American Academy of Political and Social Science

The American Academy of Political and Social Science was founded in 1889 to promote progress in the social sciences. Sparked by Professor Edmund J. James[1] and drawing from members of the faculty of the University of Pennsylvania, Swarthmore College, and Bryn Mawr College, the Academy sought to establish communication between scientific thought and practical effort.[2] The goal of its founders was to foster, across disciplines, important questions in the realm of social sciences, and to promote the work of those whose research aimed to address important social problems. Today the AAPSS is headquartered at the Annenberg Public Policy Center in Philadelphia and aims to continue to offer interdisciplinary perspectives on important social issues.

Establishment

The primary modes of the Academy's communication were to be the bimonthly journal, The Annals,[3] annual meetings, symposia, and special publications. Difficult topics were not avoided. The 1901 annual meeting was on race relations in America,[4] and included a paper by Booker T. Washington.[5]

Membership was open and inclusive[2] with an emphasis on educated professionals; even from the its establishment, women were permitted to obtain membership.[4] The Academy's members have included not only academicians, but also distinguished public servants such as Herbert Hoover and Frances Perkins.[2] Perhaps for this reason, it is not a member of the American Council of Learned Societies.[4][6] Nevertheless, in 2000 the Academy began selecting and installing Fellows in recognition of social scientists who have made outstanding contributions to the field.[7] Since 2008 the Academy has presented an annual Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize to recognize public officials and scholars who have used social science and informed judgment to advance the public good.[8]

Presidents of the Academy

Publications

The Annals

Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science  
Abbreviated title (ISO 4)
 Ann. Am. Acad. Polit. Soc. Sci.
Discipline Social Sciences
Language English
Edited by Emily Wood
Publication details
Publisher
SAGE Publications (United Kingdom)
Publication history
 1890-present
Frequency 6 times a year
1.014
Indexing
ISSN 0002-7162 (print)
1552-3349 (web)
OCLC no. 1479265
Links

The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, a policy and scientific journal in political and social science, began publication in July 1890 and has continued uninterrupted up until the present. Authors and special editors of The Annals have included influential individuals, such as Eleanor Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, W. E. B. Du Bois, Margaret Mead, Thurgood Marshall, Mahatma Gandhi, and Booker T. Washington.[2] More recently, authors and editors have included Henry Louis Gates Jr., Richard A. Clarke, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., and William Julius Wilson. The Annals has been published by SAGE Publications since 1981. In 2003, it changed from its traditional plain orange cover to a more graphic cover containing photographs.[7]

The Annals has covered topics including "The World's Food" (November, 1917) to "The Motion Picture and its Economic and Social Aspects" (November 1926), "Women in the Modern World" (May, 1929), "America and Japan" (May, 1941), "Urban Renewal Goals and Standards" (March, 1964), and "The Global Refugee Problem" (May, 1982). More recent volumes have focused on such topics as "Confronting the Specter of Nuclear Terrorism" and "The Moynihan Report Revisited: Lessons and Reflections after Four Decades".

Editors

Academy Blog

In 2006, the Academy Blog[9] was created to take advantage of the Internet to provide a forum for ideas and research in the social sciences.

Confusable entities

The American Academy of Political and Social Science is not to be confused with the following entities.

Notes

  1. ↑ Falkner, Roland P. (1896) "Editorial" Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 7: pp. 74-77
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "About the Academy: History". American Academy of Political and Social Science. Retrieved 2 January 2012.
  3. ↑ Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science ISSN 0002-7162
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Lara, Antonio and Rich, Paul (2003) "The American Academy of Political and Social Science in the Twenty-First Century" Special publication American Academy of Political and Social Science
  5. ↑ Lindsay, Samuel McCune (1901) "Report of the Academy Committee on Meetings. Fifth Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Political and Social Science. Philadelphia, April 12 and 13, 1901" Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 18: pp. 181-187
  6. ↑ "ACLS Constituent Learned Societies" American Council of Learned Societies
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Pearson, Robert W. (2003) "A New Look at The American Academy of Political and Social Science" Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 585(Higher Education in the Twenty-First Century): pp. 6-7, p.7
  8. ↑ The Daniel Patrick Moynihan Prize of the American Academy of Political and Social Science
  9. ↑ AAPSS Blog

External links

Wikisource has the text of a 1905 New International Encyclopedia article about AAPSS.