News From SHASS

MIT Associate Professor Megan Black is an environmental historian who studies the politics of resource extraction, breaking new ground in detailing U.S. government involvement in mining.

History from the ground up

Peter Dizikes | MIT News

November 5, 2023

Associate Professor Megan Black’s research digs into mining, power, and environmental politics in the US.

An experiment co-authored by MIT researchers shows that people’s stated political news consumption does not always match what they’re really viewing.

In online news, do mouse clicks speak louder than words?

Peter Dizikes | MIT News

November 2, 2023

Partisan media might deepen political polarization, but we should measure people’s media habits more carefully before drawing conclusions, researchers say.

Forging climate connections across the Institute

Office of the Vice President for Research

November 1, 2023

Inaugural Fast Forward Faculty Fund grants aim to spur new work on climate change and deepen collaboration at MIT.

Professor Malick Ghachem (left) led a discussion with Richard Ovenden about the relevance of the research library to contemporary debates over academic freedom and free expression.

Books under attack, then and now

Brigham Fay | MIT Libraries

October 26, 2023

Richard Ovenden, Bodley’s Librarian at the University of Oxford, inaugurates a new campus series on academic freedom and expression.

MIT alumnus Morris Chang, founder and former longtime head of TSMC, the Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, spoke at MIT about the semiconductor industry, as part of the Manufacturing@MIT Distinguished Speaker Series.

Morris Chang ’52, SM ’53 describes the secrets of semiconductor success

Peter Dizikes | MIT News

October 25, 2023

At MIT, a driving force in the chip-making industry discusses the rise of TSMC and Taiwan as a manufacturing center.

“The vision for the Policy Lab is to deliver a return to society by getting MIT’s research and expertise into the hands of decision-makers around the country and around the world who are in positions to use it,” explains Drew Story, managing director of the MIT Policy Lab at the Center for International Studies.

Q&A: Magnifying research impact with policymakers

MIT Center for International Studies

October 23, 2023

Drew Story describes the MIT Policy Lab, which is designed to support researchers who aim to affect public policy.

Daron Acemoglu co-leads the MIT Shaping the Future of Work Initiative.

Institute Professor Daron Acemoglu Wins A.SK Social Science Award

Benjamin Daniel | School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

October 18, 2023

The award honors research on public policy with a focus on economic and governmental reforms.

"The American political system is founded on the notion of an informed, engaged public, so we should strive to understand both what citizens think and how they come to these conclusions," says political science postdoc Chloe Wittenberg PhD ’23.

Analyzing pathways to persuasion

Leda Zimmerman | Department of Political Science

October 18, 2023

When it comes to shaping political beliefs, MIT postdoc Chloe Wittenberg PhD ’23 finds video captivates, but might not beat text.

The full-scale reconstruction of the Cybersyn Operations Room is hexagonal and measures 72 square meters, with seven fiberglass armchairs equipped with buttons for remotely controlling screens on the room’s walls.

Designing a revolution

Michael Brindley | School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

October 16, 2023

An MIT professor and students collaborate with Chilean partners for an exhibition marking 50 years since the Allende presidency.

MIT economist Nathaniel Hendren studies the drivers of economic opportunity in America.

Nathaniel Hendren wants to understand the conditions of opportunity

Peter Dizikes | MIT News

October 12, 2023

The MIT professor of economics studies social mobility and examines which policies can give people a chance to thrive.

“I think of Writers’ Group and the literature that goes on here as some of MIT’s best kept secrets,” says Anne Hudson, who’s been a member on and off since 2002.

One of MIT’s “best-kept secrets” offers an outlet for creative writing

Zach Winn | MIT News

October 10, 2023

The MIT’s Writers’ Group has helped community members channel their creative energies since 2002.

The Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow (MEET) program regularly gets about 1,500 applicants for each new cohort. Every year it selects 120 new students, split evenly between Palestinians and Jewish Israelis, and between boys and girls.

Empowering students to bring change in the Middle East

Zach Winn | MIT News

October 6, 2023

The Middle East Entrepreneurs of Tomorrow (MEET) program uses an MIT-inspired curriculum and MISTI student instructors to help young Palestinians and Israelis find common ground.

Aja Grande is now a PhD candidate in MIT’s HASTS (History, Anthropology, Science, Technology and Society) program, and part of her dissertation tracks how Hawaiian culture and people’s relationship with the land has evolved throughout time.

A reciprocal relationship with the land in Hawaiʻi

Laura Rosado | MIT News correspondent

October 5, 2023

Through community-based research with organizations that work to “hoʻomomona hou i ka ʻāina,” or “restore that which feeds back to abundance,” PhD student Aja Grande has embarked on a healing journey of her own.

Top row, left to right: Danah Alfailakawi, Nina Dewi Toft Djanegara, Alessandra Jungs de Almeida, and Amber Mackey. Bottom row, from left to right: Somayeh Tohidi, Vanessa Noemi Velez, and Biyi Wen.

MIT SHASS Diversity Predoctoral Fellowship Program welcomes 2023-24 class

Michael Brindley | School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

October 5, 2023

The fellowship program enhances diversity in SHASS and provides fellows with professional support and mentoring.

Empowering the Teachers spring 2022 cohort with MIT Professor Tayo Akinwande (center) at Killian Court.

Fellowship program empowers Nigerian academics to transform engineering education in their local universities

Danna Lorch | MIT Center for International Studies

October 3, 2023

“Empowering the Teachers” provides an immersive and innovative training experience for young African academics.

“I believe my data will help answer some really big questions about both political economy and contentious politics,” says MIT PhD candidate Elizabeth Parker-Magyar, pictured here in Amman, Jordan. “I also hope it will answer some related questions around the impact of political reforms — like how state workers are hired and whether they find their work satisfying — and how decentralization matters for how public sector workers do their jobs.”

Finding solidarity in the teachers’ lounge

Leda Zimmerman | Department of Political Science

October 2, 2023

MIT PhD candidate Elizabeth Parker-Magyar finds close workplace networks among educators drive their activism even outside of democracies.

King County, Washington’s Executive Climate Office is one of J-PAL North America’s LEVER Evaluation Incubator collaborators. With support from J-PAL staff, King County is designing an evaluation of programming for households to more equitably access home energy efficiency improvements.

J-PAL North America and Results for America announce 18 collaborations with state and local governments

Mera Cronbaugh | J-PAL North America

September 29, 2023

Organizations will support government agencies in using evidence to advance economic mobility and racial equity in the wake of Covid-19.

MIT economist and Institute Professor Daron Acemoglu (left) presented the case for using AI to produce shared prosperity by supplementing workers, rather than replacing them, in a campus talk at MIT's Starr Forum on Tuesday, Sept. 26. At right is Fotini Christia, Ford International Professor of the Social Sciences at MIT, who was a discussant after Acemoglu's remarks. The Starr Forum is presented by MIT's Center for International Studies.

Who will benefit from AI?

Peter Dizikes | MIT News

September 29, 2023

In campus talk, Daron Acemoglu offers vision of “machine usefulness,” rather than autonomous “intelligence,” to help workers and spread prosperity.

The four majors, all launched between 2017 and 2019, have grown rapidly and now encompass about 360 undergraduates, or roughly 8 percent of MIT’s total undergraduate enrollment.

Giving students the computational chops to tackle 21st-century challenges

Adam Zewe | MIT News

September 28, 2023

With the growing use of AI in many disciplines, the popularity of MIT’s four “blended” majors has intensified.

Left to right: Kristin Young (Sophia), Timur Bekbosunov (Eric Lampton), Davóne Tines (Horselover Fat), and Maggie Finnegan (Linda Lampton) in “VALIS” at MIT.

Re-imagining the opera of the future

Anya Ventura | Arts at MIT

September 27, 2023

The iconic sci-fi opera “VALIS,” first composed by Professor Tod Machover in 1987, reboots at MIT for a new generation.

Top row, from left to right: Denise Frasier, Morgane König, Angelino Viceisza, and Tawanna Dillahunt. Bottom row, left to right: Wasalu "Lupe Fiasco" Jaco, Jean-Luc Pierite, Angélica María Mayolo Obregón, Christine Taylor-Butler, and Kwabena Donkor.

MIT welcomes nine MLK Visiting Professors and Scholars for 2023-24

Beatriz Cantada | Institute Community and Equity Office

September 27, 2023

Martin Luther King Jr. Visiting Professors and Scholars will enhance and enrich the MIT community through engagement with students and faculty.

An MIT linguistics student and faculty member have catalogued the emerging use of “whom of which” in English, while examining what this new construction tells us about syntax.

Have you heard about the “whom of which” trend?

Peter Dizikes | MIT News

September 27, 2023

An MIT student and linguistics professor spot an emerging English phrase and examine what it tells us about syntax — but questions remain.

M. Taylor Fravel, an expert on China’s foreign policy and security strategy, is the director of MIT’s Security Studies Program, as well as the Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor in MIT’s Department of Political Science.

Q&A: The BRICS expansion and the global balance of power

Peter Dizikes | MIT News

September 26, 2023

MIT political scientist Taylor Fravel examines the potential and limitations of a bigger BRICS group of countries — and what it means for the U.S.

In her research, PhD student Nicole Wilson examines the political behavior of an emerging middle class in Nigeria as it increasingly moves inside private enclaves. Her research, she hopes, will illuminate the “political role of the middle class in democracies in the Global South.”

Nicole Wilson: The politics of a shifting middle class in Nigeria

Leda Zimmerman | Department of Political Science

September 24, 2023

As the middle class in Lagos retreats to private enclaves, political scientist Nicole Wilson ponders the impacts on democratic norms.

In his new book “Iterate,” MIT associate professor Justin Reich contends the key to improvement in schools is modest-sized, incremental changes that can be repeatedly refined.

The secret to good schools: Try, try again

Peter Dizikes | MIT News

September 20, 2023

Justin Reich’s new book, “Iterate,” explains how education gets better through incremental improvements.

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