The American Academy of Letters has a new president. In this story lifted from Daily Nous, (with minor alteration to the title, paragraph arrangement and the reference to his publications), he is Prof Kwame Anthony Appiah, a professor of philosophy and law at New York University.
It is debatable if this is his most popular and powerful book but it is one of them
Professor Appiah, who announced this news on Twitter, will succeed the current president, architect Billie Tsien, in February, and hold the position for a three-year term.
The aim of the Academy, “an honor society of the country’s leading architects, artists, composers, and writers,” is “to foster and sustain an interest in Literature, Music, and the Fine Arts.” It does so by, among other things, “administering over 70 awards and prizes, exhibiting art and manuscripts, funding performances of new works of musical theater, and purchasing artwork for donation to museums across the country.”
Professor Appiah is known for philosophical work spanning a range of topics in moral and political philosophy, philosophy of race, identity, and culture (and was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2011). He has also been recognized for his service in a variety of contexts to the philosophical profession (for which he won the Quinn Prize in 2020). Notably, Professor Appiah has been very active outside of academic philosophy, too, as the ethics columnist for The New York Times Magazine, as chair of the Man Booker Prize Committee, juror for the Aga Khan Award for Architecture and the Pulitzer Prize (non-fiction), board chair of the American Council of Learned Societies, member of the Advisory Board for the United Nations Democracy Fund, and member of the New York Public Library Board, to name but a few examples.
Professor Appiah is, above all, highly published. Three of his books come to mind immediately, viz The Lies that Bind: Rethinking Identity; Lines of Descent: W.E.B Du Bois and the Emergence of Identity and In My Father’s House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture. Two out of his numerous articles have struck many and these are “Becoming Ghana” and “Race in the Modern World: The Problem of the Color Line”.
1 Comments
Deji Akinwalere
An honour well deserved. I hope Ghana has recognised excellence in the great philosopher. This is one out of many Africans in the diaspora whose ideas could have transformed our beleaguered continent if the environment to be productive was available here in Africa. Kwame Appiah is now a global citizen transforming the world .The African touch and flavour cannot be removed.