Three Faculty Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
Three members of the Penn Arts & Sciences faculty have been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. They are Cristina Bicchieri, S.J. Patterson Harvie Professor of Social Thought and Comparative Ethics in Philosophy; Michael Hanchard, Gustav C. Kuemmerle Professor of Africana Studies and Professor of Political Science; and Sarah Tishkoff, David and Lyn Silfen University Professor in Genetics and Biology. They join more than 250 new members honored in 2021, recognized for their work to “help solve the world’s most urgent challenges, create meaning through art, and contribute to the common good.”
Bicchieri is the director of the Center for Social Norms & Behavioral Dynamics and founding director of the Master of Behavioral and Decision Sciences program, and is also a professor of legal studies at the Wharton School. Her research sits at the intersection of philosophy, game theory, and psychology, with a primary research focus on judgment and decision-making, as well as on how expectations affect behavior. Bicchieri’s work also examines the nature and evolution of social norms, how to measure them, and what strategies are necessary to foster social change.
Her most recent book is Norms in the Wild How to Diagnose, Measure, and Change Social Norms. In addition to this most recent honor, she was elected to the German National Academy of Sciences.
Hanchard is Chair of the Department of Africana Studies and serves as Director of the Marginalized Populations Project, a collaborative research initiative designed to explore political dynamics between populations with unequal, minimal, or non-existent state protections and national governments. His research and teaching interests combine a specialization in comparative politics with an interest in contemporary political theory, encompassing themes of nationalism, racism, xenophobia, and citizenship.
His most recent book is The Spectre of Race: How Discrimination Haunts Western Democracy.
As a Penn Integrates Knowledge professor, Tishkoff holds appointments in Penn Arts & Sciences and the Perelman School of Medicine. She is also Director of the Penn Center for Global Genomics and Health Equity. Tishkoff studies human genetic diversity, specifically that of African populations, blending field, lab, and computational approaches. Her work has not only elucidated African population history but also how genetic variation affects traits such as disease susceptibility or ability to metabolize drugs.
In addition to this most recent honor, Tishkoff is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and a recipient of an NIH Pioneer Award, a David and Lucile Packard Career Award, a Burroughs/Wellcome Fund Career Award, an American Society for Human Genetics Curt Stern Award, and a Penn Integrates Knowledge endowed chair.
Founded in 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences honors exceptional scholars, leaders, artists, and innovators and engages them in sharing knowledge and addressing challenges facing the world.
