MIT Human Insight Collaborative announces funding awards for 25 projects

The MIT Human Insight Collaborative (MITHIC) has announced funding for 25 projects.

Launched in 2024, MITHIC is a presidential-level initiative that aims to elevate human-centered research and teaching, and bring together scholars in the humanities, arts, and social sciences with their colleagues across the Institute.

“The driving force behind MITHIC was our bold, brilliant faculty in the humanities, arts and social sciences,” says Sally Kornbluth, president of MIT. “Their work deepens our understanding of what it means to be human, and that understanding translates to impact, helping us solve some of the greatest challenges of our time.”

A call for proposals went out in fall of 2025 and yielded 75 submissions. 

“Since MITHIC put out its first call for proposals in the fall of 2024, the groundswell of interest we’ve seen from the MIT community has been nothing short of extraordinary,” says MIT provost and MITHIC co-chair Anantha Chandrakasan. “This year’s awardees demonstrate again the strong demand for new resources to advance the work of scholars in the humanities, arts and social sciences, and to forge productive new connections between these scholars and colleagues across the Institute.”

“This year’s projects demonstrate the power of embedding human-centered thinking into MIT’s research and education,” says Agustín Rayo, the Kenan Sahin Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) and MITHIC co-chair. “MITHIC is fostering interdisciplinary collaboration and broadening student minds, ensuring a deeper understanding of humanity across MIT.”

Recipients received awards from one of three funds: the SHASS+ Connectivity Fund, the Humanities Cultivation Fund, and the SHASS Education Innovation Fund.

The SHASS+ Connectivity Fund pairs a project lead in SHASS with another project lead from across the Institute with the goal of achieving large-scale, long-term impact. The interdisciplinary teams include representation from all five schools and the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. There is another call for proposals currently open for the SHASS+ Connectivity Fund, with a March 17, 2026 deadline for applications.

The Humanities Cultivation Fund supports ambitious endeavors in the arts and humanities, and the SHASS Education Innovation Fund supports projects that will help create transformative educational experiences and practices in SHASS for MIT students.

The funding for the 25 projects runs for one year, beginning February 1, 2026, through January 31, 2027. Some of the projects are new initiatives, while others are ongoing.

“These projects reflect a growing confidence among faculty to think expansively about how human-centered work moves into the world,” says Keeril Makan, who served as faculty lead of MITHIC until his recent appointment as vice provost for the arts. “Whether through research, teaching, artistic practice, or public engagement, this cohort shows how ideas developed at MIT can resonate far beyond the campus while remaining grounded in rigorous, collaborative inquiry.”

The funded projects are listed below:

SHASS+ Connectivity Fund

• Arthur Bahr, Literature, and Anette “Peko” Hosoi, Mechanical Engineering: Comparing Human and Machine Perceptions of Artistic Sport
• Adam Berinsky, Political Science, and Chara Podimata, MIT Sloan School of Management: Auditing Large Language Models as Intermediaries of Democratic Discourse in the 2026 US Midterms
• Christopher Capozzola, History, and Timothy Hyde, Architecture: The Robert R. Taylor Documentary Project
• Anna Huang, Music and Theater Arts and Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Joe Paradiso, Media Arts and Sciences: Live Musician-AI Improvisation, Tuning the Social Aesthetics in Human-AI Partnerships
• Amy Moran-Thomas, Anthropology, and William Frank, Geophysics: SEISMIC COLLABORATORY: Rural Health, Missing Science, and Communicating the Social Impacts of Extraction
• Mark Rau, Music and Theater Arts, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Research Laboratory of Electronics, and Antoine Allanore, Department of Materials Science and Engineering: Material and Acoustic Studies of Historic Musical Instruments 
• Ishani Saraf, Science, Technology, and Society, and Marcelo Coelho, Architecture: Disassembling Futures
• Brad Skow, Philosophy, and Long Ju, Physics: Understanding Emergent Quantum Phenomena

Learn more about this year’s SHASS+ Connectivity Fund projects.

Humanities Cultivation Fund

• Sana Aiyar, History: Public Histories of MIT
• Megan Black, History: Forgotten Histories of the Circular Economy & Possible Futures of Sustainable Manufacturing
• Sara Brown, Music and Theater Arts: Woodcutters
• Anne McCants, History: Le(Re)purposing Power: From Houses of Worship to Cathedrals of Computing
• Elise Newman, Linguistics: Passamaquoddy-Wolastoqey Research, Revitalization and Documentation (PWRRD, pronounced “powered”)
• Shankar Raman, Literature: Futures of the Digital Past: Artificial Shakespeare
• Susan Silbey, Anthropology: On Cooling Out the Elderly Mark (on the way to Rebuilding Institutional Theory)
• Donca Steriade, Linguistics: Tucăture: A Living Laboratory for Kirundi Language Preservation and Linguistic Discovery

Learn more about this year’s Humanities Cultivation Fund projects.

SHASS Education Innovation Fund

• Dwai Banerjee, Science, Technology, and Society: Rebuilding Computing and Society at MIT
• Will Broadhead, History: The Making of Roman Pompeii: Materials and Meaning in the Ancient City 
• Andreas Karatsolis, Comparative Media Studies/Writing: Designing CI-M Curriculum for Public Science Communication by Understanding the Rhetorical Decision-Making of Experts
• Michal Maune, Comparative Media Studies/Writing: GenreX: An Experimental Methods Research Program for Genre Studies
• Joseph Maurer, Music and Theater Arts: Singing the City: Oral Histories of Music in Boston
• Seth Mnookin, Comparative Media Studies/Writing: Expanding Media Literacy, Training, and Communication Skills for MIT Students
• Amy Moran-Thomas, Anthropology: “Health and Society” Pathway at MIT
• Kenda Mutongi, History: History of Now
• Michael Trice, Comparative Media Studies/Writing: Review of Generative AI Assistive and Resistant Communication Assignments and Supporting Workshops

Learn more about this year’s SHASS Education Innovation Fund projects.