James W. Vaupel, research professor at the Sanford Institute of Public Policy, is one of two Duke University professors elected to the American Academy of Arts & Sciences,the academy announced Monday.

The academy (www.amacad.org/) is an honorary society and independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. Its elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business and public affairs.

Thanks to $3.7 million in new gifts and pledges received during the latter half of 2007-including a scholarship named in honor of Director Bruce Kuniholm-the effort to transform the Terry Sanford Institute into a new School of Public Policy has raised nearly $19.5 million.

Duke University public policy and political science scholars Peter D. Feaver and Bruce W. Jentleson will join experts from top levels of the military, intelligence, diplomatic, legal and academic communities to discuss how best to shape U.S. foreign policy for the continuing war on terrorism. The April 10-11, 2008 conference, “Combating Terrorism: Charting the Course for a New Administration,” provides a forum for discussion of a range of security issues, including the “extraordinary rendition” of alleged terrorists and domestic spying.

Hart Fellow Brian Wright (PPS ’07) is working with the Institute of Social Order (ISO) in Manila, the Philippines. The country’s oldest NGO, the ISO implements community-based coastal resource management.  Wright is investigating local fishers’ problems and approaches to creating sustainable fisheries. The fishers struggle with poverty, rapid political change, corruption and community division. They often resort to means—such as cyanide fishing—that are both illegal and destructive to the environment.

Wright conducted research in three different communities: one a regular part of ISO’s core program activities, one a recent addition to the program and the third, outside of the program and known as a “lair of illegal fishing,” called Taba-Taba. Below is an excerpt of Wright’s “Letter Home.”  The full text is online at the Hart Fellows Web site, along with Wright’s other letters and slideshows.