American Academy of Political and Social Science Announces 2026 Fellowships

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT:
Tom Kecskemethy, Executive Director
The American Academy of Political and Social Science
thomask@upenn.edu

Philadelphia, PA (June 24, 2026) — The American Academy of Political and Social Science (AAPSS) has elected three distinguished scholars/public servants as its 2026 Fellows. “The AAPSS is pleased to announce these fellows,” said AAPSS President Sheldon Danziger. “For many years, their rigorous, evidence-based analyses have improved our understanding of the complex effects of public policies and programs at a time when others provide misinformation and disinformation. We look forward to inducting them as AAPSS Fellows.”

James N. Druckman has made seminal contributions to research on political psychology and the public’s understanding of political communication. He has focused on partisan animosity and its measurement, framing effects, the formation of political preferences, and the extent to which citizens’ preferences are expressed in public policy. Druckman is Martin Brewer Anderson Professor of Political Science at the University of Rochester and the AAPSS’s 2026 Harold Lasswell Fellow.

Adam Liptak is the chief legal affairs correspondent of The New York Times and host of The Docket, its newsletter on legal developments. His decades-long coverage of the Supreme Court has been praised for its deft translation of legal jargon and social research to accessible prose. He has taught courses on the First Amendment and the Supreme Court at several law schools. Liptak is the AAPSS’s 2026 Roger Wilkins Fellow.

Robert A. Moffitt is a labor economist who has made fundamental contributions to research on poverty, inequality, and welfare programs and has applied those findings in public-service roles that guided the implementation of federal programs like the expanded Child Tax Credit. Moffitt is Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Economics at Johns Hopkins University and the AAPSS’s 2026 Rebecca Blank Fellow.

Each year, the AAPSS selects a small group of scholars and public intellectuals as fellows, in recognition of their contributions to social research and public policy. The 2026 Fellows will be inducted at a ceremony in Washington, DC, in fall 2027. More information about the AAPSS’s fellows program, including a complete list of past fellows, is available here.

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Established in 1889, the American Academy of Political and Social Science promotes the use of social science in the public domain and in policymaking. Its flagship journal, The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, brings together scholars and policymakers from across social science disciplines to address domestic issues, such as online platform governance and evidence-based crime prevention, and international phenomena, such as democratic backsliding and the criminalization of migration.