University of Massachusetts Amherst: Professor Emerita Sonia Nieto Elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences
Sonia Nieto, professor emerita of language, literacy and culture in the College of Education, is one of 250 new members elected to the prestigious American Academy of Arts & Sciences for 2024, the academy announced this week.
Nieto’s research on multicultural, Latin@ and teacher education has been published in 13 books and dozens of journal articles and book chapters. She has received numerous awards for her scholarly work, teaching, advocacy and activism, including nine honorary doctorates. In 2022, she was recognized as Lifelong Educator of the Year by the National Association for Bilingual Education and in 2021 she received the Governor’s Award in the Humanities from Mass Humanities for her lifetime dedication to public, bilingual and multicultural education reform, as well as her social justice scholarship.
A member of the National Academy of Education, she was selected by the academy for membership under its Social and Behavioral Sciences class in the education category. She joins her fellow newly elected members from 31 areas of expertise who are being recognized for excellence and invited to uphold the academy’s mission of engaging across disciplines and divides. Other notable members academy members for 2024 include actor, director and producer George Clooney, Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook and author Jhumpa Lahiri.
The American Academy of Arts & Sciences was founded in 1780 by John Adams, John Hancock and others to help a young nation face its challenges through shared purpose, knowledge and ideas. It began electing members in 1781, including Benjamin Franklin. Other notable academy alumni include Alexander Hamilton (1791), Ralph Waldo Emerson (1864), Charles Darwin (1874), Albert Einstein (1924), Martin Luther King, Jr. (1966) and Madeleine K. Albright (2001).
Induction ceremonies for the new members will take place in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in September 2024.