Take the TOUR de SHASS online
Explore MIT's Humanities, Arts, and Social Science Fields
 

 

Join us each September for the TOUR de SHASS campus fair event. For a virtual tour online anytime, click on the photographs below for information about each of the MIT HASS fields.

NEXT DATE
The 2017 TOUR de SHASS took place on Thursday, September 7, 2017. The next date for the 2018 TOUR de SHASS will be announced in the Spring 2018 term. 
 

Meanwhile take the TOUR de SHASS online! 
 

 

Greetings Students — 

At MIT, we view the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) as essential, both for educating great engineers, scientists, thinkers, and citizens, and for sustaining the Institute’s capacity for innovation. From this page, you can take a virtual tour through the entire range of MIT's HASS fields of study and discover which options are the most meaningful for your goals. Get started by clicking on the photographs below.
 

Empowering

All MIT HASS classes are designed to empower our students to succeed — to serve the world well, with innovations and lives that are rich in meaning and wisdom. In HASS studies and explorations, MIT students gain critical thinking and communication skills, cultural and historical perspectives, fluent language abilities, and knowledge about economic and political forces.

In addition to the MIT HASS requirement, students can pursue a major and/or a minor in HASS fields, exploring interests that support, balance, or expand studies in MIT's STEM fields. All MIT HASS classes empower professional success, whatever one's major field, and open windows onto a lifetime of creativity and growth.


Annual TOUR de SHASS campus fair in September 

Join us each September for the TOUR de SHASS campus fair. For a virtual tour online anytime, click on the photographs below for information about each of the MIT HASS fields.
 

 

Click on each image to take the virtual Tour here:

Anthropology | Course 21A

 

Field Office: E53-335
Main Number: 617-452-2837

"Culture is not quaint or exotic tradition, nor produced only by artists. Culture is a system of signs and practices through which humans interact and communicate."  
— Susan Silbey, Goldberg Professor of Humanities, and Professor of Sociology and Anthropology

 
 

Comparative Media Studies/Writing | Course CMS/21W

 

Field Office: 14N-336
Main Number: 617-253-3599
 
"CMS/Writing is applied humanities. We combine the world's most culturally and technologically connected students with MIT's extensive resources—in particular our unparalleled tradition of innovation in media thinking and practice."  
— William Uricchio, Professor, Comparative Media Studies

 
 

Economics | Course 14


Field Office: E19-715
Main Number: 617-253-0951

“Even the very best ideas in science or engineering do not automatically translate into broader economic prosperity. In large measure, the material benefits of innovation spring from complementarities between technology and economics.” 
— Ben Bernanke, MIT PhD ’79; former Chairman, US Federal Reserve Board
 

Global Studies and Languages | Course 21G

 

Field Office: 14N-305
Main Number: 617-253-4771
 
"These classes opened my eyes to the staggering breadth of human achievement beyond science and engineering, showing that human interaction is as nuanced and fascinating and relevant as any physics model or math proof or computer system."  
— Chris Yang SB '08, Electrical Engineering, Computer Science
 

History | Course 21H

 

Field Office: E51-255
Main Number: 617-253-4965
 
"Because everything has a past, the discipline of History is, of necessity, a big tent. Over this broad purview the historian's task is to strip away the obscuring layers of myth that accrete with time—and to reveal instead the true richness of the human experience."  
— Anne McCants, Professor of History, MacVicar Faculty Fellow
 

Linguistics | Course 24

 

Field Office: 32-D808
Main Number: 617-253-4141
 
"We are working to unravel the system that unites all the languages in the world."  
— David Pesetsky, Ward Professor of Modern Languages and Linguistics
 

Literature | Course 21L

 

Field Office: 14N-407
Main Number: 617-253-3581
 
"When you study Literature, you learn how to read—how to actively engage with the meanings that inform...everything from novels, poetry, drama, epics, and folk tales to film, television, comics and new media."  
— James Buzard, Professor of Literature 
 

Music | Course 21M

 

Field Office: 4-246
Main Number: 617-253-3210
 
"At MIT, you can have a conservatory-level music experience within the world's finest technical institute."  
— Janet Sonenberg, Professor of Theater Arts
 

Philosophy | Course 24

 

Field Office: 32-D808
Main Number: 617-253-4141

"The most enduring value and benefit from my MIT education turned out to be the introduction to philosophy and the history of ideas."  
— Ray Stata, SB '57, SM '58, Founder, Analog Devices
 

Political Science | Course 17 

 

Field Office: E53-484
Main Number: 617-253-3649

At MIT Political Science, we are engaged in cutting edge research and teaching that helps us understand and solve some of the world's greatest challenges.
 

Science, Technology, and Society | Course STS

 

Field Office: E51-163
Main Number: 617-253-9759

STS scholars ask such questions as: "How do changes in science and technology affect what it means to be human?,” and "How do science and technology express human values?"
 

Theater Arts | Course 21M

 

Field Office: 4-246
Main Number: 617-253-3210
 
"Studying physics has enabled me to step back and analyze the mechanics of problems. Theater shows me how to examine them in terms of their human relevance."  
— Kenneth L. Roraback SB '06 in Physics and Theater
 

Women’s and Gender Studies | Course WGS

 

Field Office: 14E-316
Main Number: 617-253-2642

“Re-vision—the act of looking back, of seeing with fresh eyes, of entering an old text from a new critical direction—is for women more than a chapter in cultural history: it is an act of survival."

— Adrienne Cecile Rich (1929–2012), American poet and essayist