Four Penn faculty elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

Four faculty members have been elected members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Guthrie Ramsey, Kathleen Stebe, Eve M. Troutt Powell, and Barbie Zelizer are among 276 honorees for 2020, recognized for their excellence and accomplishments.

Ramsey is the Edmund J. and Louise W. Kahn Term Professor of Music in the School of Arts & Sciences. A musicologist, pianist, and composer, he is a widely published author of books on African American music and musicians. He is currently completing two new books, a collection of mid-career essays, “Who Hears Here?”, and a monograph history of African American music from the slavery era to the present.  As the leader of the band Dr. Guy's MusiQology, he has released three CDs and performed at a number of venues. He also produced a documentary film, Amazing:  The Tests and Triumph of Bud Powell, and co-curated an exhibition at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and Culture about how the Apollo Theater shaped American entertainment. Ramsey is the founder and editor of the blog Musiqology.com, which discusses musical issues of the day.

Stebe is the Richer & Elizabeth Goodwin Professor in the departments of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics in the School of Engineering and Applied Science. Her primary research interests are in non-equilibrium interfaces, with applications ranging from microfluidics to nanotechnology. Her group has studied how surface tension and capillary forces at these interfaces can be harnessed to steer the movement of nanoscale particles and objects into well-defined structures. This type of “directed assembly” is means of manufacturing filters that resist the development of biofilms, and a way for microscopic robots, driven by magnetic fields, to pick and place objects with even finer-grained control. 

Troutt Powell is the Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of History and Africana Studies. She teaches the history of the modern Middle East and the history of slavery in the Nile Valley and the Ottoman Empire. She has received fellowships from the American Research Center in Egypt and the Social Science Research Council and has been a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study. In 2003 she was named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow. Her most recent book is “Tell This in My Memory: Stories of Enslavement in Egypt, Sudan and the Late Ottoman Empire.” She is now working on a book about the visual culture of slavery in the Middle East which will explore the painting and photography about African and Circassian slavery in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Zelizer is the Raymond Williams Professor of Communication in the Annenberg School for Communication, where she is also associate dean for research and director of the Center for Media at Risk. A former journalist, Zelizer is known for her work on journalism, culture, memory, and images, particularly in times of crisis. Her research explores the media’s role in shaping the collective memory of events such as John F. Kennedy’s assassination and the Holocaust, as well as analyzing the conceptual and disciplinary boundaries of the study of the media. Her recent work has sought to provide a vision of why journalism matters and how it must adapt to survive not only structural challenges ushered in by digital technologies but the creeping rise of authoritarianism around the globe. She is a past president and fellow of the International Communication Association and has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral and Social Sciences, and American Council of Learned Societies, among many others. 

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. The full listing of the 240th class of artists, scholars, scientists, and leaders in the public, non-profit, and private sectors can be found at the American Academy of Arts and Sciences website.