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"The most significant contribution to economic thought"
MIT economist Amy Finkelstein, a leader in studying health insurance markets, was named winner today of the prestigious John Bates Clark Medal, an annual award given by the American Economic Association (AEA).
In its announcement of the 2012 medal, the AEA noted that Finkelstein’s work “is centered on some of the most important and policy-relevant issues facing developed economies today,” adding that her research stands “as a model of how theory and empirics can be combined in creative ways in order to yield credible, novel, and often unexpected insights into economic questions that will inform policy design.
The Clark Medal is given to an economist under the age of 40 “who is judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge.”
“I’m honored and very humbled to have won it,” Finkelstein told MIT News this afternoon; she found out about the award by phone shortly before it was announced publicly.
A new Center for Art, Science & Technology (CAST) is being established at MIT with support from a $1.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Full Story at MIT News
The most recent SHASS news and feature stories by the MIT News writers More
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MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Said and Done | April 2012 Edition
MIT SHASS in the media and news More
Apply for a grant from the de Florez Fund for Humor. Yes, it's true—at MIT you can be funded for being funny. The School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences invites MIT students, faculty, and staff to apply for grants from the de Florez Fund for Humor. More
Yablo, Professor of Philosophy in MIT's School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, has been elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences — and has been awarded a 2012 Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. More
Autor and Finkelstein are among the leaders from academia, business, public affairs, the humanities, and the arts elected as new members of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. More
Makan, Associate Professor of Music in MIT's School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, has been awarded a 2012 Fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation for his “prior achievement and exceptional promise.” This is the second year in a row that a faculty member in Music and Theater Arts has received the Guggenheim. More
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"Governing the Gap" articulates the nuances of aligning regulatory ideals with real world conditions to achieve safety in science labs. More
Prize from the Center for Bilingual/Bicultural Studies honors cross-cultural fluency — an ability key to leadership and success in today's global world.
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MIT linguistics professor Shigeru Miyagawa has been selected to receive the President's Award for OpenCourseWare Excellence (ACE) for his contributions to the global OpenCourseWare and Open Education movements. Miyagawa, who is also head of the Foreign Languages and Literatures Section, has been a key member of the faculty team that has nurtured the development of MIT OpenCourseWare (OCW), has contributed a significant amount of his own course materials to the site, and has traveled extensively to spread the practice of openly sharing educational materials globally. More at MIT News
Annually, The Review of Economic Studies European Meetings selects seven of the most promising graduating doctoral students in economics and finance in the world to present their research to audiences in Europe. Three of this spring's graduating MIT SHASS Ph.D. students—Gabriel Carroll, Melissa Dell, and Nathan Hendren—have been honored as participants in the 2012 tour. More
The orchestra, under the direction of Adam K. Boyles, will spotlight two talented MIT students: Composer Dustin R. Katzin ’12 and pianist Yimin Chen ’13, on the season Finale Concert on May 4th in Kresge Auditorium. The evening will include Chen's performance of Prokofiev's first Piano Concerto, and the premiere of Katzin's "Schrödinger’s Cat: a Musical Journey into the Strange World of Quantum Physics." Full story
Four professors have been named 2012 MacVicar Faculty Fellows for their outstanding undergraduate teaching, mentoring and educational innovation. Three are from SHASS: William Broadhead, the Class of 1954 Career Development Associate Professor of History; David Kaiser, the Germeshausen Professor of the History of Science; and Nancy Lin Rose, the Charles P. Kindleberger Professor of Applied Economics. The fourth professor honored is Leslie Pack Kaelbling, the Panasonic Professor of Computer Science and Engineering. Full story at MIT News
With the generous support of the Mellon Foundation, the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences awards up to three postdoctoral fellowships each year to promising young scholars working at the intersection of humanities disciplines, or between humanities and other disciplines. We are delighted to welcome our three new Mellon Postdoctoral Fellows for 2012-2014 — Rebecca Dirksen, Julia Panko, and Marcella Szablewicz — and to welcome back the Mellon Fellows for 2011-2013 and 2010-2012. Profiles of the Mellon Fellows
Deborah K. Fitzgerald, Kenan Sahin Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, has announced that Erica James, Associate Professor of Anthropology, has received the James A. ('45) and Ruth Levitan Prize in the Humanities. The $25,000 prize is awarded annually as a research fund to support innovative and creative scholarship in the humanities. Professor James's project is for research on the impact of anti-terrorism measures on charitable giving. More
The SHASS MacVicar Faculty Fellows discuss the significance,the goals—and the sheer fun—of teaching MIT students. More
Photographs, research areas, and commentary More
Dean Deborah Fitzgerald and members of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences welcomed the PEN New England organization to the group’s new home at MIT during a reception held at the MIT Faculty Club on Monday March 5, 2012. The liveliness of the gathering, which brought together novelists, poets, scholars, publishers, agents, and members of the academy, gave a foretaste of the potential creative collaborations between the PEN and MIT communities. More
Pesetsky, Kaiser, and Sugawara in performance with the New Philharmonia
(Which one sings Sinatra?) More
Project prepares for year two in its response to Japan's disaster More
An historian who finds evidence and insight in literature, Rosalind Williams, Dibner Professor of the History of Science and Technology, recently completed a book examining the critical juncture when human endeavors began to dominate the planet as never before. Forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press (2013), Human Empire, explores this turning point in history and technology through the works of three writers from the late 1800s. More
The MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences is pleased to announce the following faculty promotions, which are effective 1 July 2012. More
González, the program coordinator for the MIT-SHASS Program in Women's and Gender Studies, received the 2012 MIT Excellence Award for Fostering Diversity and Inclusion at a ceremony held Tuesday, February 28, in Kresge Auditorium. More
Well said, Google! More
The SHASS Research Fund supports research in the areas of humanities, arts, and social sciences that shows promise of making an important contribution to the proposed area of activity. The School is pleased to announce the nine recipients for 2012. More
Associate Professor of Music Michael Cuthbert, together with an international team of researchers, has been awarded a $500K grant from the Digging into Data consortium (including $175K from the National Endowment for the Humanities). The grant supports his for work using computational techniques to study changes in Western musical style. More
I’ve chosen to ask myself a very simple question: What have I, Edward Turk, been doing at MIT all these years? I will begin with a reminiscence. The time is May 1967, near the end of my senior year at Brooklyn College. I am seated in the Grand Ballroom of the Plaza Hotel in Manhattan.... More
To celebrate the first 50 years of MIT’s graduate program in Linguistics, alumni, former faculty and postdoctoral scholars attended a Scientific Reunion, held at MIT on December 9-11, 2011, and participated in a discussion of some of the foundational questions investigated by its past and present members. Professor David Pesetsky writes, "Intellectually, it was first-rate and exciting; there were some fireworks (just as we'd hoped). It was also a very emotional weekend. Collectively, this was the group that built the field." More
Charles Weiner, professor emeritus of the history of science and technology at MIT, died Saturday, January 28, 2012. in West Cork, Ireland. He was 80 and resided in New York and Yarmouth Port, Massachusetts. Weiner was the pre-eminent historian of his generation focusing on the political, social and ethical dimensions of contemporary science and the responses of scientists to public controversies arising from their work.... An aficionado of jazz and good food and a wonderful conversationalist, “Charlie” — as he was known to all — will be sorely missed as the kind of committed historian of science that America needs. Obituary at MIT News
In his new novel, Mr. g, and in two related essays, physicist/author Alan Lightman, Adjunct Professor in the MIT-SHASS Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, engages with questions of ultimate reality. Of his novel, a reviewer writes, "With echoes of Calvino and Saramago, Mr. g celebrates the tragic and joyous nature of existence on the grandest possible scale." More
For MIT's 150th anniversary, Dean Deborah Fitzgerald and the School leadership initiated a new permanent exhibit about the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. Located on the first floor of Building 14, near Killian Hall, the exhibit presents the 20+ fields of study that make up the School, as well as an updating gallery of research, news, and profiles. Take a look
"I learned about the Mars Desert Research Station in the Utah desert where scientists and researchers go and wear spacesuits and live in full simulation for months at a time. So I began putting together the pieces..." More
"Our ability to make resolutions is at the center of our sense of free will." — Story in The Boston Globe More
How are new technologies transforming public discourse? Are traditional news outlets still influential in framing the news we get online? What are the legal dangers for publishing secrets in the crowd-sourced era? These are just a few of the questions recently addressed by the MIT Communications Forum. Founded in 1978—well before the advent of the Internet—by the pioneering media scholar Ithiel de Sola Pool of MIT’s Political Science Department, the forum continues to engage leading scholars, journalists, media producers, and others around the globe in cutting-edge discussions on how emerging media are changing our world. More
10th anniversary concert in memory of composer Edward Cohen. The concert will feature performances of Edward Cohen's Clarinet Quintet, the Capriccio for Solo Piano, and the Suite for Solo Flute. In addition, Radius will perform a new work for flute, clarinet, violin, cello, piano, and percussion by MIT alumnus Andrew McPherson and Echo, for piano trio by Cohen’s widow, composer Marjorie Merryman. More
In anticipation of the world premiere performances of John Harbison’s Symphony No. 6 by the Boston Symphony Orchestra on January 12, 13, 14 and 17, 2012, the BSO and MIT will jointly present a roundtable discussion on the genesis of the new composition at MIT’s Kresge Auditorium from 6-7pm on Wednesday, January 11. The discussion will focus on several different aspects of the new work: its commissioning, composition, and rehearsal. More
Irene Heim, Professor of Linguistics, MIT SHASS, has been elected a Fellow of the Linguistic Society of America. The induction ceremony for the 2012 class of Fellows will take place on Friday, January 6, 2012 at the LSA Annual Meeting in Portland. More
"Judging by his masterful contributions on Thursday, at age 75 Riley has lost none of his legendary power to synthesize diverse musical traditions (Indian, Balinese, jazz, classical, acoustic, electronic) in provocative and inspirational ways. Riley’s performance was made possible by his longtime admirer, MIT professor Evan Ziporyn, a composer, musician, and Gamelan Galak Tika’s founder." — The Boston Globe More
Earlier this year, Bruno Perreau, Assistant Professor of French Studies, was awarded a Newton Fellowship from the British Academy. In November 2011, Perreau was also appointed as a Research Associate at Jesus College, Cambridge University. Story + 3 Questions with Perreau More + 3 Questions
The Winter/Spring Calendar includes jazz and classical concerts, theatrical productions, staged readings, silent film screenings and composer forums. More + Calendar of Events
MIT economist Robert M. Townsend, an expert in the ways financial systems and practices can contribute to the growth of developing economies, has been named winner of the Jean-Jacques Laffont Prize in economics for 2011. Townsend, the Killian Professor of Economics at MIT, will receive the award in January 2012 in Toulouse, France, where he will give a lecture titled “Financial Design and Economic Development.” More
Armed with data, an MIT lab offers fresh insight on some of the world’s most vexing problems. For nearly a decade, MIT economics professors Esther Duflo, and Abhijit Banerjee, have worked with a global network of researchers to conduct experiments in the world’s poorest places - where families live on less than $1 day - and reached conclusions that are changing the way economists and policy makers think about development in impoverished areas. More
The Nyan Cat first installed by MIT hackers in Lobby 7 is now on display in the MIT-SHASS exhibit in Building 14. This is an MIT student work portraying the popular internet meme, Nyan Cat (or Pop-Tart Cat), an 8-bit animation depicting a cat with the body of a cherry pop tart who flies through outer space leaving a rainbow trail. The MIT-Nyan Cat is sporting a festive, silver lamé trail to celebrate the winter holidays. Warm thanks to the student hackers for generously lending their Nyan Cat to the curated exhibit wall for the winter season. More
Do you have a favorite professor, instructor, or teaching assistant in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences? You can reward a great teachers with the Levitan Award for Excellence in Teaching. Send an email nomination by April 12, 2012 to shass-teaching-award@mit.edu. More
Meeting 21st energy requires both technological solutions and innovation and input from economic, political, social and cultural spheres. Technical issues have human and social components, and there is no one solution to the energy problem. • More
The Japanese Government has announced that the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold and Silver Star, will be conferred upon Richard J. Samuels, Ford International Professor of Poltiical Science at MIT, in recognition of his significant contributions to scholarship about Japan and for promoting friendly relations between Japan and the United States of America. Professor Samuels will receive the decoration from Prime Minister Noda on November 7, 2011, and will be presented to the Emperor of Japan at the Imperial Palace. More
Lucas Papademos, a three-time alumnus of MIT, has been named the prime minister of Greece, where he will head an interim coalition government aiming to save the country from bankruptcy. Papademos received his SB in physics from MIT in 1970, an SM in electrical engineering in 1972 and a PhD in economics in 1978. Full story
Sally Haslanger, Professor of Philosophy and Director of Women’s and Gender studies, has been honored by the YWCA in MIT's hometown, Cambridge, Massachusetts, for work to eliminate racism and empower women. The Tribute to Outstanding Women Award was established to recognize extraordinary commitment made by Cambridge-area women who have distinguished themselves through professional work and community service. More
The Burchard Scholars Program brings together distinguished members of the faculty and promising MIT sophomores and juniors who have demonstrated excellence in some aspect of the humanities, arts, or social sciences. The format is a series of dinner-seminars with discussions on current research topics. A Burchard Scholar can be a major in any department of the Institute; no preference is given to HASS majors. All sophomores and juniors in good standing are eligible to apply. Faculty, you can nominate a student. Students, you can apply. More
Dr. Auon's talk — "The Future of American Higher Education in the Global Knowledge Marketplace" — took place Wednesday, October 26, 2011, at 5 pm, at the MIT Bartos Theater, Building E15, 20 Ames Street, Cambridge. A festive public reception followed. A video of the event is available. More
Profiles of the first six recipients of the biennial award, which was founded in 2000 by Robert and Berit Muh, to honor MIT alums who make significant career contributions in the arts, humanities, and social sciences. More
For more than 30 years, the MIT Communications Forum has played a unique role at the Institute and beyond as a locus for sustained exploration of the cultural, political, economic and technological impact of communications, with special emphasis on emerging technologies. The 2011 Forum series continues the exploration this fall with three in-depth panels: Local News in the Digital Age; Surveillance and Citizenship; and Cities and the Future of Entertainment. More
Eleven years after the disputed 2000 presidential election thrust the subject of electoral integrity into the spotlight, many of the challenges that jeopardized that election remain unresolved, voting experts said at an MIT-hosted conference. “Election Integrity: Past, Present, and Future,” was convened by the Caltech/MIT Voting Technology Project (VTP), and brought together election administrators, academics and technology professionals from around the country. A central theme of the conference was election integrity: assuring that votes are both recorded and counted as they were cast.
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The Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) has selected Esther Duflo, MIT Professor of Economics, as the winner of the 2011 David N. Kershaw Award. The Kershaw Award and Prize comes with an honorarium of $10,000 and recognizes individuals under the age of 40 who have made distinguished contributions to the field of public policy analysis. More
Collected national and international news about the School's research, people, and productions More
The School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences is pleased to present the newest members of the faculty. They come to us with diverse backgrounds and vast knowledge in their fields: social movement communication, women and gender issues of the Middle East and North Africa, 20th century mass entertainment in Japan, and political philosophy. We are very fortunate to have this superb group of scholars join the School. More
September 22, 4:30-6pm, MIT Tang Center | Noam Chomsky will discuss “The Responsibility of Intellectuals,” revisiting the controversial topic he first addressed in 1967. He will also publish a companion essay in the September/October 2011 issue of Boston Review. The Chomsky event kicks off the second year of the Ideas Matter lecture series, a joint project of Boston Review and the MIT Political Science Department. The last event of 2010—“Government’s Role in the Market” by Eliot Spitzer, introduced by Simon Johnson—completely filled Wong Auditorium and produced a lively Q&A with the audience that was broadcast on CSPAN’s BookTV.
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Landmark study shows the effects of health insurance program: much better health and more financial stability for the poor; more bills paid for hospitals and doctors. Professors of Economics Amy Finkelstein (a principal investigator) and Jonathan Gruber contributed to the study. More
Americans are greatly concerned about the number of our troops killed in battle — 100,000 dead in World War I; 300,000 in World War II; 33,000 in the Korean War; 58,000 in Vietnam; 4,500 in Iraq; more than 1,000 in Afghanistan — and rightly so. But why are we so indifferent, often oblivious, to the far greater number of casualties suffered by those we fight and those we fight for? This is the compelling, largely unasked question that John Tirman, a principal research scientist and executive director at the MIT Center for International Studies, answers in The Deaths of Others. More
The arts at MIT connect creative minds across disciplines and encourage a lifetime of exploration and self-discovery. They are rooted in experimentation, risk-taking and imaginative problem-solving. The arts strengthen MIT’s commitment to the aesthetic, human, and social dimensions of research and innovation. Artistic knowledge and creation exemplify our motto — mens et manus, mind and hand. The arts are essential to MIT’s mission to build a better society and meet the challenges of the 21st century. More
The men who drove MIT's early development were "charismatic, diverse, quirky, sometimes tragic individuals," says Philip Alexander, a research associate in the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies. In A Widening Sphere: Evolving Cultures at MIT, his new book honoring the Institute's 150th anniversary, he describes how its first nine presidents, from William Barton Rogers to Karl Taylor Compton, shaped much of its first century. More
MIT's Festival of Art, Technology and Science (FAST) was a prominent feature of the MIT150 events, a festival celebrating MIT’s unique confluence of art, science, and technology. With strong participation by the School's music and theater arts faculty and communities, the festival presented an exciting, surprising variety of work, embracing past to future, performance to debate, and installations to the unclassifiable. FAST appeared throughout the MIT campus and extended over the entire spring semester, punctuated by five special festival weekend events. More
David's Kaiser's new book explore how a handful of countercultural scientists changed the course of physics in the1970s and helped open up the frontier of quantum information. More at MIT News
Tobias Harris and Anna Waldman-Brown will study abroad in the 2011-12 academic year. Harris, a PhD candidate in political science, will travel to Japan to conduct interviews and archival research for his project titled “The Politics of Reform in Japan, 1955-2009.” Waldman-Brown ’11, who graduated in June 2011 month with an SB in writing/humanistic studies and physics, will travel to Ghana to research sustainable energy solutions. More
Recent writing, humanistic studies, and physics graduate—and public service fellow—will teach the science of energy generation in Ghana. More
Pauline Maier, William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of American History, in MIT's School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, has won the 2011 George Washington Book Prize for her book Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788. Ratification has been widely hailed as the definitive story of the most consequential political debate in American history. The George Washington Book Prize is co-sponsored by Washington College, the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History and George Washington's Mt. Vernon. Its $50,000 Award is the largest prize nationwide for a book on early American history, and one of the largest literary prizes of any kind. More
The School's Teaching Award Selection Committee has announced the recipients of the 2011 James A. and Ruth Levitan Awards for Excellence in Teaching. Warmest congratulations to these educators and colleagues, who represent the very best academic leadership in the School. More
An award-winning science writer and author of the acclaimed biography The Man Who Knew Infinity, Robert Kanigel has spent his career exploring the evolution of society through a series of unique lenses that reveal what we have gained from modernity—and what we’ve lost. A windswept island village off the coast of Ireland, is the setting for his next book—a story of love and friendship, literature and language, in the early years of the twentieth century. More
With this award, the Center for Bilingual/Bicultural Studies salutes cross-cultural fluency—an ability key to leadership and success in today's global world. More
Institute Professor John Harbison was presented on Monday night with the American Music Center’s Founders Award, given since 1999 for lifetime achievement in the field of new American music. Previous winners of the award have included Elliott Carter, Steve Reich, Charles Ives, Count Basie and Philip Glass. Full story at MIT News
For MIT's historic Open House on April 30, 2011, all the School's disciplines and programs gathered in one central location to present idea stations on leading research, musical concerts, games, videos, demonstrations, book raffles and book signings, readings, tours, talks, and a tent next to Kresge with café-style seating for snacks and visiting. A great scene! More
Charles Stewart III, the Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science, is among the 212 new members elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. The Academy is one of the most prestigious honorary societies in the nation and is a leader in independent policy research. This high honor recognizes the excellence and impact of Stewart’s work in areas of congressional politics, elections, and American political development. More
Deborah K. Fitzgerald, Kenan Sahin Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, is delighted to announce that the James A. (1945) and Ruth Levitan Prize in the Humanities has been awarded to Adam Berinsky, Associate Professor of Political Science. The $25,000 prize is awarded annually as a research fund to support innovative and creative scholarship in the humanities by faculty members in MIT's School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences. The prize, first awarded in 1990, was established through a gift from the late James A. Levitan, a 1945 MIT graduate in chemistry, who was also a member of the MIT Corporation. More
Composer/pianist and MLK Visiting Scholar, Donal Fox will have the New York premiere of his “Hear De Lambs A-Cryin" at Carnegie Hall, performed by the Albany Symphony Orchestra. The concert, entitled "Spring For Music: Spirituals Re-Imagined," also features work by John Harbison, MIT Institute Professor of Music. It begins at 7:30pm, and will be broadcast live from Carnegie Hall on NPR stations nationwide. During intermission there will also be an interview with Donal at the piano hosted by Elliot Forrest for WNYC/WQXR. More
Scheib was chosen from among thousands of distinguished artists, scholars, and scientists as a 2011 Guggenehim Fellow. The prestigious Guggenheim Fellowship is an award for advanced, mid-career professionals, who are chosen from among thousands of distinguished artists, scholars, and scientists. Fellowships are awarded to those who have "demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the arts," and are designed to allow recipients time to work with "as much creative freedom as possible." More
Jonathan Levin PhD ’99 was named winner of the John Bates Clark Medal on Friday, awarded annually by the American Economics Association to the best economist under the age of 40. More
Thakkar, a biology and materials science and engineering major, plans to pursue a career in global health, advocating for low-income populations. On the occasion of the Scholarship award Thakkar commented on the role of the Burchard Scholars program in her MIT education. "Having attended just the dinners this semester," Thakkar said, "I have learned so much! I love the program, and it is such a fantastic way for me to meet my peers who have similar interests, and to expand my humanities knowledge." More
Historian of science, Seth Shulman, a Vannevar Bush Fellow in 1985-86, and the inaugural Dibner Science Writing Fellow in 2004-05, has received a 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship award in support of his forthcoming book project on Thomas Edison's role creating in the electric automobile. More
This excellent podcast interview with Daron Acemoglu, Charles P. Kindleberger Professor of Economics, examines the role of income inequality in the financial crash. More
Special forum on March 16, 2011, co-sponsored by the Center for International Studies and the MIT Department of Nuclear Science and Engineering. Three MIT experts discuss Japan's nuclear past, present, and future from a political and engineering perspective. The presentation includes an eyewitness account of the crisis and the Japanese government's response. More + Video of the Forum
Japan has more than 50 nuclear power plants and had planned to build two dozen more by 2030, according to Samuels, Ford International Professor of Political Science, and director of MIT's Center for International Studies, who has written on Japanese energy and security policy. More
The Smithsonian Institution and MIT's Comparative Media Studies program have announced the April 4, 2011 launch of vanished, an 8-week online/offline environmental disaster mystery game for middle-school children, designed to inspire problem-solving and collaboration through science. More
Why is the idea of Universal Grammar controversial? What does linguistics tell us about how we think? — Q&A with David Pesetsky, Ferrari P. Ward Professor of Modern Languages and Linguistics, and Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science
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David Pesetsky, Ferrari P. Ward Professor of Modern Languages and Linguistics, has been named a Fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Five other members of the MIT community have received this distinction as well. Pesetsky, who is also Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow, was chosen for “his innovative and critical research on syntactic theory, connecting it to issues in phonology, morphology, reading, language acquisition and neuroscience, and for his contributions to linguistic education at many levels.” More
MIT150 and MIT Press have partnered to bring out two books for MIT's sesquicentennial year—both works authored by members of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences. David Kaiser, Professor in Science, Technology and Society, is the editor of Becoming MIT: Moments of Decision. Philip Alexander, of the Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, is the author of A Widening Sphere: Evolving Cultures at MIT. More
Colloquium and concert on February 19, 2011 to celebrate the Arts at MIT. Premiered in the United States by the Handel and Haydn Society in 1859 (and last performed by the Society in 1974), this monumental work depicts the biblical story of Exodus. It recounts in detail the ten plagues, and celebrates the extraordinary parting and crossing of the Red Sea. More
The MIT Music section is pleased to announce that Amanda Mok ’11, a double major in Biological Engineering and Music, is the 2011 winner of the MIT Symphony Orchestra Concerto Competition. Mok will perform the first movement of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No.1 with MITSO, on March 11, 2011. A classic, multi-talented MIT student, Amanda is a successful scholar and accomplished musician, and deeply engaged in the Institute community. Joya Abbott-Graves had a chance to sit down and talk with Amanda recently, to learn more about her musical life, and what comes next. More
The History of Science Society has awarded the Watson Davis and Helen Miles Davis Prize to Marcia Bartusiak for The Day We Found the Universe, (Pantheon), calling it "a beautifully written, informative book on a critical topic in the history of science" and a "rich, complex, yet crystal-clear narrative" that depicts a seminal moment in history. More
This symposium, organized by the School's Department of Economics and the Sloan School of Management, celebrated the role of MIT’s faculty and students in advancing the fields of economics and finance, in putting the latest developments into practice, and in contributing to the design of public policy. A series of six panels, which included Nobel laureates, policy makers, and academic and industry experts, addressed three broad questions: • What are the key recent scientific developments and the major unresolved issues of economics and finance? • What are the central challenges in economic policy? • How can one assess the contributions of, and limitations of, recent advances in financial economics? Story + On Demand Videos
précis, the newsletter from the School's Center for International Studies, covers the wide range of Center activities and tracks the accomplishments of faculty, researchers and affiliates. Features from the current issue include an excerpt from Democratic Insecurities: Violence, Trauma, and Intervention in Haiti by Erica Caple James. Go to précis
The Institute has embarked on a major, long-term effort to promote intellectual and technological exchange...A major part of the Institute’s effort will also be the expansion of the study of China at MIT. A new chair in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, The Quanta Professorship in Chinese Culture, has recently been established thanks to a $5 million donation. Full story at MIT News
Institute Professor Peter Diamond PhD ’63 will collect the Nobel Prize in economics on Friday, Dec. 10, during a ceremony at the Stockholm Concert Hall in Sweden. Diamond, Dale T. Mortensen of Northwestern University and Christopher A. Pissarides of the London School of Economics won the prize for their analysis of “markets with search frictions,” which roughly equates to any setting in which buyers and sellers don’t easily find one another. More
David Kaiser has been elected a Fellow of the American Physical Society, following nomination by the APS's Forum on the History of Physics. The citation reads: "For his outstanding publications that combine technical mastery of twentieth-century physics with a deep knowledge of recent developments in the history, philosophy, and sociology of science." More
Alexander C.Y. Huang, Research Affiliate in the School's Literature section, and Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at Penn State, has won the MLA's Aldo and Jeanne Scaglione Prize for Comparative Literary Studies for Chinese Shakespeares (Columbia University Press, 2009). Huang's book is called a "landmark" in comparative literary studies. With Peter Donaldson, Ford Foundation Professor Humanities at MIT, Huang is also the co-founder and co-editor of two open-access digital video archives, Global Shakespeares and Shakespeare Performance in Asia. More
"Jennifer Lai, a senior who is majoring in biological engineering and music and theater arts, has received a Rhodes Scholarship to study next year at Oxford University. Lai, 21, of Honolulu, joins a distinguished company of 43 former MIT recipients who have won the prestigious international scholarships since they were first awarded to Americans in 1904." More
"A stunning examination of... 'the beginning of American national politics' — the debate that explains the way we Americans govern ourselves, resolve disputes, conduct diplomacy, choose leaders and protect our freedoms." More
The Program brings together MIT sophomores and juniors and distinguished faculty from the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences for eight elegant dinner-seminars at MIT’s Faculty Club. Recently, for example, Professor of History Craig Wilder led the Burchard Scholars in an examination of a series of controversial paintings commissioned in the 1930s. Then, over a memorable dinner, the students and faculty discussed the implications of dueling imagery in the historic murals. More
Bringing together the resources of the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is no easy task, but newly appointed Associate Professor D. Fox Harrell recently succeeded in leading a joint workshop focused on research informed by both arts and science disciplines. 55 thought leaders gathered in September 2010 to explore the goal of using technology to better understand society—and using the humanities and arts to build creative computational systems. More
Ben Ross Schneider has been awarded a Ford Foundation International Chair, making him Ford Foundation International Professor of Political Science as of January 1, 2011. More
On Friday, Nov. 5, President Barack Obama named Amy Finkelstein, Professor of Economics, and six other researchers from MIT as recipients of the Presidential Early Career Awards for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), the highest honor bestowed by the U.S. government on science and engineering professionals in the early stages of their independent research careers. More
Peter A. Diamond PhD '63, Institute Professor and professor of economics at MIT's School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, has won the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences for 2010. Diamond has received the award along with two co-winners, Dale T. Mortensen of Northwestern University and Christopher A. Pissarides of the London School of Economics. Full story and profile
Deborah K. Fitzgerald, Kenan Sahin Dean of the MIT School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, has announced that the James A. and Ruth Levitan Prize in the Humanities has been awarded to Mary Fuller, Professor of Literature. The $25,000 Levitan Prize, a gift from the late James A. Levitan, a 1945 MIT graduate in chemistry, is awarded annually as a research fund to support innovative and creative scholarship in the humanities. • More
Over recent decades, Pulitzer-winning historian John W. Dower has addressed the roots and consequences of war from multiple perspectives. Here he examines the cultures of war revealed by four powerful events—Pearl Harbor, Hiroshima, 9-11, and the invasion of Iraq in the name of a war on terror. More
Two alumni of the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences — linguist Jessie Little Doe Baird SM ’00, who is working to revitalize a long-silent Algonquin language, and economist Emmanuel Saez PhD ’99, who studies the relationship between income and tax policy — have been named 2010 MacArthur Fellows. The fellowships, awarded each year, carry a $500,000 purse. • More
Professor of Anthropology, Stefan Helmreich's most recent book, Alien Ocean: Anthropological Voyages in Microbial Seas, has been chosen from a field of more than 80 entries, as the recipient of the distinguished Bateson Book Prize, awarded by the Society for Cultural Anthropology. Welcoming a wide range of styles and argument, the Bateson Prize honors work that is theoretically rich, ethnographically grounded, interdisciplinary, and innovative. •
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”Tom’s extensive experience in documentary film-making and writing about science in both historical and contemporary contexts makes him a natural leader for this terrific program.," said Dean Deborah Fitzgerlad. "His boundless energy, imagination, and productivity inspire us all, and remind us of the deep connections between the many different forms of “story-telling.” Full Story and profile
Professor Richard Locke is on a mission as the new head of the Political Science Department — MIT’s mission: to bring knowledge to bear on the world’s great challenges. “I believe every single one of the units of MIT should be reinforcing that mission,” says Locke, whose appointment took effect July 1. “What, therefore, can Political Science do to tackle and address the world’s great challenges?” Full story and profile
“Jim is a first-rate scholar, a crack administrator, and a splendid identifier of emerging trends and new directions in humanities scholarship and activity. For many years he has been cultivating new faculty who are on the cutting edge of their fields in writing and media. He will be an excellent Interim Head and wise counsel to students and colleagues alike.” — Dean Deborah Fitzgerald Full story and profile
Two new MLK Visiting Scholars are joining the School community for the 2010-11 academic year: Isaac Mbiti in Economics, and Reuben Buford May in Anthropology. Following a year of inspiring teaching and acclaimed performances, Donal Fox, MLK Visiting Artist in Music and Theater Arts for 2009-10, will be continuing for a second year. Profiles of the MLK Visiting Scholars
Multi-disciplinary approach
MIT's new energy minor, launched in 2009, provides a multidisciplinary approach to understanding the policy, economics, science and technology of energy. All MIT undergraduate students now have a new academic option available: a minor in energy, which can be combined with any major subject. The new minor, unlike most energy concentrations available at other institutions, is inherently cross-disciplinary, encompassing all of MITs five schools. Courses from the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences include: Environmental Policy and Economics; Energy Economics and Policy; and Energy, Environment, and Society.
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Fundamental ethical questions were up for debate recently as distinguished moral philosophers gathered at MIT for a daylong conference on Normativity — a groundbreaking 2008 treatise by MIT philosophy professor emeritus Judith Jarvis Thomson. “Debate was vigorous, lively, and good humored — in all the ways that humor can be good!” said Professor Richard Holton, head of the Philosophy Section. More
Excerpt from MIT Admissions Student Blog | Guest Blog by Dora '11, double major in course 8 and Ancient and Medieval Studies. She writes: "There are lots of people here who love the humanities, and who approach subjects in humanities with the same excitement and fervor that they approach their technical fields.... humanities at MIT carries a distinctly MIT feel: challenging, stimulating, and entirely fulfilling. More
"Rethinking Water" workshop shows significance of research in the humanities and social sciences for meeting global water needs. More
Professor of Philosophy, Sally Haslanger, a scholar widely respected for her work on the metaphysics of gender and race, has received highest honors from two prestigious associations in philosophy. She has been named the 2011 Carus Lecturer, an honor presented bi-annually by the American Philosophical Association (APA), and she has been selected Distinguished Woman Philosopher of 2010 by the Society for Women in Philosophy. • More
Esther Duflo PhD '99, the Abdul Latif Jameel Professor of Poverty Alleviation and Development Economics in the School's Department of Economics, has been named winner of the 2010 John Bates Clark medal. Duflo whose influential research has prompted new ways of fighting poverty around the globe, is the second woman to be given the award, which ranks below only the Nobel Prize in prestige within the economics profession and is considered a reliable indicator of future Nobel consideration. The medal is awarded (now annually) to the American economist under the age of forty who is judged to have made the most significant contribution to economic thought and knowledge. More
Please note that this is a subscription-only story; a precis is available without subscription. Story by Ian Parker appears in the May 17, 2010 edition of The New Yorker, p. 79. Connect to story in The New Yorker
When Swedish anthropologist Erland Nordenskiöld went to study the Kuna people of Panama in 1927, their leader, Nele Kantule, essentially handed Nordenskiöld a record of his people’s customs, beliefs, and history. “Anthropology of the Kuna was started by the Kuna. And they continue to do it,” says Professor of Anthropology James Howe, who examines the relationship between the Kuna and their own enthnography in his new book. More
Haiti’s past casts a long shadow over its future, according to four MIT scholars (all with strong personal ties to Haiti) who spoke at a Starr Forum held to explore the future of the country. Insights from Michel DeGraff, associate professor of linguistics, Erica James, associate professor of anthropology, Cherie Miot Abbanat, lecturer in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning, and Dale Joachim, a visiting scientist at the MIT Media Lab. Learn about the keys to Haiti's future
The controversy in the 1870s over Thirlmere, a picturesque body of water in Britain’s Lake District, created a “template for subsequent environmental struggles,” writes Harriet Ritvo, the Arthur Conner Professor of History at MIT. Ritvo’s recent book, The Dawn of Green, published in 2009 by the University of Chicago Press, explores this episode and its ongoing influence on the way we frame environmental discussions and debates. More
In an interview with MIT News, Mindell responds to the Obama administration’s recent budget proposal for NASA. The proposal would increase the agency’s budget but would cancel the Constellation program, which was intended to send humans to the moon by 2020, and would also rely on the commercial sector to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. Full Story at MIT News
Joe Haldeman, Adjunct Professor in the School's Program in Writing and Humanistic Studies, has received the Damon Knight Memorial Grand Master award for 2010 from the Science Fiction and Science Fantasy Writers of America. The Grand Master award is SFWA’s highest accolade and recognizes excellence for a lifetime of contributions to the genres of science fiction and fantasy.
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Natasha Schull, Assistant Professor in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society, observed that gamblers become transfixed for hours at video poker and slot machines. What, she wondered, kept them glued to machines until they lost all they had to lose? Schull is publishing her conclusions that proprietary mathematical algorithms and immersive technology are used to keep people gambling until they—in the industry jargon—"play to extinction." More
"I have been to over 40 countries (Africa seven times) and have always come back a nervous wreck. The blog is drawn from journals that I write while traveling. These journals are to me what Prozac is to others." More
A September 2009 report from the MIT Global Council outlines an historic opportunity to deepen international learning at the Institute, and to make international education a core component of an MIT education.
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