School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

2020 MIT Fulbright scholars include Sandra Walter, Srimayi Tenali, William Pinney, Talia Khan, Anshula Gandhi, Booker Schelhaas, Christien Williams, Ivy Li, Kedi Hu, and Max Kessler.

Eleven from MIT awarded 2020 Fulbright Fellowships

Graduating seniors and recent alumni will spend upcoming year abroad on Fulbright grants.

May 22, 2020

For generations, dissertation defenses have been crowning moments for PhD candidates. Now, with the pandemic limiting activity on the MIT campus from mid-March onward, moving dissertation defenses to Zoom has been a necessary adjustment.

Inside the new world of online dissertation defenses

Emojis, grandmas logging in, and kudos from strangers: How MIT students have finished their PhDs during the pandemic.

May 22, 2020

Using a novel methodology, MITEI researcher Joanna Moody and Associate Professor Jinhua Zhao uncovered patterns in the development trends and transportation policies of China’s 287 cities — including Fengcheng, shown here — that may help decision-makers learn from one another.

Transportation policymaking in Chinese cities

A new framework for learning from each other.

May 21, 2020

Sara Plana is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science. She is a student at the Security Studies Program (SSP), where her dissertation research focuses on proxy warfare.

Sara Plana receives inaugural Jeanne Guillemin Prize

The prize, which provides financial support to women working toward a PhD in international affairs, will be applied toward her research into proxy warfare.

May 21, 2020

MIT News recently spoke with three leaders of MIT’s Task Force on the Work of the Future. Left to right: co-chair David A. Mindell, professor of aeronautics and astronautics, the Dibner Professor of the History of Engineering and Manufacturing at MIT; executive director Elisabeth Beck Reynolds PhD ‘10, who is also executive director of the MIT Industrial Performance Center; and co-chair David ...

The changing world of work

MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future responds to rapid changes brought by the pandemic.

May 18, 2020

Left to right: MIT professors Lily Tsai, Paola Capellaro, and Warren Seering are “Committed to Caring."

Achieving advisory equilibrium

Professors Paola Cappellaro, Warren Seering, and Lily Tsai honored as “Committed to Caring.”

May 15, 2020

"This was definitely one of the highlights of my MBA," said Benjamin Boutboul, grad student in MIT Sloan and a leader of the 40-participant Africa Takes On Covid-19 virtual hackathon. "I am so proud of us and what we all accomplished together."

MIT builds community for the Africa Takes On Covid-19 challenge

Some 40 students pull off a global virtual hackathon in less than two weeks.

May 14, 2020

MIT economist Parag Pathak is co-author of a paper offering a new system for assigning ventilators and other medical resources to Covid-19 patients.

Who gets ventilator priority?

Paper co-authored by MIT economist proposes a new way to handle medical shortages during the Covid-19 crisis.

May 13, 2020

Accurate and trustworthy messaging about the coronavirus are critical to ensuring citizens are educated to take proper preventative action.

Informing Covid-19 preparedness in Sierra Leone

MIT Governance Lab and the Institute for Governance Reform, working with the government of Sierra Leone, conduct rapid-response surveys to address Covid-19.

May 13, 2020

During the Independent Activities Period in 2018, senior Michelle Xu worked with the volunteer group Cross Cultural Solutions at the Ritsona refugee camp in Greece, through the Priscilla King Gray Public Service Center. “I may not make a career out of public service, but I am a human being, and just like any other human being, helping the world is important to me,” Xu explains.

Probing reality through physics, philosophy, and writing

Senior Michelle Xu’s varied interests all involve a desire to understand the universe. “I was just never particularly picky about which way to figure it out,” she says.

May 11, 2020