Professors George Chauncey and Farah Jasmine Griffin have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. They join six other Columbia faculty members recognized for their excellence and impact across a variety of academic fields. In all, 252 leaders from academia, the arts, industry, journalism, philanthropy, research, and science were elected this year, the academy announced this week.
“We celebrate the achievement of each new member and the collective breadth and depth of their excellence – this is a fitting commemoration of the nation’s 250th anniversary,” said Academy President Laurie Patton. “The founding of the nation and the Academy are rooted in the inextricable links between a vibrant democracy, the free pursuit of knowledge, and the expansion of the public good.”
The Academy, chartered in 1780, was established to recognize accomplished individuals and engage them in addressing the country’s greatest challenges. Categories for recognition include Art & Humanities, Democracy & Justice, Education, Energy & Environment, Global Affairs, and Science & Technology.
Professor Chauncey, the DeWitt Clinton Professor of American History and director of the Columbia Research Initiative on the Global History of Sexualities, focuses his research on the history of gender, sexuality, and the city, with a particular emphasis on LGBTQ history. He is the author of Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World, 1890-1940 and Why Marriage? The History Shaping Today’s Debate over Gay Equality. Among his many accolades, he is the recipient of the John W. Kluge Prize for Achievement in the Study of Humanity, awarded by the Library of Congress.
Professor Griffin, who in June 2025 was appointed University Professor, teaches and undertakes research across a broad range of fields related to the Black experience in America, including literature, music, and history. She also has published widely on issues of race and gender, feminism, and cultural politics. Within the Arts and Sciences, she is a member of both the Department of English and Comparative Literature and the Department of African American and African Diaspora Studies, where she also served as its inaugural chair. Her most recent book, Read Until You Understand: The Profound Wisdom of Black Life and Literature, was published in 2021. She is a 2021-22 Guggenheim Fellow and Mellon Foundation Scholar in Residence.
