James Chandler, AM’72, PhD’78, the Barbara E. and Richard J. Franke Distinguished Service Professor of English Language and Literature and Cinema and Media Studies, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Twenty-six of the 204 members elected by the Academy this year have ties to UChicago.

“It is humbling to be joining such company,” said Chandler, who is also the director of the Franke Institute for the Humanities and chair of the Department of Cinema and Media Studies.

One of the nation’s most prestigious honorary societies, the Academy has elected “thinkers and doers” since its founding in 1780. Academy members contribute to publications and studies of the humanities, arts, and education; science and technology policy; energy and global security; and social policy and American institutions.

“The Academy was formed in a period that falls squarely in the center of one of my academic research areas—the long eighteenth-century,” Chandler added. “If you are a student of Enlightenment institutions it is hard not to acquire great respect for their ideals and missions.”

Visit UChicago News for more information on the Academy and other newly elected members with UChicago connections.