21st CENTURY DEMOCRACY
Inside the Classroom + Student Voices
March for Science and the role of scientific analysis in policy; Washington D.C.. Photo by Vlad Tchompalov
In classes in many of the Institute's humanistic disciplines, MIT students learn about — and contribute to — measures to assess and strengthen democratic practices.
Democracy Homepage
Burchard Scholars gather to network, connect, and learn
The Burchard Scholars dinner series helps create conversations between academic disciplines.
MIT SHASS undergraduates study race, place, and modernity in Brazil
MIT undergraduates visit São Paulo for the Independent Activities Period (IAP) subject “Race, Place, and Modernity in the Americas.
NEW RESEARCH FELLOWSHIP
New Shapiro Graduate Fellowship supports research on the History of the African-American Experience of Technology
HASTS PhD student Kelcey Gibbons is the inaugural recipient.
MAKING A JUST SOCIETY
Exploring cultural inheritance
In a unique IAP workshop, MIT students explore and honor their personal histories
MEET THE MIT BILINGUALS
Brian Williams ’22 | Biological Engineering + Black Studies
Williams is using bioengineering and black studies as a launchpad to combat racism in public health, to use "the toolbox of social justice, pulling the levers of activism, advocacy, democracy, and legislation to improve our social institutions at the root.”
MEET OUR STUDENTS | PHILOSOPHY
Ethics in action: Sophie Gibert
Gibert, a PhD student in philosophy, discusses applying the tools of philosophy to ethical questions, in particular the ethics of health and healthcare.
STEAM
Transformative truth-telling at the MIT Open Documentary Lab
The lab's artists and technology scholars are exploring representation and reality — and designing the future of storytelling.
MEET THE MIT BILINGUALS
A Framework for Understanding the World: Natasha Joglekar '21
A CS + Biology major with a minor in Women's and Gender Studies, Joglekar found that her WGS coursework gave her powerful insight into the human factors that drive so many societal outcomes. “WGS studies helped give me a framework for understanding the world," she says, "in the same way my Physics and Math classes did."
INSIDE THE CLASSROOM
Scientists as engaged citizens
In a new intersectional class from MIT Women's and Gender Studies, (WGS.160/STS.021) students explore how STEM researchers bring their knowledge to bear on behalf of major societal and global issues.
MEET OUR STUDENTS
Profile | Nasir Almasri '21
Political science PhD candidate studies conflicts that emerge at the intersection of politics and religious traditions, with a focus on humanizing those involved.
IN THE CLASSROOM
Course Profile: Data and Society
A new course in the Computing and Society Concentration, taught by Eden Medina and Sarah Williams, engages MIT students in the ethics and societal implications of data.
INSIDE THE CLASSROOM
How to Stage a Revolution: History 21H.001
MIT history class explores the roots and complexities of revolutions across the globe. From early printing presses to changing fuel sources to the reach of global social media, the technological contexts of revolutions are intrinsic to understanding them.
VOICES OF MIT SHASS GRADUATE STUDENTS
Meet Marc Aidinoff, PhD candidate
"What does it mean when civil rights become about access to computers and the Internet? When lack of Internet access is considered a form of poverty? These questions were getting under my skin. I wanted to know how social and economic policy were tied to changing ideas about technology."
MAKING A JUST SOCIETY
Looking at justice through the lens of political theory
In Bernardo Zacka's 17.01 class, MIT students explore human values and competing theories of the just society