World-class
research
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.
Q&A: A new initiative to help strengthen democracy
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.
MIT launches new Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program
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.
Empowering systemic racism research at MIT and beyond
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.
Study: Hospice care provides major Medicare savings
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).
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.
MIT Health and Life Sciences Collaborative
MIT’s Health and Life Sciences Collaborative launches Wednesday, December 4 at 8 a.m. in Kresge Auditorium. The Collaborative will feature interdisciplinary projects spanning engineering, science, AI, economics, business, policy, design, and the humanities. The collaborative will also strengthen partnerships between MIT, hospitals, and industry.
MIT Jazz Combos Concert
MIT’s music program presents its Jazz Combos Concert Tuesday, December 3 at 7:30 p.m. in Building 14’s Killian Hall.
SHASS community spotlight
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.
Latest news from SHASS
Our work has broad impact at MIT and across the globe. Read the latest about new ideas coming out of SHASS.
3 Questions: Community policing in the Global South
International research co-led by Professor Fotini Christia finds an approach lauded in the US works differently in other regions.
From refugee to MIT graduate student
As a child, a civil war drove Mlen-Too Wesley out of Liberia. As an adult, he has returned and is applying what he learned in an MITx MicroMasters program to help the West African nation thrive.
How mass migration remade postwar Europe
Volha Charnysh’s new book examines refugees and state-building in Germany and Poland after World War II, as new residents spurred economic and civic growth.