American Academy of Sciences & Letters

Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

The American Academy of Sciences and Letters promotes learning and honors outstanding scholarly excellence and intellectual courage in the humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, mathematics, and engineering, as well as in the arts and the learned professions.

Humanities Doctorates Down 49% amid Shift from Beauty & Tradition to Power & Identity: Unprecedented New Study

The study, Humanities in Crisis: A Study of 65 Years of Humanities Dissertation Trends, documents these and other important trends using rigorous methods of natural language processing and text analysis. It is being published by the American Academy of Sciences and Letters, a learned society dedicated to excellence in the liberal arts and learned professions.

The report can be downloaded here. (A longer version with full technical details is available here.)

Academy honorees: Nobel & Pulitzer Winners, MacArthur Fellows, Sir Salman Rushdie and More

At its annual investiture ceremony in the Great Hall of the Library of Congress, the American Academy of Sciences and Letters has awarded the Robert J. Zimmer Medal for Intellectual Freedom to Sir Salman Rushdie (2023) Dr. Jay Bhattacharya (2024) and Dr. Paul McHugh (2025).

The Academy also honors scholarship through the Barry Prize for Distinguished Intellectual Achievement, and by investing eminent scholars as members of the Academy. Members include winners of the Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes, and many other top academic honors.