Said and Done

March 2018
Published by the Office of the Dean
MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
 


QUOTABLE

"Democracy cannot be protected through anything other than ongoing citizen mobilization. Even the checks and balances of the U.S. Constitution are not especially powerful and weren’t designed to protect democracy. The only thing that can save democracy is society itself.” 

— Daron Acemoglu, Killian Professor of Economics



RESEARCH
 

MIT INTELLIGENCE QUEST
Dean Nobles introduces conversation on "The Consequences: Intelligence and Society”
In her introduction, Dean Nobles asked, “What are the social, economic, political, artistic, ethical, and spiritual consequences of trying to make what happens in our minds happen in a machine? Who does this machine answer to?”
MIT News story
 



THEATER ARTS
Q&A: Jay Scheib on theater, daring, and love
“Bat out of Hell,” directed by MIT theater director Jay Scheib, recently won the London Evening Standard Radio 2 Audience Award for Best Musical. “The willingness to dare,” says Scheib, “to roll the dice on something you know and believe is true, emotionally, is valuable. It’s worth it.”
Story by SHASS Communications
 

LINGUISTICS
The writing on the wall | Shigeru Miyagawa
“Cave art was part of the package deal in terms of how homo sapiens came to have this very high-level cognitive processing,” says Miyagawa, a professor of linguistics and the Kochi-Manjiro Professor of Japanese Language and Culture. “You have this very concrete cognitive process that converts an acoustic signal into some mental representation and externalizes it as a visual.”
MIT News story by Peter Dizikes
 



RESEARCH FEATURE: PATHWAYS TO POLICY
 


Winter 2018 edition of MIT Spectrum focuses on research that informs policy
The issue looks at how MIT faculty find avenues for collaboration with government, business, and other organizations that can translate research findings into widespread action. SHASS policy-related research featured includes work by J-PAL, the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, the International Policy Lab, the MIT-Haiti project, and Seminar XXI.

Read the issue  |  Letter from President Reif: From Research to Policy
 



ECONOMICS
Ouch: Study reveals financial pain after hospitalization | Amy Finkelstein
A new paper co-authored by MIT health economist Amy Finkelstein finds that serious medical problems lead to a twenty percent drop in earnings and an eleven percent drop in employment for adults between ages fifty and fifty-nine, among other negative effects.
MIT News story by Peter Dizikes


COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES
3Q: T.L. Taylor on diversity in e-sports
E-sports have experienced a surge in growth in recent years, and boast their own professional teams as well as partnerships with major team sports. But how diverse are e-sports? An initiative called “AnyKey,” co-directed by MIT’s T.L. Taylor, examines that question.
MIT News story by Peter Dizikes
 

POLITICAL SCIENCE
Rise in concern about election hacking | Charles Stewart III
Stewart, the Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Director of the MIT Election Data and Science Lab, examines the rise (and the partisan divide) in concern about US election hacking and the implications for a policy response.
Report at Election Updates



 

FEATURE: HISTORY THAT INFORMS THE PRESENT AND THE FUTURE

MIT community explores initial findings from the “MIT and Slavery” class.
250 members of the MIT community gathered to explore the early findings from the “MIT and Slavery” undergraduate research course, first taught in the Fall of 2017. In this ongoing course, MIT students help to advance knowledge about the relationship of the Atlantic slave economy to science, engineering, and technical education.

Story by SHASS Communications | Event video
 


Members of the initial MIT & Slavery Class gave presentations; L to R: Charlotte Minsky '20, Kelvin Green II '21, Mahi Elango '20, teaching assistant and PhD student Clare Kim, and, at the podium, Alaisha Alexander '18.

“I believe the work of this class is important to the present — and to the future. What can history teach us now, as we work to invent the future? How can we make sure that the technologies we invent will contribute to making a better world for all?”

— L. Rafael Reif, President of MIT



HONORS AND AWARDS
 

COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES + CAST + CSAIL
VR project “The Enemy” wins 2017 Rose d'Or | D. Fox Harrell
Works from seven countries were honored at the 56th Rose d’Or Awards in Berlin, including “The Enemy,” a virtual reality experience developed by MIT CAST artist Ben Khelifa in collaboration with CMS/W + CSAIL Professor D. Fox Harrell to explore VR’s potential to engender empathy and humanity. 
Story at EBU
 

GLOBAL STUDIES AND LANGUAGES
Jing Wang awarded the Overseas Distinguished Professorship
China’s Ministry of Education has awarded Jing Wang, Professor of Chinese Media and Cultural Studies, the Overseas Distinguished Professorship, a five-year appointment at the University of Communication of China.
Jing Wang's website


INSTITUTE AWARDS
SHASS faculty sweep the 2018 MacVicar Fellow awards
David Autor (Economics), Christopher Capozzola (History), Shankar Raman (Literature), and Merritt Roe Smith (History, and STS), have been named 2018 MacVicar Fellows, the Institute's highest honor for undergraduate teaching.
MIT News story
 


L to R: David Autor, Ford Professor of Economics and associate head of the Department of Economics; Christopher Capozzola, an associate professor of history; Shankar Raman, a professor of literature; and Merritt Roe Smith, the Leverett and William Cutten Professor of the History of Technology in the Department of History and the Program in Science, Technology, and Society.



NEWS
 

LINGUISTICS AND ECONOMICS
MIT Linguistics ranked No. 1 in 2018 QS World University Rankings
MIT, which has been ranked as the top university in the world by QS World University Rankings for six straight years, also ranked within the top five in nineteen out of forty-eight subject areas, including Linguistics and Economics. 
MIT News story


INFINITE MILE AWARDS
Nominations open for SHASS Infinite Mile Awards | Deadline March 23
The SHASS Infinite Mile Awards recognize members of MIT's administrative, support, service, and research staff. Anyone with a working relationship to the nominee — including peers, supervisors, customers, students, faculty, and other academic, administrative, support, sponsored research, or service staff — can make a nomination.
Complete details | Nominate a colleague


CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES | STARR FORUM
At forum, researchers tackle an urgent question: Is democracy dying?
Democracy is “certainly having a rough ride,” said Daron Acemoglu, the Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics at MIT. Panelists agreed that social mobilization, engaging with government, and voting are the best — and only — remedy to authoritarian and anti-democratic tendencies.
MIT News story by Peter Dizikes


ECONOMICS + SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY
MIT launches Task Force on the Work of the Future
This Institute-wide effort will study the evolution of jobs in an age of technological advancement, with leadership from SHASS faculty members David Autor of Economics and David Mindell of the Program in Science, Technology, and Society.
MIT News story


GLOBAL STUDIES AND LANGUAGES
Outstanding MIT students of French explore “Paris et la rue”
In the January Scholars in France program, led by Professor Bruno Perreau, students investigate transportation, city planning, history, and the arts in behind-the-scenes, working Paris.
Story by Leda Zimmerman
 


Mural by Shepard Fairey, a gift to France after the 2015 attacks



POLITICAL SCIENCE
Political Methodology Lab to dig deep into new kinds of data
“Today scientists seeking to understand what shapes political beliefs and behavior must focus on online activities,” says lab founder Teppei Yamamoto, “which means contending with massive amounts of new kinds of data.”
Story by Leda Zimmerman


ABDUL LATIF JAMEEL POVERTY ACTION LAB
Conference advances use of data and evaluation in policymaking
Government leaders, social service providers, and leading scholars gathered for the second conference of J-PAL North America’s State and Local Innovation Initiative.
Story at MIT News
 



STUDENT FEATURE

Blasting off in Perm, Russia: humanities, travel and rockets!
Piper Sigerist's video “Blasting Off in Perm,” won first place in the MISTI Media awards. An Aero-Astro major with a minor in Russian Studies, Sigerist '18 traveled over IAP via the Global Teaching Lab, a part of the SHASS-based MISTI program. The GLT provides
students the opportunity to learn through teaching, share MIT's approach around the world, hone language skills, and deepen their understanding of another culture.

Video Blog | Global Teaching Lab
 


Piper Sigerist ’18, with a friend, in Perm, Siberia



IN THE MEDIA

To see all featured SHASS media stories, visit the complete In the Media, March 2018.
 

WRITING + PHYSICS
Stephen Hawking was the ultimate image of mind over matter | Tribute by Alan Lightman
"The passing of Stephen Hawking gives us the opportunity to celebrate the best in ourselves, to reaffirm the power of the human mind and the majesty of our desire to know and to understand this strange universe we find ourselves in. With so much brutish and divisive behavior in the world at the moment, it is good to remind ourselves of who we are."
Tribute in The Washington Post


COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES
Why news about the Parkland shooting is being sustained
Sasha Costanza-Chock, associate professor of civic media, says the teenage activists deserve credit for keeping Parkland in the news. “They've given hundreds of interviews to print and TV journalists, so within a couple days they learned how to do that, and how to use talking points with a reporter.”
Story at The Washington Post
 

ECONOMICS
What a more equitable US trade policy could look like 
“International trade creates diffuse benefits and concentrated costs,” says MIT economist David Autor. “China’s rapid rise, while enormously positive for world welfare, has created identifiable losers in trade-impacted industries and the labor markets in which they are located.”
Story at the New York Times
 


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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 15 March 2018