Said and Done

JANUARY 2021
MIT SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES, ARTS, AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
 



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QUOTABLE

"MIT economist Amy Finkelstein has changed what we know about Medicaid, Medicare, the economics of health care — and, increasingly, medical care itself." 
 


RESEARCH | INFORMING HEALTHCARE POLICY
 


Amy Finkelstein, John and Jennie MacDonald Professor of Economics; photo by Bryce Vickmark
 

HEALTHCARE AND MEDICAL ECONOMICS

A healthy understanding | Amy Finkelstein
The defining feature of Finkelstein’s research is that she brings finely sharpened data to health-care conversations that had been driven by mere assumptions. Time and again, she has made such discussions more rigorous, and more useful for planning and policy making.
Story at Technology Review

Can mammogram screening be more effective? | Amy Finkelstein
Targeting screening for higher-risk groups could be more effective than general age-based recommendations, which attract mostly healthy women.
Story by Peter Dizikes, MIT News | Research Paper
 


RESEARCH | NATIONAL SECURITY
 


Richard Nielsen, MIT Associate Professor of Political Science; photo by Gretchen Ertl


POLITICAL SCIENCE
A new approach to studying religion and politics | Richard Nielsen
Nielsen combines ethnography and big data, textual analysis and on-the-ground research to understand clerics in the Islamic world.
Story by Peter Dizikes, MIT News | Nielsen webpage

SECURITY STUDIES PROGRAM
What's next for national security?
The renowned experts of MIT SSP review the chief national and international security events of 2020 and share perspectives on what watch for 2021.
Commentary

ECONOMICS
A better cybersecurity strategy | Alexander Wolitzky
Wolitzky's new model shows why countries that retaliate too much against online attacks make things worse for themselves: the multilateral nature of cybersecurity today makes it markedly different than conventional security.
Story

POLITICAL SCIENCE
On Conflict | Fotini Christia
"I am interested in how cooperation emerges in violently contested environments, and what role identity, material incentives, networks, and institutions play in that process."
Interview
 


MAKING A JUST SOCIETY  | MEET MOYA BAILEY
 


Moya Bailey, Assistant Professor of Africana Studies and of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at Northeastern University; 2020-21 MLK Visiting Professor at MIT WGS

 

WOMEN'S AND GENDER STUDIES
3 Questions: Moya Bailey on the intersection of racism and sexism
Bailey, an assistant professor at Northeastern, is the 2020-21 MLK Visiting Professor in the MIT WGS program. Baileycoined the concept "misgynoir" to convey the complex ways anti-Black and misogynistic representation combine to shape broader ideas about Black women. 
| Video on #HashtagActivism | Misogynoir Transformed
 


PERSPECTIVES FOR THE PANDEMIC
 


Emily Richmond Pollock, Associate Professor of Music
 

FULL SERIES
Explore the MIT SHASS Pandemic Series

MUSIC HISTORY AND CULTURE
Art in a time of crisis | Emily Richmond Pollock
Pollock, who is researching American opera festivals, hopes that most opera companies will survive the pandemic, and in forms that reflect "clarity about why people care about opera.”
Story at MIT News

HEALTH ECONOMICS
Vaccine Equity | Parag Pathak and colleagues 
"One concern is that although disadvantaged communities carry most of the Covid impact burden, they will not receive their share of vaccines fast enough." 
Story at BC News

POST-PANDEMIC JOBS
How President Biden can advance the good jobs challenge | Daron Acemoglu
"We need to use our technological capabilities to develop opportunities for workers of all backgrounds. An economy geared toward ever more automation offers no foundation for good jobs or shared prosperity."
Commentary

ONLINE EDUCATION
Moving Abruptly Online | Shigeru Miyagawa and Meghan Perdue
Like so many institutions around the world, MIT made the abrupt transition to online teaching in the midst of the pandemic, thrusting all 1,251 of its spring 2020 courses online in late March.
Story

CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES |  MISTI
MISTI shifts to fully remote global internships and cultural experiences amid pandemic
Amid the pandemic, the MISTI team has continued to match students with meaningful global opportunities conducted via virtual platforms.
Story via MIT News

 

NEW PUBLICATIONS AND CREATIVE WORKS

 


 

STS | KNIGHT SCIENCE JOURNALISM PROGRAM
KSJ publishes digital handbook for science editors + online fact-checking tools
Both free resources are part of an update of the program's website.
Story via KSJ | Handbook | Fact Checking Tools

PHILOSOPHY
Good Riddance: 2020 through the Philosopher's Lens | Kieran Setiya
In a lively conversation, Setiya talks with Kate Archer Kent of NPR/Wisconsin about what we can learn from the past year.
Listen


COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES
BORDERx: A Crisis in Graphic Detail | Mauricio Cordero
BORDERx is a study of the border crisis with contributions by over 70 writers and artists. "Asylum is not a crime." 
Story + Video

BOOKSHELF
Books and Other Creative Works from MIT's humanistic faculty
Browse the Online Bookshelf
 


SOLVING CLIMATE
 


MIT CLIMATE PORTAL
MIT SHASS on the Climate Portal

MIT CLIMATE GRAND CHALLENGES
Explore the research goals
 

FROM KNIGHT SCIENCE JOURNALISM AT MIT

Preventing future pandemics
We must ensure the biological integrity of the planet,
recognizing that the human, wildlife, and ecological health is one inseparable condition. 
Commentary at Undark magazine

How environmental journalism is survivingand thrivingin an unstable world
Meera Subramanian, president of the Society of Environmental Journalists, discusses support for reporters during a time of turmoil.
Story at KSJ News
    
 


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Published by SHASS Communications
Office of the Dean, MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Editor and Designer: Emily Hiestand
Publication Associate: Alison Lanier
Published 14 January 2021