2018 Projects, Publications, and Meetings of the Academy

American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good

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American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good

Since its founding, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has worked to promote a “strong and virtuous” nation. Today this effort involves projects designed to advance the state of scholarship about the nation’s institutions and to develop innovative solutions to challenges facing American society. Projects in this area interpret the term “institution” broadly, focusing on all of the constituent elements of government and civil society. These projects seek to examine the impact of institutions on broad sectors of American society. They address how individual citizens interact with social structures, how these experiences prepare people to make a positive contribution to a diverse America, and how these institutions are changing and might operate differently in the twenty-first century. The Academy shares this research through publications, conferences, and active outreach to Members, policy-makers, and the public at large.


American Institutions, Society, and the Public Good 
Program Advisory Group

Danielle Allen
Harvard University

Thomas Bender
New York University

Alan Dachs
The Fremont Group

Lee Epstein
Washington University in St. Louis

Susan Hanson
Clark University

Antonia Hernández
California Community Foundation

William Poorvu
Harvard Business School

Kenneth Prewitt
Columbia University

Frances McCall Rosenbluth
Yale University

James Stone
Plymouth Rock Assurance Corporation


 

PROJECT

Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship

The Academy was founded to serve as a resource to the citizens and leaders of a new nation, promoting the spread of useful knowledge.

The founders of the Academy and the country recognized that the engagement of a well-informed citizenry was essential to the future of the democracy. However, both the nation’s citizenry and the world it inhabits have changed and, as a result, it is necessary to re-examine our ideas of what defines a “good citizen.” 

The Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship has a single aim: to enable more Americans to obtain the values, knowledge, and skills needed for participation in a democratic society. The Commission will create a working definition of effective citizenship, compile data on current practices, identify the factors that impede or advance civic engagement, highlight promising local initiatives around the country, and make recommendations for action that communities can implement. The Commission’s work will be animated by four broad questions: 

  1. What are the primary points of citizens’ interaction with the institutions of civil society, and what determines their level of civic participation? 
  2. Which forms of engagement best exemplify and help individuals develop the practices of effective citizenship? 
  3. How will these practices change as the demographic composition of the nation changes? 
  4. How have technological and media transformations altered opportunities for and the experience of civic engagement? 

The Commission plans to hold four or five meetings over the course of two years. These meetings will explore the areas described above, as well as lead to at least two publications. The first will be a primer on current data on civic engagement. The second will be the Commission’s final report with recommendations for how schools, nonprofit organizations, religious institutions, business, and government can help Americans develop the skills and values that will lead to a lifetime of engaged citizenship. The Commission will also produce a set of online indicators of civic engagement that will be maintained over time and can serve as a resource for those interested in questions related to civic engagement. 

The Academy plans to make use of its Local Program Committees to help discuss the ongoing work of the Commission, gather insight and recommendations from leaders across the country, and disseminate the Commission’s work to diverse audiences. The Commission will also hold a series of roundtable discussions and other conversations across the country, in both rural and urban areas, to gain a better understanding of what engaged citizenship looks like and to learn about successful efforts to cultivate civic engagement. Ultimately, the Commission will lay out a plan of action for encouraging civic engagement. These recommendations will be rooted in the belief that affording opportunities for the practice of democratic citizenship are just as important as classroom education in civics, and that such recommendations should approach good citizenship as a set of habits and skills acquired over a lifetime rather than as a body of knowledge. 

Commission Chairs

Danielle Allen
Harvard University

Stephen Heintz
Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Eric Liu
Citizen University; Aspen Institute Citizenship and American Identity Program

Commission Members

Sayu Bhojwani
The New American Leaders Project

Danah Boyd
Data & Society

Philip Bredesen
former Governor of Tennessee

Caroline Brettell
Southern Methodist University

David Brooks
The New York Times

Lisa Conn
Facebook

Alan Dachs
Fremont Group

Dee Davis
Center for Rural Strategies

Jonathan F. Fanton
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Sam Gill
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Marie Griffith
Washington University in St. Louis

Hahrie Han
University of California, Santa Barbara

Antonia Hernández
California Community Foundation

Wallace Jefferson
Alexander Dubose Jefferson & Townsend

Joseph Kahne
University of California, Riverside

Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg
Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, Tufts University

Yuval Levin
National Affairs

Carolyn Lukensmeyer
National Institute for Civil Discourse

Martha McCoy
Everyday Democracy

Lynn Nottage
Columbia University

Steven Olikara
Millennial Action Project

Norman Ornstein
American Enterprise Institute

Bob Peck
FPR Partners

Pete Peterson
Pepperdine University

Alejandro Portes
University of Miami

Miles Rapoport
Harvard University

Michael Schudson
Columbia University

Sterling Speirn
National Conference on Citizenship

Marcelo Suárez-Orozco
University of California, Los Angeles

Ben Vinson
George Washington University

Diane P. Wood
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit

Judy Woodruff
PBS NewsHour

Ethan Zuckerman
Center for Civic Media, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Project Staff

Paul Erickson

Gabriela Farrell

Julian Kronick

Natoschia Scruggs

Funder

S. D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation

 

Project Meetings \\ Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship

 

Citizenship in a Global Digital Era

October 25, 2017
Stanford University 
Stanford, CA

Academy Members and staff gathered with leaders of social media campaigns to learn about new forms of online civic engagement and how they connect to different aspects of political engagement.

Panelists

Brittan Heller 
Anti-Defamation League

Matt Mahan 
Brigade

Adrian Reyna 
United We Dream

 

Democratic Citizenship and Civic Engagement

October 26, 2017
James Irvine Foundation
San Francisco, CA

The Stephen D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation hosted a roundtable discussion for Academy Members, foundation staff, and guests on the varied dimensions of civic engagement in an increasingly diverse nation. 

Panelists

Deborah Cullinan 
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts

Thomas Ehrlich 
Stanford University

Joseph Kahne 
University of California, Riverside

 

Meeting of the Commission

April 2–3, 2018
American Academy
Cambridge, MA

The first meeting of the Commission on the Practice of Democratic Citizenship provided an opportunity for the Chairs and Commissioners to discuss several key questions before the Commission moved forward in its work. These items included the group’s working definitions of citizenship and civic engagement, filling gaps in representation on the Commission, and discussing the intended outcomes and outreach for the work. The meeting ended with a solid plan for furthering the Commission’s work.

Workshop Chairs

Danielle Allen 
Harvard University

Stephen Heintz
Rockefeller Brothers Fund

Eric Liu
Citizen University; Aspen Institute Citizenship and American Identity Program

Participants

Sayu Bhojwani
The New American Leaders Project

Philip Bredesen
former Governor of Tennessee

Caroline Brettell
Southern Methodist University

David Brooks
The New York Times

Alan Dachs
Fremont Group

Dee Davis
Center for Rural Strategies

Paul Erickson
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Jonathan F. Fanton
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Sam Gill
John S. and James L. Knight Foundation

Hahrie Han
University of California, Santa Barbara

Antonia Hernández
California Community Foundation

Wallace Jefferson
Alexander Dubose Jefferson & Townsend

Joseph Kahne
University of California, Riverside

Kei Kawashima-Ginsberg
Center for Information & Research on Civic Learning and Engagement, Tufts University

Julian Kronick
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Yuval Levin
National Affairs

Carolyn Lukensmeyer
National Institute for Civil Discourse

Martha McCoy
Everyday Democracy

Steven Olikara
Millennial Action Project

Norman Ornstein
American Enterprise Institute

Bob Peck
FPR Partners

Pete Peterson
Pepperdine University

Miles Rapoport
Harvard University

Michael Schudson
Columbia University

Natoschia Scruggs
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Sterling Speirn
National Conference on Citizenship

Robert Townsend
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Ben Vinson
George Washington University

Diane P. Wood
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit

Ethan Zuckerman
Center for Civic Media, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Danielle Allen, Eric Liu, and Stephen Heintz
Danielle Allen, Eric Liu, and Stephen Heintz
Norman Ornstein and Philip Bredesen
Norman Ornstein and Philip Bredesen

PROJECT

Making Justice Accessible

On November 11–12, 2015, the American Academy hosted a symposium on the state of legal services for low-income Americans. Symposium participants–including federal and state judges, legal scholars, and social scientists–agreed that the legal community does not have enough reliable and accessible data to be able to address adequately the scope and variety of the crisis in legal services. The participants also agreed that the American Academy, with its diverse membership and its history of data collection projects in the humanities, could continue to be a valuable partner by organizing an issue of Dædalus on the topic, creating a research agenda for future data-collection efforts on unrepresented civil litigants, and curating solutions piloted around the country in order to advance a set of clear, national recommendations for closing the justice gap.

Data Collection and Legal Services for Low-Income Americans

Currently, data on unrepresented civil litigants is hard to find, incomplete, and inconsistent. Collection and reporting requirements vary from state to state, jurisdiction to jurisdiction, and even court to court. The first phase of the project will therefore identify, to the degree possible, all of the potential sources of existing data on legal services and unrepresented civil litigation nationwide. After an initial survey to gauge the availability and structure of existing data, the Academy will convene a group of subject-area experts to identify research questions that are currently answerable given the available data, and discuss how best to aggregate it for use by researchers.

Once the available data have been identified, the Academy will convene a group of legal scholars, social scientists, and other experts to assess the information and discuss what more can be done with the currently available resources. Study participants will propose questions for further analysis and specify which data will need to be collected in order to advance discussions about civil legal aid and pro se litigation, and to inform debates about future policy shifts. The group might also propose methods for future data collection and identify one or two communities that may be suitable subjects of new data-collection pilot programs.

Dædalus

An issue of Dædalus on “Access to Justice,” to be published in Spring 2019, will be organized around three topics: Delivery, Interests, and the Meaning of Access to Justice. The volume will explore the importance of civil legal aid and representation to the American justice system and the rule of law. Drawing from multiple disciplines within legal scholarship, the collection will shed light on what access to justice really means, enumerate the multiple parties and interests with a stake in equal access to civil justice, and educate the broader public about current efforts to deliver quality civil legal representation.

Designing Legal Services for the 21st Century

This phase of the project will provide a national overview of the challenges in legal services by focusing on three of the most common categories of civil legal problems: family, housing, and health care. By addressing these issues in detail, as case studies within the larger context of legal services, the project will identify practical recommendations to address challenges specific to particular court systems as well solutions to problems that are common across the civil legal spectrum. 

The project’s final report will provide actionable steps that could be pursued by the variety of communities reflected in the Academy’s membership, including business, the professions, the media, and academia. The report will help to devise benchmarks of progress that will indicate whether outcomes for individuals are improving – perhaps focusing on data like the number of low-income Americans who are receiving the advice and assistance they need, the number who seek assistance, and the number of would-be litigants who resolve their issues without initiating legal proceedings. 

Project Chairs for Data Collection and Legal Services for Low-Income Americans

Mark Hansen
University of Chicago

Rebecca Sandefur
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign 

Planning Committee for Designing Legal Services for the 21st Century

David F. Levi
American Law Institute

John G. Levi
Legal Services Corporation; Sidley Austin LLP

Lance Liebman
Columbia Law School

Martha Minow
Harvard University

Rebecca Sandefur
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

James Sandman
Legal Services Corporation

Diane P. Wood
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit

Funder

David M. Rubenstein Enhancement Fund

 

Project Meetings \\ Making Justice Accessible

 

Legal Services Planning Committee Meeting

February 8, 2018
American Academy
Cambridge, MA

The planning committee met to discuss the current state of the Academy’s projects in legal services and to begin ideating on further work. The discussions from this meeting formed the basis of the Academy’s work on Designing Legal Services for the 21st Century.

Participants

Jonathan F. Fanton
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

David F. Levi
Duke Law School; American Law Institute

John G. Levi
Legal Services Corporation; Sidley Austin LLP

Lance Liebman
Columbia Law School

Martha Minow
Harvard Law School

Rebecca Sandefur
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

James Sandman
Legal Services Corporation

John Tessitore
American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Diane P. Wood
U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit

 

Making Justice Accessible: Data Collection and Legal Services for Low-Income Americans

June 26–27, 2018 
American Academy
Cambridge, MA

The project committee met to discuss the first phase of the Legal Services data project, which includes the state of currently available data on unrepresented civil litigants, patterns and problems in the collection of that data, and what the data tell researchers today.

Workshop Chairs

Rebecca Sandefur
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Mark Hansen
University of Chicago

Participants

Catherine Albiston
University of California, Berkeley School of Law

Katherine Alteneder
Self-Represented Litigation Network

Tonya Brito
University of Wisconsin Law School

Anna Carpenter
Lobeck-Taylor Community Advocacy Clinic, University of Tulsa College of Law

Elizabeth Chambliss
NMRS Center on Professionalism, University of South Carolina School of Law

April Faith-Slaker
A2J Lab, Harvard Law School

Margaret Hagan
Stanford Legal Design Lab

Bonnie Rose Hough
Center for Families, Children & the Courts, Judicial Council of California

Natalie Knowlton
Institute for the Advancement of the American Legal System, University of Denver

James Lynch
Maryland Data Analysis Center, University of Maryland

Carlos Manjarrez
Office of Data Governance and Analysis, Legal Services Corporation

Shelley Spacek Miller
Research Division, National Center for State Courts

Erika Rickard
A2J Lab, Harvard Law School

Tanina Rostain
Center for the Study of the Legal Profession, Georgetown University Law Center

Betty Balli Torres
Texas Access to Justice Foundation

David Udell
National Center for Access to Justice