Said and Done
November 2019
MIT SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES, ARTS, AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
QUOTABLE
“The model that the MIT Policy Lab has created over the last five years has proven to be an effective way to connect MIT research to public policy. We hope to continue to build on these successes and provide a platform for sharing MIT's enormous policy-relevant knowledge with the world.”
— Jonathan Gruber, Ford Professor of Economics
POLICY LAB CONNECTS MIT RESEARCHERS, US POLICYMAKERS
MIT Policy Lab issues fifth call for proposals to faculty and researchers
Based within the Center for International Studies, the lab helps MIT researchers connect with the policy world.
Story | Website: MIT Policy Lab
3 Questions: Jonathan Gruber on academics engaging with policymakers
How scientists, engineers, and other researchers can inform public policy.
Story
Tools for Academic Engagement in Public Policy | from the MIT Policy Lab
An introduction to the policymaking process + practical tips for engaging with the policy community.
Course at edX
RESEARCH
Kate Brown, MIT Professor of Science, Technology, and History; photo by Allegra Boverman
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY
Historian of the hinterlands | Kate Brown
In overlooked spots on the map, Brown examines the turbulence of the modern world; currently, she is researching overlooked forms of human knowledge about nature that could "help foster a more sustainable world."
Story at MIT News | Brown webpage
ECONOMICS
Optimizing kidney donation | Nikhil Agarwal
Agarwal analyzes the efficiency of markets that match suppliers and consumers but don’t use prices.
Story by Peter Dizikes, MIT News | Agarwal webpage
TOP RANKINGS FOR MIT SOCIAL SCIENCES
SOCIAL SCIENCE FIELDS
MIT ranked No. 1 worldwide for the Social Sciences
Times Higher Education awards top honors for 2020 to the social science fields in MIT SHASS, including Anthropology, Comparative Media Studies, Political Science, and Women's and Gender Studies.
Story by MIT SHASS Communications
ECONOMICS
MIT ranked No. 1 worldwide for Economics and Business
Times Higher Education awards top honors to fields in MIT SHASS and MIT Sloan for the second year in a row.
Story by MIT SHASS Communications
NEW BOOKS
Visit the MIT SHASS Bookshelf Online
Browse all books
Economics for hard times | Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo
The Nobel laureates make the case for intelligent, respectful interventionism.
Story by Peter Dizikes, MIT News | About the book
Turning Turtle | A Memoir by Samuel Jay Keyser
Kayser's story of recovery from a serious injury is also a reflection on the discrepant levels of care Americans receive from our current health care system.
Download at PubPub
Three Flames | by Alan Lightman
Lightman's new novel follows the fortunes of a family in post-civil war Cambodia as the country rebuilds.
Interview
COMMUNITY | CELEBRATING MIT HISTORIAN LEO MARX AT 100
The Lackawanna Valley; c.1855, painting by George Inness
Happy 100th Birthday Professor Leo Marx!
Leo Marx's books, and his research and teaching at MIT, helped establish the field of environmental studies — and helped build MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society into a world leader in the discipline. His still-influential 1964 book The Machine in the Garden articulates the competing ideals of American culture that evolved into today's environmental debates.
INSIDE THE CLASSROOM | THE TECHNOLOGY OF ENCHANTMENT
Photo: Graham Jones
Uncanny Machines
In a new anthropology + studio art course (21A.S01), MIT students explore our evolving relationship to technology as we begin to encounter machines that can seem to think, see, and understand.
Story by SHASS Communications
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Editor and Designer: Emily Hiestand
Publication Associate: Alison Lanier
Published 19 November 2019