Oona Hathaway Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Oona A. Hathaway ’97, the Gerard C. and Bernice Latrobe Smith Professor of International Law, has been elected to the 2025 class of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
Announced on April 23, the nearly 250 members elected to the Academy in 2025 “have distinguished themselves in academia, the arts, industry, policy, research, and science,” according to an announcement from the Academy.
“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 Academy is an honorary society and independent research center founded in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock, “and 60 other scholar-patriots who understood that a new republic would require institutions able to gather knowledge and advance learning in service to the public good,” according to the Academy.
“The Academy honors excellence across a wide range of disciplines and professions, and our newly elected members have demonstrated expertise and leadership of astonishing breadth and impact,” said Chair of the Board Goodwin Liu ’98, Associate Justice of the California Supreme Court. “We look forward to engaging their diverse talents and experiences through Academy initiatives that bring interdisciplinary inquiry and unfettered pursuit of knowledge to bear on our society's greatest challenges.”
At the Law School, Hathaway is also the director of the Center for Global Legal Challenges. She has been a member of the Advisory Committee on International Law for the Legal Adviser at the United States Department of State since 2005.
In 2014–15, she served as Special Counsel to the General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Defense, where she was awarded the Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence. She is a nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. She has published more than 50 law review articles, and “The Internationalists: How a Radical Plan to Outlaw War Remade the World” (with Scott Shapiro, 2017). She is also executive editor of and regular author at Just Security, and she writes often for popular publications such as The Washington Post, New York Times, and Foreign Affairs.
More than 14,500 members have been elected to the Academy since 1780. Members of the Academy are leaders in arts and sciences, business, philanthropy, and public affairs who explore challenges in society and apply their expertise to provide solutions for the common good. The Academy’s projects and publications are focused on the arts and humanities, democracy and justice, education, energy and the environment, global affairs, and science and technology.
