MIT named the nation’s top university by U.S. News for 2026-27
U.S. News and World Report has designated MIT as the top school in its annual rankings of the nation’s best universities, announced today. Among the academic specialties that U.S. News evaluates, MIT’s...
View ArticlePodcast: SHASS’s special sauce
Following World War II, the MIT faculty convened a committee to assess the Institute’s principles of education and their relevance “in a new era emerging from social upheaval and the disasters of war.”...
View ArticleMeet the 2026 tenured professors in the School of Humanities, Arts, and...
In 2026, five faculty were granted tenure in the MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences.Volha Charnysh is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science. She studies the...
View ArticleUnderstanding the world, from the Cold War to the age of AI
At a moment when global alliances are shifting, technological change is accelerating, and the boundaries between science and geopolitics are dissolving, understanding the world demands new ways of...
View ArticleLincoln Laboratory summer research interns take on national security challenges
Nearly 170 interns recently dispersed from MIT Lincoln Laboratory to return to their undergraduate or advanced degree programs. For Anna Raymaker and Vivek Jagadeesh, however, the work is just getting...
View ArticleMeasure by measure, studying society accurately
Let’s agree at the outset the world is a complicated place, and social scientists have exacting jobs when it comes to measuring civic phenomena with precision. After all, even careful studies raise...
View ArticleResearchers tune into Arctic under-ice sounds and test through-ice communication
Beneath the Arctic Ocean is an orchestra featuring natural and human composers, from cracking sea ice and whistling beluga whales to humming shipping-vessel engines. Researchers from MIT Lincoln...
View ArticleStories from the steel mills: A model for sharing workers’ histories
For generations, the steel mills of Southeast Chicago offered work and a way of life, experienced by tens of thousands of families. Open around the clock, three shifts per day, the vast works of U.S....
View ArticleTranslating economic growth into better lives
Solving complex social problems with multiple interrelated causes can involve juggling a variety of factors. Securing funding, designing the right programs, and sustaining the political will necessary...
View ArticleGulfstream IV makes its long-awaited return to Lincoln Laboratory
After extensive modifications over the past seven years, the Gulfstream IV (G-IV) aircraft operated and maintained by MIT Lincoln Laboratory's Tactical Defense Systems Group and Flight Test Facility...
View ArticleRetooling to help democracy revive
In the 20th century, the United States built the world’s dominant manufacturing powerhouse. A thriving middle class grew, well into the 1970s. The U.S. was a beacon of democracy, defeating fascism in...
View ArticleHow 35 percent of US employees are left on the margins
You’ve heard of gig workers, freelancers, and temporary employees. But do you know about marginal workers? Accounting for about one in six U.S. jobs, it’s a huge category of people, who are going...
View ArticleThe mystery of the Chinese tea chest label
When MIT historian Tristan Brown first examined a Chinese tea chest label displayed as a relic of the Boston Tea Party, he had no reason to doubt its story.Descendants of Boston blacksmith Thomas Wells...
View ArticleMIT researchers tackle the economic realities of fusion power
In the last decade, scientists have shown that fusion energy can work, as a physical process. Next question: Can it work economically? A study co-authored by MIT professors Dennis Whyte and Andrew W....
View ArticleThen and now: How MIT Lincoln Laboratory has served as a driving force in...
On July 26, 1951, the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Navy signed a charter establishing Project Lincoln, an R&D program managed by MIT to develop the nation's first continent-wide air defense system,...
View ArticlePast is prologue for geopolitical developments
The end of World War II marked a turning point for global empires; weakened by years of conflict, European nations could no longer hold onto their colonies. A wave of independence followed. This shift...
View ArticleUsing reason, again and again
You probably think you are rational. Day to day, you try to “make the best possible use of the information available to you,” as MIT philosopher Brian Hedden PhD ’12 writes in his 2015 book, “Reasons...
View ArticleSchool of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences welcomes six new faculty for...
The MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) and Dean Agustín Rayo recently welcomed six new professors to the MIT community. They arrive with diverse backgrounds and vast knowledge...
View ArticleFollowing the questions where they lead
Ever since she was a child playing on her family’s farmland in Wisconsin, Bailey Flanigan was guided by her own selective, yet wide-ranging, curiosity. Describing her young self as spirited and a bit...
View ArticleThree MIT Press journals lead their fields with Clarivate No. 1 rankings
In an increasingly crowded, for-profit landscape for scholarly research, the health of a publishing program is often measured by the influence of its publications. This year, three MIT Press journals...
View Article
