Said and Done

December 2017
Published by the Office of the Dean
MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
 


QUOTABLE

“The MIT mission is to serve humanity, and the arts are a powerful way for our students to grow in knowledge and understanding of the human condition.”

— Marcus Thompson, Institute Professor


RESEARCH
 

COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES / WRITING
3 Questions: Lisa Parks on drones, warfare, and the media
Drones have become a common part of warfare — but their use remains a subject of public contention. Parks, CMS/W Professor and director of its Global Media Technologies and Cultures Lab, has co-edited a new volume examining the subject.
Story by Peter Dizikes, MIT News
 

HISTORY
Workshop illuminates the value of multidisciplinary research | Harriet Ritvo
“Citizen Science and the Wild,” co-convened by Harriet Ritvo, Arthur J. Conner Professor of History, drew an unusual variety of MIT experts together, including historians of science, anthropologists, scientists, and museum professionals.
Story by SHASS Communications


HISTORY
How Haiti helps us think differently about history | Malick Ghachem
Ghachem, Associate Professor of History, thinks Haiti is too often treated as a blank spot on the historical map. “If you want to think about economic history or international law or human rights and you bring Haiti into the picture,” Ghachem says, “it disturbs the conversation and upsets the terms of the debate.”
Story by Peter Dizikes
 


Malick Ghachem, Associate Professor of History / Photo by Allegra Boverman


ALUMNI AND STUDENT NEWS
 

SCIENCE WRITING
MIT Science Writing graduate joins New York TimesKendra Pierre-Louis
Pierre-Louis, author of the book Green Washed: Why We Can’t Buy Our Way to a Green Planet, recently joined the New York Times climate desk as a reporter in New York.
Press release at the New York Times


POLITICAL SCIENCE
An American in Paris | Elizabeth Dekeyser
PhD student Dekeyser explores Muslim communities' solidarity with the French state: “Living here has been a lesson in the importance of bridges," she says, "whether between different concepts of nationalism and faith, or on a personal level.”
Story by Leda Zimmerman, Political Science
 


VIDEO FEATURE


What do MIT SHASS students make?
Take a look at what students are making in MIT's humanities, arts, and social science fields — from better health care services to music composed from big bang energy to tools for a more responsive democracy.
Watch the 3-minute video
 

Ask MIT students what they are making. They'll have infinite answers. Take a look.


NEWS


21ST CENTURY CITIZENSHIP
Mens et Manus America initiative examines the rural American economy
Sponsored by the non-partisan Mens et Manus America Initiative — which explores social, political, and economic challenges currently facing the U.S. — this well-attended event featured a panel of executives whose organizations are working to rebuild rural economies.
Story by SHASS Communications


CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
Bustani Seminar series tackles complex Middle East statehood issues
In the Bustani Middle East Seminar series, lectures by Leila Farsakh and Peter Krause PhD '11 take a close look at nationalist movements in Israel, Palestine, and Algeria.
Story by Dain Goding, CIS
 


ARTS FEATURE

New era for MIT Theater opens with Everybody
Everybody, the inaugural performance in MIT’s new performing arts building (W97), is a brand-new 2017 play based on the venerable 15th century English morality play, Everyman. As performed last month at MIT, directed by Anna Kohler, the play at once updates a masterwork from the distant past and represents the future — the great range of new arts opportunities that W97 makes possible.
Story + Photographs
 


Photo by Jon Sachs

“The arts are critical to the MIT experience.They give our students tools they need to succeed — not simply as scientists, engineers, and scholars, but as informed contributors to society — as citizens.”

— L. Rafael Reif, President of MIT


HONORS AND AWARDS


HISTORY
Craig Wilder delivers the 2017 Capps Memorial Lecture
Wilder, the Barton L. Weller Professor of History, delivered the prestigious Walter H. Capps Memorial Lecture on Friday, November 3, 2017, at the National Humanities Conference in Boston.
Story by SHASS Communications
 

LITERATURE + BIOLOGY
Literature and biology major Mary Clare Beytagh ’18 receives Rhodes Scholarship
MIT seniors Beytagh and Matthew Chun have each received prestigious Rhodes Scholarships. The scholarship provides funding for one to three years of graduate study at Oxford. Beytagh, who aspires to be a physician, is also an MIT SHASS Burchard Scholar.
Finding poetry in medicine: Mary Clare Beytagh '18  | Two MIT students receive Rhodes Scholarships
 

ECONOMICS
Economics major Oliva Zhao '18, awarded Marshall scholarship 
Zhao will study at Oxford University to earn a Master’s degree in economics as a Marshall Scholar. She then hopes to earn a PhD in economics and research public policy from an economics perspective. Zhao says she wants to “research the policy in action.”
Story at MIT News
 


L to R: Mary Clare Beytagh ’18 and Olivia Zhao ’18. Photos by Ian MacLellan



HISTORY
Christopher Capozzola awarded Carnegie Council on International Affairs fellowship
Associate Professor Christopher Capozzola has been awarded a fellowship by the Carnegie Council on International Affairs (CCIA) to support his new research project, “Merchants of Death? The Politics of Defense Contracting, Then and Now.”
Press release at the CCIA


ANTHROPOLOGY
Professor Stefan Helmreich receives the 2017 Staley Prize for Alien Ocean
“Some people call this the Pulitzer Prize of anthropology. The prize is selected by an anonymous committee of scholars. It's a very competitive process, there are very intense debates, and this book emerged as a unanimous favorite.”
Story by SHASS Communications
 


BOOKSHELF | NEW WORKS




L to R: Life in the Age of Drone Warfare, co-edited by Lisa Parks and Caren Kaplan, Duke University Press, October 2017; The Calculated Values: Finance, Politics, and the Quantitative Age by William Deringer Harvard University Press, January 2018; The Future, by Nick Montfort MIT Press, November 2017
 


IN THE MEDIA

To see all featured SHASS media stories, visit the complete In the Media, December 2017.
 

SECURITY STUDIES
The price of war with North Korea | Barry Posen
Posen, the Ford International Professor of Political Science at MIT and Director of the MIT Security Studies Program, warns that “the detonation of even a small number of nuclear weapons in North Korea would produce hellish results.”
Op/ed at The New York Times


ABDUL LATIF JAMEEL POVERTY ACTION LAB
Why do so many Indian children go missing?Abhijit Banerjee
JPAL director Banerjee, explains that “parents may be reluctant to report children who ran away as a result of abuse, sexual and otherwise — which I think is rampant.”
Story at The New York Times


POLITICAL SCIENCE
Scientists prove that the public pays attention to journalism | Ariel White
A study co-authored by MIT politcal scientist White “demonstrates that even small news outlets can have a substantial impact on the issues Americans talk about and when they talk about them.”
Story at the Los Angeles Times
 


STAY IN TOUCH
 

Follow us

 


Research Impact
Explore

SHASS on MIT News
Research, Features, Awards

MIT Campaign for a Better World
Story | Join Us

Videos
Watch
 


 

Said and Done is published by the Office of the Dean
MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Editor and Designer: Emily Hiestand, Director, SHASS Communications
Publication Associate: Daniel Evans Pritchard, SHASS Communications
Published 14 December 2017