Alondra Nelson: "Why I'm Resigning from Positions at the National Science Foundation and Library of Congress"

In an article for TIME Magazine, Alondra Nelson, Harold F. Linder Professor in the School of Social Science, has announced her resignation from the National Science Board and the Library of Congress Scholars Council. Nelson, who was appointed to the National Science Board in 2024 and the Scholars Council in 2023, outlined the factors behind her decision.

Since January 2025, Nelson states that federal scientists and librarians have faced an "increasingly hostile" environment, with civil servants being fired, vendors' contracts ignored, and grants cancelled. She also discusses the "increasing barriers to the exercise of honest counsel" experienced at both organizations, arguing that "freedom of expression is not merely an abstract principle, or even a constitutional right, but a practical necessity for meaningful advisory work."

To conclude, Nelson invokes her IAS predecessor Albert O. Hirschman, Professor (1974–2012) in the School of Social Science: "in his seminal work Exit, Voice, and Loyalty, [Hirschman] offered a framework for understanding responses to institutional decline. Exit (leaving) and voice (speaking up) need not be mutually exclusive strategies. My resignations are both, an exit that amplifies the voice of others. By departing these advisory roles, I aim to speak more clearly in my own language about what they have become and what they ought to be. This is not an abandonment of loyalty to these institutions' missions, but rather, its highest expression."

Read the full article at TIME Magazine.