American Academy of Arts & Sciences selects UH Manoa visiting scholar to be a Fellow

Historian James Oliver Horton will be spring commencement speaker

University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa
Contact:
Jim Manke, (808) 956-6099
UH Manoa Chancellor's Office
Posted: May 8, 2006


The American Academy of Arts & Sciences has announced that James Oliver Horton is among 175 scholars newly elected as Fellows in 2006. Horton is Benjamin Banneker Professor of American Studies and History at George Washington University and Director of the Afro-American Communities Project of the National Museum of American History at the Smithsonian Institution.

Horton was earlier this year selected to be commencement speaker at UH Manoa ceremonies on Sunday, May 14. He is a Visiting Professor in the Manoa Department of American Studies each spring semester.

The Academy‘s selections this year include two former presidents, a Nobel laureate, winners of the Pulitzer Prize in five categories, a former U.S. poet laureate, and a member of the French senate.

"As a historian," Horton said, "I am keenly aware of the 18th century origins of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and its long and distinguished history. Its members include some of the world‘s prominent scientists, scholars, artists, and public leaders. I am deeply honored to be elected to such a venerable organization."

UH Manoa Chancellor Denise Konan offered her congratulations to Horton. "We have been so fortunate to have scholars of Dr. Horton‘s caliber on our campus," she said. "This speaks to our commitment to students that they will have the opportunity to learn from the best."

The Manoa campus is home to two distinguished scholars in the Arts and Sciences — Institute for Astronomy scientists George Herbig and David Jewett.

About the Academy:

Founded in 1780 by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock and other scholar-patriots, the Academy has elected as Fellows and Foreign Honorary Members the finest minds and most influential leaders from each generation, including George Washington and Ben Franklin in the eighteenth century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the nineteenth, and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the twentieth. The current membership includes more than 170 Nobel laureates and 50 Pulitzer Prize winners. An independent policy research center, the Academy undertakes studies of complex and emerging problems. Current Academy research focuses on science and global security; social policy; the humanities and culture; and education.

For more information, visit: http://www.amacad.org