SHASS News
MIT alum Jennifer Mnookin PhD ’99 named president of Columbia University
Mnookin received her PhD in the History and Social Study of Science and Technology, a doctoral program now known as HASTS.
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Brian Hedden named co-associate dean of Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing
Brian Hedden PhD ’12 has been appointed co-associate dean of the Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC) at MIT, a cross-cutting initiative in the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, effective Jan. 16. Hedden is a professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, holding an MIT Schwarzman College of Computing shared position with the […]
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Thirty-six exceptional MIT students selected as Burchard Scholars for 2026
Undergraduates selected for the competitive program enjoy a seminar series and conversations over dinners with distinguished faculty.
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Young and gifted
James Baldwin was a prodigy. That is not the first thing most people associate with a writer who once declared that he “had no childhood” and whose work often elides the details of his early life in New York, in the 1920s and 1930s. Still, by the time Baldwin was 14, he was a successful […]
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The philosophical puzzle of rational artificial intelligence
To what extent can an artificial system be rational? A new MIT course, 6.S044/24.S00 (AI and Rationality), doesn’t seek to answer this question. Instead, it challenges students to explore this and other philosophical problems through the lens of AI research. For the next generation of scholars, concepts of rationality and agency could prove integral in […]
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In the media
What if labor becomes unnecessary?
The New York Times
‘What if I told you this school had no teachers?’: Is AI schooling the future of education — or a risky bet?
CNN
'Hit record'
NBC News
Columbia selects University of Wisconsin chancellor as its president
The New York Times
SHASS videos
Faculty-Driven Initiative: Living Climate Futures Lab
