Said and Done

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



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QUOTABLE

"The stakes could not be higher as America navigates its way forward. The open question is whether, when we look back on 2020, it will be regarded as the turning point for further strengthening the mechanics of voting, or the moment when a new generation of violent voter suppression began."

— Professors Charles Stewart III and Nathaniel Persily, directors, the Stanford-MIT Healthy Elections Project 


STRENGTHENING DEMOCRACY 



ELECTION LAB
The Miracle and the Tragedy of the 2020 Election | Charles Stewart III, Nate Persily
In this must-read analysis, two of the Nation's leading election administration experts discuss: how, during a pandemic, U.S. election administrators organized the most secure election in American history; the "big lie" that catalyzed violence at the Capitol; and current threats to U.S. voting rights and democracy.
Research

POLITICAL SCIENCE
Giving the people what they want? | Devin Caughey 
"One thing that really seems to have a bad effect on the relationship between public opinion and policy outcomes is partisan gerrymandering,” says Caughey. The best remedy? Citizens’ redistricting commissions.
Story by Peter Dizikes for MIT News

CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
What's next? Challenges for President Biden
In a recent edition of précis, from MIT CIS, six scholars offer fresh ideas on a range issues, from foreign policy to our nation’s persistent racism.
Commentaries
 


HOW IS KNOWLEDGE PRODUCED?


Catherine Clark; photo by Maggie Shannon
 

HISTORY AND FRENCH STUDIES
Developing a picture of France | Catherine Clark
"I'm interested in how we know things, and how knowledge is produced. What work do images do to construct our world views? How does having a photograph change the way we think?”
Story by Peter Dizikes at MIT News
 


MAKING A JUST SOCIETY 


Terri Lyne Carrington; photo by Jacobs


MUSIC | CAST
It Must Be Now! | Advancing social justice
Through the lens of music and media, this series from the MIT Center for the Arts, Science & Technology explores institutional racism and injustice. "Our objective is to enact change," says Fred Harris, Director of the MIT Wind and Jazz Ensembles.
About | Video with Visiting Artist Lupe Fiasco


MIT SCC | SOCIAL & ETHICAL RESPONSIBILITIES OF COMPUTING
Fostering ethical thinking in computing

A new case studies series from the SCC's SERC program examines social, ethical, and policy challenges of present-day computing activities.
Story by Terri Park via MIT News
 


NEW BOOKS


PANDEMIC | IMPACT, EQUITY, AND INNOVATION


Dr. Fatima Cody Stanford, MD, oversaw development of Covid-19 messages shown to Black and Latinx study participants.
 

JPAL NORTH AMERICA
Communications by racially diverse physicians can improve health outcomes
How to improve public health messaging to the Black, Latinx, and other communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.
Story | Paper

TASK FORCE 2021 | ACADEMIC WORKSTREAM
The future of MIT education | Anantha Chandraksan and Melissa Nobles
Chandrakasan, Dean of the School of Engineering, and Nobles, Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, describe key themes from the discussions on teaching/learning in the post-Pandemic world.
The Deans' Commentaries
| Task Force 2021 and Beyond

HEALTH ECONOMICS
What makes our our systems of vaccination distribution unfair? | Jeffrey Harris, MD
Harris, a practicing physician and Professor of Economics emeritus, researches the situation, analyzes the evidence, and details a host of host of systemic issues that are "baked in."
Research + Commentary

HEALTH ECONOMICS
The doctor will Zoom you now | Jon Gruber, Jeffrey Harris MD, and others
Patients now see that remote appointments can be effective and comfortable, and providers see that they can be compensated. “Telemedicine has been an enormous event,” Harris says. “I hope it is here to stay.”
Story at Technology Review

POVERTY ALLEVIATION
How will developing economies rebound? | Esther Duflo, Abhijit Banerjee
Nobel laureates Duflo and Banerjee discuss findings from Good Economics for Hard Times.
Story | Video

FULL SERIES
Explore the MIT SHASS Pandemic Series
 


MEET OUR STUDENTS

Kevin Costello, '21, music and math major; photo by Adam Glanzman
 

MIT BILINGUALS
The intersections of music and math | Kevin Costello
"I would love to help find new ways to combine technology and music," says math and music major Costello '21, whose current research in computational musicology focuses on 13th-century French liturgical music.
Story at MIT News | Music Video: Standing on the Sidelines

HASTS | HISTORY, ATHROPOLOGY, STS
On Covid denialsm
| Crystal Lee and co-authors
Research led by HASTS PhD student Crystal Lee combines computational and ethnographic methods to understand COVID denialism.
Story at MIT News | Crystal Lee webpage

MUSIC
MIT string quartet showcases power of digital platorms
| Choi, Liu, Wang, Chow
The IAP class “Classical Music in the Social Media Generation”—catalyzed by Jeana Choi, and developed with the other members of an MIT string quartet—featured renowned performers, including Yo-Yo Ma, who are "literally world experts on the topic of connecting with people virtually.”
Story by Leda Zimmerman, Office of the Arts
 


SOLVING CLIMATE | HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVES FROM MIT


Researchers monitoring carbon in a peat swamp forest, Indonesia. Photo: Sigit Deni Sasmito/CIFOR


ABDUL LATIF JAMEEL POVERTY ACTION LAB / DEVELOPMENT ECONOMICS
King Climate Action Initiative announces research to test + scale climate solutions
The research is part of a $25M effort to generate evidence on the effectiveness of policies and programs at the intersection of poverty and climate change.
Story by J-PAL via MIT News
| Additional J-PAL News

UNDARK | KNIGHT SCIENCE JOURNALISM AT MIT
Now is the perfect moment to decarbonize global trade | Paul Hockenos
In the midst of the coronavirus crisis, with so many planes grounded, ports restricted, and borders sealed, the world has a rare opportunity to make sweeping changes in the freight sector, argues Paul Hockenos. It should jump on the chance.
Commentary

MIT Climate Portal
MIT SHASS on the Climate Portal

MIT Climate Grand Challenges
Explore the research goals
 


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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 10 March 2021