Home - MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

MIT SHASS Advancing human understanding

CMS/W lecturer Michael Maune: Teaching with Digital Technology Award Winner

Learn more: MIT Human Insight Collaborative

Burchard Scholars Program

MIT economists Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson share Nobel Prize

Our distinguished faculty do field-defining work and develop the values, vision, and ethical compass of tomorrow’s leaders. They produce operas alongside research that makes the world a better place.

Without human understanding, there is no understanding. The School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences is home to scholars and artists who are doing transformative work in fields that are vital to addressing the world’s most important challenges.

Learn more about SHASS

The MIT Human Insight Collaborative will elevate the human-centered disciplines and unite the Institute’s top scholars to help solve the world’s biggest challenges.

David Singer, head of the MIT Department of Political Science, discusses the Strengthening Democracy Initiative, focused on the rigorous study of elections, public opinion, and political participation.

The program will invite students to investigate new vistas at the intersection of music, computing, and technology.

Learn more about the research of our exceptional faculty.

Meet the faculty

MIT economist and economics department chair Jon Gruber co-authored a study detailing how hospice care in the U.S. generates substantial savings (about $29,000) to Medicare over the first five years after someone is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD).

MIT political scientist Fotini Christia, who directs the MIT Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS) and co-leads the Initiative on Combatting Systemic Racism (ICSR), is helping to build an open data repository to advance research on racial inequity in areas like policing, housing, and health care.

SHASS offers an wide array of events through our departments, programs, and centers. We’ve featured some upcoming events below. See our events calendar for opportunities to drink tea with luminaries from SHASS fields, hear groundbreaking ideas at a symposium, or attend a film screening.

View all events

The MIT Theater 2024 Fall Production. November 21, 22, and 23 at 8:00 pm in Building W97.

Join the MIT Symphony Orchestra for their second concert of the season! Friday, Nov. 22, 8pm @ Kresge Auditorium

Please join us at the inaugural MIT Ukraine Innovation Hub event, featuring two visiting speakers, Hanna Montavon and Ian Miller. Monday, Nov. 25, 3 pm @ E38, Hacker Reactor

The SHASS community is made of inspiring students, staff, and faculty. Meet these individuals who have big impacts in the corridors of MIT and beyond.