Alice C. Harris, University of Massachusetts Amherst professor emerita of linguistics, has been named a 2026 member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. Harris is one of 252 leaders in academia, the arts, industry, journalism, philanthropy, policy, research and science to be elected to the class.

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Harris’ research is focused in the areas of historical linguistics, morphology, languages of the Caucasus and psycholinguistics of understudied languages, and she has authored five books and numerous articles on these subject areas.

“Congratulations to Professor Emerita Alice Harris on her election to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences in recognition of her many contributions to the field of Linguistics at UMass Amherst and beyond,” said Fouad Abd-El-Khalick, UMass Amherst provost and senior vice chancellor for academic affairs. “She is truly an innovator for the common good, breaking ground as one of the first Americans allowed to do research in parts of the Soviet Union and promoting global efforts to document endangered languages.”

In 2020, Harris was named a Corresponding Fellow of the British Academy. Among her other awards and honors are the Erskine Fellowship, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand, 1999; a fellowship at the Center for Advanced Study, Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters, Oslo, 2004-05; Outstanding Alumna Award (Randolph-Macon Woman’s College), 2004, and a Guggenheim Fellowship, 2009-10.

American Academy’s newest members are grouped in the 31 sections, organized within five classes, in which they were elected. Harris is a member of the Literature and Language Studies section under Humanities and Arts.

“We celebrate the achievement of each new member and the collective breadth and depth of their excellence – this is a fitting commemoration of the nation’s 250th anniversary,” said Academy President Laurie Patton. “The founding of the nation and the Academy are rooted in the inextricable links between a vibrant democracy, the free pursuit of knowledge, and the expansion of the public good.”

The Academy, chartered in 1780, was established to recognize accomplished individuals and engage them in addressing the greatest challenges facing the young republic. The first members elected to the Academy include George Washington, who said – in his first annual message to Congress in 1790 – “Knowledge is in every country the surest basis of public happiness.”

Induction ceremonies for new members will take place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in October.