Craig Calhoun, University Professor of the Social Sciences at NYU, has been elected to the American Philosophical Society. Others elected this year include: Jill Abramson, executive editor of the New York Times; novelist Cormac McCarthy; and artist William Kentridge.

Sociologist Calhoun Elected to American Philosophical Society

Craig Calhoun, University Professor of the Social Sciences at NYU, has been elected to the American Philosophical Society. Others elected this year include: Jill Abramson, executive editor of the New York Times; novelist Cormac McCarthy; and artist William Kentridge.

Calhoun has been president of the Social Science Research Council since 1999 and is the director of NYU’s Institute for Public Knowledge. Calhoun’s empirical research has ranged from Britain and France to China and three different African countries. His study of the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989 resulted in the prize-winning book, Neither Gods Nor Emperors: Students and the Struggle for Democracy in China (California, 1994). His most recent books include Nations Matter: Culture, History, and the Cosmopolitan Dream (Routledge, 2007) and Cosmopolitanism and Belonging (Routledge, 2007).

In the fall of 2012, Calhoun will become the director of the London School of Economics.

The American Philosophical Society was founded in 1743 by Benjamin Franklin for the purpose of “promoting useful knowledge.” Early members included George Washington, John Adams, and Thomas Jefferson, and, in the 19th century, John James Audubon, Robert Fulton, Charles Darwin, and Thomas Edison were among those elected. Since 1900, more than 240 members of the society received the Nobel Prize.

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