ACLS Hosts Union Académique Internationale 2023 General Assembly in Philadelphia
The American Council of Learned Societies hosted the 2023 General Assembly of the Union Académique Internationale (UAI) in Philadelphia, October 2-6, 2023.
The UAI is the global organization of national academies in the humanities and social sciences. Created in 1919 in Paris, the inaugural convening was the catalyst for the formation of ACLS, as representatives from 10 American learned societies established a coalition to represent the United States at the meeting. Today the UAI comprises more than a hundred academies from 63 countries from all continents.
As this year’s hosts, ACLS worked closely with UAI President Klaus Herbers and Deputy Secretary General, Jean-Luc De Paepe, and are grateful for their support and partnership.
ACLS President Emeritus Pauline Yu and Rosalind I. J. Hackett, Chancellor’s Professor, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, attended as ACLS delegates for the Assembly.
In addition to the business of the Union, the 2023 General Assembly featured “Crossing Bridges and Borders: The Inclusive Study of the Past,” a panel discussion led by ACLS President Joy Connolly She was joined for this panel discussion by Cord Whittaker, an expert in Medieval English literature and the history of race, Associate Professor in the Department of English and Creative Writing at Wellesley College, and co-founder of Sagely, a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion consulting group; Rhiannon Stephens, Associate Professor of History at Columbia University specializing in the history of precolonial and early colonial East Africa; and Roxanne Euben, a political theorist and Walter H. and Leonore C. Annenberg Professor in the Social Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.
Other highlights included scholarly lectures by Andrea Achi of the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Angelos Chaniotis of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton University; Thomas B. F. Cummins of Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection; and Sam N. C. Lieu, Honorary UAI President.