School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

“This is not the first time that we have seen anti-immigrant sentiments surge in the U.S.,” said MIT Assistant Professor Justin Steil at a recent MIT Starr Forum, The Fight Over Foreigners: Visas and Immigration in the Trump Era. “Despite the fact that most U.S. residents are descended from either voluntary or involuntary migrants, all the way back to Benjamin Franklin there has been skeptic...

3 Questions: Justin Steil on the Trump administration travel ban

Assistant professor of urban studies and planning argues immigration is good for the U.S. and that President Trump's executive order threatens national security.

July 7, 2017

By comparing 1.6 million pairs of photos taken seven years apart, researchers have now used a new computer vision system to quantify the physical improvement or deterioration of neighborhoods in five American cities, in an attempt to identify factors that predict urban change. Pictured are two street views, with the old photograph on the left and the new photograph on the right.

Why do some neighborhoods improve?

Density of highly educated residents, rather than income or housing costs, predicts revitalization.

July 6, 2017

A new study engaged preschool children in math games intended to help them grasp concepts of number and geometry, and in social games intended to help them cooperate and learn together.

Study: Preschoolers learn from math games — to a point

Games found to improve conceptual math skills, but gains may not carry over to primary school.

July 6, 2017

"Eliminating high-occupancy vehicle restrictions led to substantially worse traffic," says economics professor Ben Olken. "That’s not shocking, but the magnitudes are just enormous."

A simple solution for terrible traffic

Study: Without HOV policies, urban traffic gets much, much worse.

July 6, 2017

New research finds certain aspects of how state-level renewable portfolio standards are designed and presented can set people’s minds for or against such policies — and that in this arena, public opinion does influence policymaking. For example, learning that a renewable energy policy will likely create several thousand jobs led to a significant increase in supporters of that policy.

Bolstering public support for state-level renewable energy policies

Analysis shows the design and framing of renewable energy policies can strengthen public support — or opposition.

June 30, 2017

Baltimore, Maryland, is one of three local governments selected to work with J-PAL North America to evaluate solutions to homelessness, recidivism, and other policy challenges.

J-PAL North America partners with local governments to tackle homelessness and reduce incarceration

Selected cities and counties will receive funding and technical support from J-PAL to test innovative strategies in the fight against poverty.

June 30, 2017

“I was happy I didn’t get accepted into an engineering-only school, because I have two left hands and I’m way more interested in social sciences,” PhD student Aicha Ben Dhia says.

Investigating the trap of unemployment

PhD student Aicha Ben Dhia studies France’s labor market from the perspective of local job-seekers.

June 29, 2017

“One of the most frequent questions that we get at J-PAL is a version of, ‘So a program worked in one place. Is it likely to work in my context?’” says Mary Ann Bates, the deputy executive director of J-PAL North America.

How J-PAL thinks globally and acts locally

Can an antipoverty program work in different settings? A new report presents a user’s guide to a tough issue.

June 28, 2017

Play Labs announces first class of VR/AR/playful startups and demo session

First accelerator program on the MIT campus will showcase 12 startups across a mix of gaming, virtual reality, esports, and augmented reality technologies.

June 27, 2017