November 2022

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, November 17, 2022
10:00 a.m.
Jefferson Garden and Library Hall
Orientation for Members Attending Their First In-Person Meeting

11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m.
Jefferson Garden and Franklin Hall
Luncheon

1:30 p.m.
Franklin Hall
Induction of Members Attending Their First In-Person Meeting*

Jacqueline K. Barton
Vice President, in the Chair

Keynote Address
The Battle for Liberty in a Post-Truth World
Roger Cohen
Chief Correspondent, Paris
The New York Times

*Inductions Are Held at the Beginning of Each Meeting Session

Intermission

Venus: A New Era of Exploration
Sara Seager
Class of 1941 Professor of Physics and Planetary Science
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Presentation of Society Prizes and Awards

Piano Concert
Artist from the Curtis Institute of Music

4:30 p.m.
Philosophical Hall
Stated Meeting of the Society’s Council

6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Franklin Hall
Cocktail Reception

7:00 p.m.
Jefferson Garden
Dinner for Members Attending Their First In-Person Meeting

Friday, November 18

7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Franklin Hall
Breakfast

9:15 a.m.
Franklin Hall

Caroline Bynum
Vice President, in the Chair

How Benjamin Franklin Used America’s First Treaties to Promote International Humanitarian Law
Ellen R. Cohn
Editor-in-Chief, The Papers of Benjamin Franklin
Yale University

The Mathematical Complement of David Rittenhouse
Marion Alexander
Professor of Mathematics
Houston Community College

Intermission

Tocqueville:The Man Who Understood Democracy
Olivier Zunz
James Madison Professor of History
University of Virginia

La Famosa Filadelfia: The Quaker City and the Independence of Spanish America
Richard L. Kagan
Arthur O. Lovejoy Professor Emeritus of History; Academy Professor of History
Johns Hopkins University

Luncheon
Franklin Hall

1:00 p.m.
Members’ Business Meeting
Philosophical Hall

2:00 p.m.
Franklin Hall

Linda Greenhouse
President, in the Chair

Symposium: Incarceration

This session offers a series of analyses, from a range of disciplines, exploring the history, impact, and harms of imprisonment, and the efforts to constrain or end this form of punishment.

Judith Resnik, Organizer and Moderator
Arthur Liman Professor of Law
Yale Law School

Symposium Introduction: Punishment Practices in Polities, Democratic and Not
Judith Resnik

Carceral Secrecy
Andrea Armstrong
Law Visiting Committee Distinguished Professor of Law
Loyola University New Orleans

The Making of Mass Incarceration in Late Twentieth-Century America
Elizabeth Hinton
Associate Professor of History and African American Studies
Professor of Law
Yale University and Yale Law School

The Resource Team:  A Public Health Approach to Ending Solitary Confinement in Prisons
Brie Williams
Professor of Medicine, Center for Vulnerable Populations
Co-Director, ARCH (Aging Research in Criminal Justice Health) Network
University of California, San Francisco

Intermission

Sentencing the Ill
Myron H. Thompson
United States District Judge, Middle District of Alabama

Artist’s Perspective: Felon–An American Washi Tale
Reginald Dwayne Betts
Founder and Director, Freedom Reads

Political Theories of the Prison and Its Abolition
Bernard E. Harcourt
Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law
Professor of Political Science
Columbia University

Panel Discussion

5:45 p.m.
Motor Coaches Depart For Eastern State Penitentiary

6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Private Tour and Simple Repast at Penitentiary

7:30 p.m. to 9:30 p.m.
Garden Tent Open for Continued Conversation and Light Supper

Saturday, November 19

7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Franklin Hall
Breakfast

9:15 a.m.
Franklin Hall

Rowena G. Matthews
Vice President, in the Chair

In Conversation

Darren Walker
President, Ford Foundation

with

David M. Rubenstein
Co-Founder and Co-Chairman, The Carlyle Group

Intermission

The Psychology of Handedness
Eric A. Zillmer
Carl R. Pacifico Professor of Neuropsychology
Athletic Director Emeritus (1998-2021)
Drexel University

Matisse in the 1930s
Matthew Affron
Muriel and Philip Berman Curator of Modern Art
Philadelphia Museum of Art

Luncheon