Frances E. Lee, a faculty member in the Princeton School of Public and International Affairs and one the country’s leading congressional scholars, was invested as a member of the American Academy of Sciences and Letters last month.

Lee, a professor of politics and public affairs and co-director of Princeton SPIA’s Center for the Study of Democratic Politics, was one of eight new Academy members to be recognized in a ceremony at the Library of Congress in Washington, D.C., on October 23.

The American Academy of Sciences and Letters promotes scholarship and honors outstanding achievement in the arts, sciences, and learned professions. An independent, non-partisan, nonprofit organization, it offers public programming, supports promising young scholars, and promotes traditional liberal arts ideals and standards of intellectual excellence. According to the Academy, membership “is a recognition of distinguished contributions to human learning.”

“I was surprised and delighted to have been selected for inclusion in the American Academy of Sciences and Letters,” Lee said. “Because the society recognizes both scholarly accomplishment and intellectual courage, it’s a very special and meaningful honor.”

A Princeton SPIA faculty member since 2019, Lee has broad interests in American politics, with a special focus on congressional politics, national policymaking, party politics, and representation. Her research has appeared in prominent journals, and she is the author of two books, a co-author of three others, and the editor of the Cambridge Elements Series in American Politics. Lee is a recipient of the American Political Science Association’s Gladys M. Kammerer Award and Richard F. Fenno Jr. Prize and is a two-time winner of the Lyndon Baines Johnson Foundation’s D.B. Hardeman Prize. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.