SAID AND DONE
OCTOBER 2020
MIT SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES, ARTS, AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
QUOTABLE
"It's the job of our leaders to stand up and challenge unsubstantiated rumors and outright falsehoods. Politicians have tremendous power to lead and to shape information, and voters need to remember this when they head to the polls — in this and every election."
— Adam Berinsky, Mitsui Professor of Political Science
ELECTION 2020
POLITICAL SCIENCE / MIT ELECTION LAB
How many votes will be counted after election night? | Charles Stewart III
Recent presidential elections have seen a "blue shift," with Democrats gaining in the post-Election Day vote counts. Will it happen again this year? "It's one of the reasons people are bracing for a bit of a rocky ride after the polls close," says political scientist Charles Stewart, head of the MIT Election Data and Science Lab.
Story by Peter Dizikes at MIT News | Paper: Explaining the Blue Shift in Election Canvassing
POLITICAL SCIENCE
Ariel White on voting rights and re-enfranchisement
"The problems in the Florida case have drawn our attention to how widespread, how life-disrupting, and how racially-disparate the experience of legal debt is for people who have passed through the criminal legal system."
Interview by MIT SHASS Communications
POLITICAL SCIENCE
Adam Berinsky on election polls and the responsibilities of political leaders
"Arguably, the political parties could do more to create saner messaging. Broadcast television and social media also have roles to play. But politicians have tremendous power to lead and to shape that information, and voters need to remember this when they head to the polls — in this and every election.
Interview by MIT SHASS Communications
VOTING RESOURCES
What's the best way for you to cast your vote this year?
Follow this one-page digest, based on information from the non-partisan MIT Election Data and Science Lab, for evolving information on safe and effective options for voting in the November 3 elections.
Updates for Voters
Also see: MIT Vote | State-by-State Interactive Guide to Casting your Ballot
RESEARCH
LABOR ECONOMICS | WORK OF THE FUTURE
To protect good jobs, end tax breaks for job-killing technology | Acemoglu et al.
“Favorable taxation of capital leads to excessive automation,” said MIT economist Daron Acemoglu, lead author of a new paper co-authored with MIT graduate student Andrea Manera and Boston University professor of economics Pascual Restrepo.
Story at Bloomberg | Related: Paper on automation and employment
J-PAL NORTH AMERICA
New center will focus on health care for the aging
The MIT Roybal Center for Translational Research to Improve Health Care for the Aging aims to improve health outcomes for aging adults in the US. The center will work with affiliated researchers to test low-cost, high-impact behavioral interventions.
Story by JPAL, on MIT News
OPEN DOCUMENTARY LAB | COMPARATIVE MEDIA STUDIES
Carla LynDale Bishop, inaugural recipient of MIT and BLK Public Media Fellowship
Hosted by the Open Doc Lab in the Comparative Media Studies/Writing program and sponsored by the Arts at MIT, Bishop will work on her immersive project, "Mapping Blackness."
Meet Carla LynDale Bishop
CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES | MISTI PROGRAM
MIT deepens connections to the Middle East
The SHASS-based MISTI program launches a new seed fund in Jordan as part of MIT-Arab World program.
Story by MISTI, on MIT News
BOOKSHELF
BOOKSHELF
Works from MIT's humanistic faculty
Browse the Online Bookshelf
CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL STUDIES
Beyond 9/11 | Chappell Lawson
In a new book, Lawson explores the country’s multifaceted security needs in the 21st century. "The 9/11 terrorist attacks crystallized a particular notion of homeland security," he says. "But that focus on counterterrorism obscured almost everything else," for example, cyber threats, and preventing/addressing deadly pandemics.
Interview by MIT News | Chappell Lawson
HISTORY
Databases, Revenues, and Repertory | Jeffrey Ravel, Anne McCants
Big Data for theater! A new open access essay collection explores the Comédie-Française Registers Project — a groundbreaking initiative in the digital humanities.
About at the MIT Press | Interview with Ravel | Comédie-Française Registers Project
ECONOMICS
Distributed Ledgers | Robert Townsend
Bitcoin is part of a larger family of financial innovations, known as “distributed ledgers,” which allow people to perform financial activities without requiring a central authority. In his new book, Townsend surveys how such financial technologies can help emerging economies and many industries.
Story by MIT News | About at MIT Press | Robert Townsend
SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY, AND SOCIETY
India’s culture of coping with cancer | Dwaipayan Banerjee
"A landmark." In his deeply human ethnography of cancer in India, Banerjee examines the psychological and social terrain of living with cancer in a country where the disease has long been downplayed.
Story by Peter Dizikes at MIT News | Dwaipayan Banerjee
MEET OUR STUDENTS
POLITICAL SCIENCE + MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
A champion of renewable energy and equity
Combining degrees in mechanical engineering and political science, MIT senior Darya Guettler advocates for climate policy, sustainable technologies, and equitable, inclusive processes.
Story by MIT News
GRADUATE PROGRAM IN SCIENCE WRITING
The beauty and complexity of science | Fernanda de Araújo Ferreira
With a newly minted PhD in virology from Harvard, Fernanda de Araújo Ferreira is now focused on contributing to the scientific enterprise through journalism.
Story by the Office of Graduate Education
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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 15 October 2020