FEBRUARY 2022
MIT SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES, ARTS, AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
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QUOTABLE
"Agustín brings to the deanship a wonderful record of leadership and service to all of MIT. He pairs an infectious enthusiasm for the inherent value of the liberal arts with a clear vision of how they can inform and enrich our understanding in the STEM fields too.”
— MIT President L. Rafael Reif
WELCOME, PHILOSOPHER DEAN
Dean Agustín Rayo; photo by Jon Sachs, MIT SHASS Communications
Agustín Rayo named Kenan Sahin Dean of MIT SHASS
"The humanities, arts, and social sciences fields are an essential part of an MIT education" says Dean Rayo, "and vital to the Institute’s mission to make a better world."
Story at MIT News
INSIDE THE CLASSROOM
What does a sunset sound like? Created by MIT students in the Digital Humanities Lab, a new Sonification web app can transform almost anything—from data to drawings—into sound.
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DIGITAL HUMANITIES LAB
The Sound of a Sunset | The DH Lab unveils its Sonification Project
“There aren’t that many people in the world who have the kind of really deep, interdisciplinary expertise" needed for this kind of project, says Ryaan Ahmed, the lab's Associate Director and Senior Research Engineer.
Story by SHASS Communications | Explore the Sonification Toolkit
NEW BOOKS
LITERATURE
Life-Destroying Diagrams | Eugenie Brinkema
"Replete with etymological meditations, performative typography, and lyrical digressions, Life-Destroying Diagrams is a series of generative experiments in the writing of aesthetic theory."
About the book | Brinkema's MIT webpage
ECONOMICS, HISTORY, URBAN PLANNING
The Work of the Future | Autor, Mindell, Reynolds
The authors analyze why the U.S. lags behind other industrialized countries in sharing the benefits of innovation with workers. One key to remedying the problem: institutions that leverage tech innovation and support workers though cycles of technological change.
About the book
POLITICAL SCIENCE
The American Political Economy | Kathleen Thelen and co-editors
Leading political scientists provide a new map of how business power, union decline, racial inequities, fragmented political institutions, and regional disparities impact American politics and policy.
Cambridge University Press | Thelen's webpage
MIT SHASS Bookshelf
New knowledge and insight, guidance for policy, and nourishment for lives
Browse the Bookshelf
ETHICS AND COMPUTING
Fostering technologies in the public interest
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SERC | SOCIAL AND ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITY OF COMPUTING
Case Studies | Winter 2022
The latest case studies from the SERC team in the Schwarzman College of Computing, led by Associate Deans David Kaiser and Julie Shah, who also serve as the Case Studies series editors.
All Cases | Series Editors
The Cloud Is Material | Steven Gonzalez Monserrate, HASTS doctoral program
Monserrate draws on his research in data centers to identify environmental impacts of computation and data storage. Among other discoveries: learners will be able to recognize the environmental toll of digital life and apply a holistic, humanistic approach to sociotechnical challenges.
Case study by Monserrate
The Puzzle of the Missing Robots | Suzanne Berger and Benjamin Armstrong
To break out of a stalemate in which outdated equipment and low-level skills are mutually reinforcing, the authors recommend public policies that support greater capital investment in automation while also investing in education and higher wages for human workers.
Case study by Berger and Armstrong
STRENGTHENING DEMOCRACY
CENTER FOR INTERNATONIAL STUDES
Women’s rights and rising threats to press freedom worldwide | Ada Petriczko
Polish journalist Ada Petriczko, an Elizabeth Neuffer Fellow at MIT, discusses ethical and cross-border journalism, freedom of speech, and the rise of autocracy.
Story via MIT News
Sally Haslanger, Ford Professor of Philosophy; Ada Petriczko, Neuffer Fellow; Libby McDonald, head, D-Lab Inclusive Economics
"The biggest value for me is the opportunity to train under the mentorship of the finest editors and academics in the world. This will hopefully make me a valuable voice in my country, which has found itself at the crossroads between democracy and autocracy."
SCIENCE JOURNALISM
Airtanker dropping water on the Summit Trail Fire in Washington; BIA/National Interagency Fire Center
Truth. Science. Beauty.
As part of its mission to promote excellence in science journalism, our Knight Science Journalism program publishes the award-winning digital science magazine, Undark, which reaches millions of readers annually. Take a look!
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UNDARK | KNIGHT SCIENCE JOURNALISM PROGRAM
The latest stories from Undark magazine
All of Undark's journalism in one place.
Browse the collection
UNDARK | KNIGHT SCIENCE JOURNALISM AT MIT
Reinventing the electric grid for the 21st C. is crucial for the climate crisis
This succinct article describes the three basic ways to rethink the grid to accommodate the variability of wind and solar energy.
Story at Undark
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Published by SHASS Communications
Office of the Dean, MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Editor and Designer: Emily Hiestand
Publication Associate: Alison Lanier
Published 9 February 2022