Fellows Induction Event: Civic Responsibility and the Repair of American Democracy

The newest class of American Academy of Political and Social Science (AAPSS) Fellows was inducted into the Academy at a unique time in our nation’s history. Leaders have been contending with a once-in-a-century pandemic, a reckoning around the nation’s legacy of racism, and unprecedented levels of inequity and polarization at home and abroad. Will these crises ultimately make the country stronger, or is our union at a breaking point?

The AAPSS Fellows event, “Civic Responsibility and the Repair of American Democracy,” featured some of the brightest thinkers in social and political science exploring the following topics:

How can we surmount extraordinary polarization and replace it with a new kind of American civitas?

What kinds of institutional and public actions are most needed to promote a productive and engaged citizenry?

What do history, social science, and comparative studies tell us about where our nation stands now, in our own history and across the globe?

Moderator:

Panelists:

Carol Anderson, Charles Howard Candler Professor of African American Studies, Emory University

Jacob Hacker, Stanley Resor Professor of Political Science and director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, Yale University

Rucker Johnson, Chancellor’s Professor of Public Policy in the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley

Mary Pattillo, Harold Washington Professor of Sociology and African American Studies, Northwestern University

Kathryn Sikkink, Ryan Family Professor of Human Rights Policy at the Kennedy School, Harvard University