UMass Amherst’s James E. Young Elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences
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James E. Young, distinguished professor emeritus of English and Near Eastern studies and founding director of the Institute for Holocaust, Genocide, and Memory Studies, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Academy announced that Young was one of the nearly 250 members elected for 2025 on April 23, and an induction ceremony will take place October 11 in Cambridge, Mass.
Since 1780, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences has honored excellence and convened leaders from across disciplines and divides to examine new ideas, address issues of importance, and work together “to advance the interest, honor, dignity and happiness of a free, independent and virtuous people.” The Academy’s founders – including John Adams and John Hancock – envisioned an organization that would recognize accomplished individuals and engage them in meeting the nation’s challenges. The first members elected to the Academy in 1781 included Benjamin Franklin and George Washington.
Young, whose teaching and research areas include narrative theory, cultural memory studies, Holocaust studies and visual culture, has taught at UMass Amherst since 1988. He also taught at New York University from 1984-88 as a Dorot Professor of English and Hebrew/Judaic Studies, at Bryn Mawr College, and as a visiting professor at the University of Washington, Harvard University and Princeton University.
Young is the author of “Writing and Rewriting the Holocaust” (Indiana University Press, 1988), “The Texture of Memory” (Yale University Press, 1993), which won the National Jewish Book Award in 1994, “At Memory’s Edge: After-images of the Holocaust in Contemporary Art and Architecture” (Yale University Press, 2000) and “The Stages of Memory: Reflections on Memorial Art, Loss, and the Spaces Between” (University of Massachusetts Press, 2016). In 1994, he was also the guest curator of “The Art of Memory: Holocaust Memorials in History,” an exhibition at the Jewish Museum in New York City that was later displayed at venues in Berlin and Munich, and was the editor of the exhibition’s catalogue, “The Art of Memory” (Prestel Verlag, 1994).
In 1997, Young was appointed by the Berlin Senate to the five-member Findungskommission for Germany’s national Memorial to Europe’s Murdered Jews, which was finished and dedicated in May 2005. He has also consulted with Argentina’s government on its memorial to the desaparacidos, as well as with numerous city agencies on their memorials and museums. Most recently, he was appointed by the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation to the jury for the “National 9/11 Memorial” design competition, won by Michael Arad and Peter Walker in 2004 and opened on September 11, 2011.
“These new members’ accomplishments speak volumes about the human capacity for discovery, creativity, leadership and persistence. They are a stellar testament to the power of knowledge to broaden our horizons and deepen our understanding,” said Academy President Laurie L. Patton. “We invite every new member to celebrate their achievement and join the Academy in our work to promote the common good.”
The nearly 250 members elected in 2025 include activist and journalist Gloria Steinem, novelist Amy Tan, Microsoft Chairman and CEO Satya Nadella, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, chef and founder of World Central Kitchen José Andrés, and Hollywood powerhouses Ava DuVernay and Danny Glover.
A complete directory of all members of the Academy, from 1780-2024, can be found on the Academy website.