SEPTEMBER 2023
MIT SCHOOL OF HUMANITIES, ARTS, AND SOCIAL SCIENCES
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WELCOMING NEW FACULTY
Top row (left to right): Isaiah Andrews, Joshua Bennett, Nathaniel Hendren, Crystal Lee, and Eli Nelson. Bottom row (left to right): Ashesh Rambachan, Nina Roussille, Jessica Ruffin, Caitlin Talmadge, and Miguel Zenón. Courtesy photos.
School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences welcomes ten new faculty
Dean Agustín Rayo and the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences warmly welcome ten new professors to the MIT community.
Story at SHASS News
RECENT WORKS AND RESEARCH
Courtesy MIT News. Photo by Andy Levine.
Dreaming of waves
Stefan Helmreich’s new book examines the many facets of oceanic wave science and the propagation of wave theory into other areas of life.
Story at MIT News
Apekshya Prasai: Up in arms
New research shows how female activists resist patriarchy on the battlefield and beyond.
Story at MIT News
Speaking hypothetically
In new research, MIT linguists explore how human language handles leaps from the here and now.
Story at MIT News
Unearthing the hidden stories of budgets and audit reports
Jerik Cruz, PhD Candidate in Political Science and MIT GOV/LAB Graduate Fellow, discusses his development of a new large-scale dataset with underused audit reports.
Story at MIT GOV/LAB
Courtesy MIT News. Photo by Stuart Darsch.
When rumors take flight
Professor Adam Berinsky’s new book examines the political misinformation that threatens the US system of government.
Story at MIT News
Q&A: Steven Gonzalez on Indigenous futurist science fiction
Gonzalez describes his new book, “Sordidez,” a science fiction novella on rebuilding, healing, and indigeneity following civil war and climate disaster.
Story at MIT News
Studying how children learn words with no meaning
Project leaders at the MIT Language Acquisition Lab say their research could shed new light on the nature of language learning.
Story at MIT News
Power to the Who
MIT GOV/LAB recently launched a new podcast series which features thought leaders in governance, reformers, technologists, and designers.
Listen to the podcast
FINDING CLIMATE SOLUTIONS
New clean air and water labs to bring together researchers, policymakers to find climate solutions
Labs in Africa, the Middle East and North Africa, and South Asia will be led by J-PAL with support from Community Jameel.
Story at MIT News
PIKSI-BOSTON
Yunqing/Isaac Han from Claremont McKenna College (third from the right) was of the Alain Locke Fellows who attended PIKSI-Boston earlier this summer. Photo by Allegra Boverman.
Empowering the next generation of philosophers through diversity and inclusion
Held annually at MIT, PIKSI-Boston brings together students from groups underrepresented in the field of philosophy.
Story at SHASS News
AWARDS AND HONORS
David Atkin, Martin Beraja, and Eric Klopfer. Photos courtesy of Economics and Literature.
Artificial intelligence for augmentation and productivity
David Atkin and Martin Beraja of the Department of Economics and Eric Klopfer of CMS/W are among MIT faculty awarded seed grants for projects that are exploring how AI and human-computer interaction can be leveraged to enhance modern work spaces to achieve better management and higher productivity.
Story at MIT News
Literature senior lecturer Wyn Kelley awarded National Endowment for the Humanities grant
Kelley is co-project director for "Moby-Dick and the World of Whaling in the Digital Age."
Story at MIT Literature
Political Science PhD candidate Jasmine Hope English awarded APSA's 2023 Kendra Koivu Award
Awarded for her paper “Dilemmas of Accommodation: Diverse Associations and the Avoidance of Racial Difference."
Story at MIT Political Science
SHASS ON SOCIAL
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IN THE MEDIA
MIT economist David Autor. Photo by Peter Tenzer.
"We have a real design choice about how we deploy AI"
MIT economist David Autor warns that artificial intelligence will not only affect the number of available jobs, but their quality, too.
Story in the Financial Times
States need to pay up to secure 2024 elections, experts warn
Political Science professor Charles Stewart III addressed the importance of ensuring state and local governments are adequately funding election administration.
Story at Axios
An old health insurance scheme in China may have saved millions
A new working paper, co-authored by Prof. Jonathan Gruber, explores the impact of the New Co-operative Medical Scheme, “a health-insurance plan for rural Chinese that was launched in 2003 and folded into a more comprehensive program in 2013."
Story at The Economist
Smartphone Symphony
Symphony Magazine spotlights the ConcertCue app, developed by Eran Egozy, Professor of the Practice in Music Technology at MIT.
Story at Symphony Magazine
Daron Acemoglu on navigating techno-optimism and regulation in the era of AI
The MIT economist joined Metis Strategy and shares three tools we have to keep the path of technology on track: democracy, regulation, and worker voice.
Listen to the podcast
D. Fox Harrell. Photo by Bryce Vickmark.
Commentary: AI can help shape society for the better - but humans and machines must work together
D. Fox Harrell, a Professor of Digital Media and Artificial Intelligence in the Comparative Media Studies Program and CSAIL, writes for The Guardian's "Living with AI" series.
Commentary at The Guardian
Richard J Samuels featured in KBS documentary
Security Studies Program Professor Richard J Samuels was interviewed in a recent Korean documentary on Min Jin Lee.
Watch the documentary
The art and science of rap
While teaching a course at MIT last spring, rap luminary and Renaissance man Lupe Fiasco refined his unifying theory of the musical genre.
Article in MIT Technology Review
Cows in the Field: Roma
SHASS Dean Agustín Rayo discusses Alfonso Cuarón’s autobiographical film on the podcast co-hosted by MIT Associate Professor of Philosophy Justin Khoo.
Listen to the podcast
EVENT SPOTLIGHT
Polina Beliakova, MIT Paul (1969) and Melonie Brophy Fellow. Photo by Christopher Burns.
Know Thy Military: How Governmental Policies Weaken Civilian Control; Evidence from Russia, Ukraine, Israel, and the United Kingdom
Security Studies Program Wednesday Seminar with speaker Polina Beliakova, MIT Paul (1969) and Melonie Brophy Fellow. In this talk, she will discuss how civilian officials may unintentionally weaken their control of the armed forces. She will present findings from her book project "Know Thy Military: How Governmental Policies Weaken Civilian Control."
Wednesday, Sept. 13, Noon-1:30 pm
Published by SHASS Communications
Office of the Dean, MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
Sept. 6, 2023
Michael Brindley, Director of Communications