CMC Professor Jamaica Kincaid Inducted into American Academy of Arts and Sciences

To celebrate her commitment and innovation in scholarship and service to society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences inducted Jamaica Kincaid, the Josephine Olp Weeks Chair and Professor of Literature at Claremont McKenna College, into its 229th class on Oct. 10.“I am very flattered,” Kincaid said in a press release published on the CMC website. “This honor came from out of the blue. I’m particularly touched by the number of people in the Academy, especially the number of scientists, which I think of as very thrilling.”The 212 new Fellows and 19 Foreign Honorary Members include leaders in research, the arts, public affairs, business, and scholarship—including recipients of Pulitzer prizes, MacArthur fellowships, Academy, Grammy, and Tony Awards, and Nobel laureates.“I’m very touched … to be included with the fellow inductees such as Thomas Pynchon and Robert Caro,” Kincaid said in the same press release. “These are people I know of by reputation and it’s wonderful to be included among them.”Many members of CMC’s English department expressed delight at Kincaid’s recognition by the academy.“Jamaica Kincaid’s induction into the American Academy of Arts and Sciences—one of the most august scholarly institutions in the United States—is a justly deserved recognition of her many contributions to literature,” said Nicholas Warner, chair of the literature department at CMC, in the same press release. “The CMC literature department is proud to have so talented a writer and a dedicated teacher as Jamaica Kincaid on our faculty, and we congratulate her with joy and warmest good wishes on this wonderful occasion.”