April 2020

**The April 2020 Meeting of the American Philosophical Society was not held in person. This program as originally planned was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Members met via web conference only for essential committee and business planning.**

Meetings of the American Philosophical Society are held each April and November for elected Members, their families, and distinguished guests. Most sessions are available to watch via web streaming. 

Thursday Afternoon, April 23, 2020
1:15 p.m.

Induction of New Members*

Linda Greenhouse
President, in the Chair

Janesville:  An American Story
Amy Goldstein
Staff Writer
The Washington Post

Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism
Anne Case
Alexander Stewart 1886 Professor of Economics and Public Affairs, Emeritus
Princeton University

Intermission

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Embedding Ethics in Computer Science
Barbara J. Grosz
Higgins Research Professor of Natural Sciences
Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences
Harvard University

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Attacks on Knowledge:  A Brief History
Richard Ovenden
Bodley’s Librarian, Bodleian Libraries
University of Oxford

Cocktail Reception
Franklin Hall
6:00–7:00 p.m.

Dinner on One’s Own

*New Members are inducted at the beginning of each Meeting session.

Friday Morning, April 24, 2020
9:15 a.m.

Linda Greenhouse
President, in the Chair

Making Sense of Election 2020:  Journalistic, Statistical, and Historical Perspectives

Mark Thompson, Moderator
Former Director-General, The British Broadcasting Corporation
President and Chief Executive Officer, The New York Times Company

Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Historical Context
Co-Founder, FactCheck.org
Director, Annenberg Public Policy Center
Professor of Communication
University of Pennsylvania

Title To Be Announced
Amanda Cox
Data Editor
Journalist and Editor, The Upshot
The New York Times

Intermission

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­A Conversation
Elisabeth Bumiller
Author and Journalist
Washington Bureau Chief
The New York Times

and

­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­Maggie L. Haberman
Political Analyst, CNN
Senior White House Correspondent
The New York Times

Luncheon

Friday Afternoon, April 24, 2020
1:15 p.m.

Rowena Matthews
Vice President, in the Chair

Presentation of Society Awards and Prizes

Herman Heine Goldstine Lecture

On the Pacification of Cyberspace
Vinton G. Cerf
Vice President and Chief Internet Evangelist
Google

Intermission

Concert

Selected Piano Classics
Student from the Curtis Institute of Music

Benjamin Franklin Hall
3:00 p.m.

Members’ Business Meeting
Philosophical Hall
(104 South Fifth Street)
4:30 p.m.

Friday Evening, April 24, 2020

Cocktails and Light Supper

Benjamin Franklin Hall
6:30–8:30 p.m.

Saturday Morning, April 25, 2020
9:15 a.m.

Elizabeth Cropper
Vice President, in the Chair

The Rebuilding of Notre-Dame Cathedral
R. Howard Bloch
Sterling Professor of French
Yale University

The Evolution of Humans and the Human Brain:  The Expensive Tissue Hypothesis Revisited
Leslie C. Aiello
President Emerita, Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research
Professor Emerita, University College London

Intermission

The Fiction of Memory
Elizabeth F. Loftus
Distinguished Professor
Departments of Psychological Science; Criminology, Law & Society; Cognitive Sciences;
and the School of Law
University of California at Irvine

Three Women, Three Voices
Ellen R. Cohn
Editor-in-Chief, The Papers of Benjamin Franklin
Senior Research Scholar, Department of History
Yale University

Luncheon