November 2026
Meetings of the American Philosophical Society are held each April and November for elected Members, their families, and distinguished guests. Most sessions will be available to watch via web streaming and links will be shared closer to the event. This program is a draft and is subject to change.
Thursday, November 19, 2026
10:00 a.m.
Philosophical Hall
New Member Orientation
1:00 p.m.
Benjamin Franklin Hall
Opening Remarks
Induction of Members attending their first Meeting*
Jefferson's Wolf: A Founding Father's Troubling Answer to the Problem of Slavery
Christa Breault Dirksheide
Brockman Foundation Jefferson Scholars Foundation Professor of History, University of Virginia
Nicholas Guyatt
Professor of North American History, University of Cambridge
Moderated by Brent Staples
The New York Times editorial board
The Foundational Role of Botanical Collections to Biodiversity Knowledge on our Rapidly Changing Planet: Insights From the Harvard University Herbaria
Jeannine Cavender-Bares
Director, Harvard University Herbaria
Professor of Organismal and Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University
To Pin a Butterfly: Fugitive Religion and the 1890 Ghost Dance
Tiffany Hale
Assistant Professor of Religion, Barnard College
Karl Spencer Lashley Award
The Lascaux Rectangle and the Cognitive Origins of Geometry
Stanislas Dehaene
Professor of Experimental Cognitive Psychology, Collège de France, Paris
4:30 p.m.
Philosophical Hall
Stated Meeting of the Society's Council
6:00 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
Cocktail Reception
* New Members are inducted at the beginning of each Meeting session
Friday, November 20
7:30 a.m. to 9:00 a.m.
Benjamin Franklin Hall
Breakfast
9:00 a.m.
Benjamin Franklin Hall
Law, Power, and Indigenous Sovereignty
Matthew L. M. Fletcher
Professor of American Culture and the Hary Burns Hutchins Collegiate Professor of Law, University of Michigan
Lance G. Morgan
President and CEO, Ho-Chunk, Inc.
Angela Riley
Carole Goldberg Endowed Chair of Native American Law, UCLA School of Law
The American Experiment at 250: Democracy, Knowledge, and Civic Responsibility
Conversations with leaders in law and politics, to be announced
The War for America: How the Revolution Was Fought
Rick Atkinson
Author and Historian
Socio-Economic Systems: From the Individual to the Collective
Jean-Philippe Bouchaud
Chairman and Head of Research, Capital Fund Management
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Carla Hayden
14th Librarian of Congress
Patrick Suppes Prize
Edward Chang
Margaret Liu Collins and Edward B. Collins Distinguished Professor in Neurological Surgery, UCSF Weill Institute for Neurosciences
Luncheon
Report on the State of the Society
Patrick Spero
CEO, American Philosophical Society
Benjamin Franklin Medal
Justice Sonia Sotomayor
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
A Conversation
with Justice Sotomayor
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States
and
Judge David S. Tatel (Ret.)
Thomas Jefferson Prize
William Christie
Conductor and founder of Les Arts Florissants
Concert
Featuring William Christie and Les Arts Florissants
4:30 p.m.
Philosophical Hall
Members' Business Meeting
6:30 to 8:30 p.m.
Benjamin Franklin Hall
Cocktails and Light Supper
Saturday, November 21
The Future of Human Microbe Relationships
David Relman
Thomas C. and Joan M. Merigan Professor in Medicine, Professor of Microbiology & Immunology, and Senior Fellow at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University
Why We Die: The New Science of Aging and the Quest for Immortality
Venki Ramakrishnan
Group Leader, MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology
The Possibility of Rejuvenation
Juan Carlos Izpisua Belmonte
Founding Scientist and Senior Vice President, Altos Labs
Jacques Barzun Prize
Francesca Rochberg
Professor Emerita of Assyriology and Catherine and William L. Magistretti Distinguished Professor Emerita of Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Berkeley
Learned Academies in the 21st Century
Leaders of Phi Beta Kappa, American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and American Philosophical Society