment and humanities experiences in daily life, such as reading and visits to museums. Now in its fifteenth year as a publicly available website, the project tracks the condition of the humanities enterprise via analyses of data gathered by the federal government as well as through its own rigorous statistical research. The project is one of the most cited activities of the Academy, and journalists, advocates, government agencies, and academics regularly call on the project staff for information and their expertise.
Recent work has focused on career outcomes for college graduates in the humanities, and trends in students moving through their majors and earning degrees. The project is developing additional studies, including a survey of high school student attitudes about and engagement with the arts and humanities, as well as a separate survey of humanities departments about their current challenges. The Humanities Indicators are accessible at online.
Project Directors
Norman M. Bradburn
NORC at the University of Chicago
Robert B. Townsend
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Advisory Committee
Edward Ayers
University of Richmond
Jack Buckley
American Institutes for Research
Jonathan R. Cole
Columbia University
John Dichtl
American Association for State and Local History
Michael Hout
New York University
Felice J. Levine
American Educational Research Association
James Shulman
American Council of Learned Societies
Phoebe Stein
Federation of State Humanities Councils
Judith Tanur
Stony Brook University
Project Staff
Carolyn Fuqua
Program Officer for the Humanities Indicators
Maysan Haydar
Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Humanities Policy Fellow
Funders
The Mellon Foundation
Carl H. Pforzheimer III
The Humanities Indicators were developed with generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Elihu Rose and the Madison Charitable Fund, John P. Birkelund, Peck Stackpoole Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Sara Lee Foundation, Teagle Foundation, Walter B. Hewlett and the William R. Hewlett Trust, and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
Project Publications
Employment Outcomes for Humanities Majors: State Profiles (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2023)
State of the Humanities 2022: From Graduate Education to the Workforce (American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2022)
Project Meetings
Humanities Indicators Advisory Committee Meeting
April 12, 2024
Virtual
Members of the Advisory Committee reviewed recent work by the Indicators staff and proposals for future research projects.
Staff Presentations
American Historical Association Department Chair’s Meeting
July 17, 2023
Chicago, IL
Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Humanities Policy Fellow Maysan Haydar led a conversation about the Humanities Departmental Survey.
National Humanities Conference
October 26–28, 2023
Indianapolis, IN
Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Humanities Policy Fellow Maysan Haydar presented on a panel about “Real Life Paths in Humanities Career Diversity.” Other members of the Humanities Indicators staff shared materials at an exhibit table and participated in conversations and sessions at the conference.
NextGen Humanities Conference
March 8, 2024
Little Rock, AR
Carl and Lily Pforzheimer Humanities Policy Fellow Maysan Haydar and Humanities Indictors Codirector Robert Townsend organized and presented at a session on “Humanities Degrees for Career Success.”
National Humanities Alliance Annual Meeting
March 11, 2024
Washington, D.C.
The Indicators staff shared materials and recent publications at an exhibit booth and participated in conversations and sessions at the annual meeting of the National Humanities Alliance.
American Council of Learned Societies Annual Meeting
May 2–3, 2024
Philadelphia, PA
Members of the Indicators team participated in conversations and sessions at the annual meeting of the ACLS.
Society for Scholarly Publishing Annual Meeting
May 30, 2024
Boston, MA
Humanities Indicators Codirector Robert Townsend spoke on a panel about “The Humanities Crisis, What to Know (and Maybe What to Do).”
Project
The History of the Academy Book Project
Looking ahead to its 250th anniversary in 2030, the Academy selected award-winning historian Jacqueline Jones (University of Texas at Austin) to write a one-volume account of the Academy’s past. The anniversary history will provide a full and honest assessment of the Academy’s activities and membership since its establishment in 1780, and place the Academy within the larger history of the nation it was created to serve.
Jacqueline (Jackie) Jones is a rare academic historian who writes for both the public and a peer scholarly audience. Her work has been recognized with the Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction, the Bancroft Prize, a MacArthur Fellowship, membership in the American Academy, and the presidency of the American Historical Association. Her publications include Labor of Love, Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work, and the Family from Slavery to the Present and No Right to an Honest Living: The Struggles of Boston’s Black Workers in the Civil War Era.
Advisory Committee
Catherine Allgor
Massachusetts Historical Society
Craig Calhoun
Arizona State University
David Hollinger
University of California, Berkeley
Sally Gregory Kohlstedt
University of Minnesota
David W. Oxtoby
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
David M. Rubenstein
The Carlyle Group
Ben Vinson III
Howard University
Project Staff
Emma Broder
Research Assistant
Robert B. Townsend
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Funder
Jack, Joseph, and Morton Mandel Foundation