COMMENTARIES SERIES
Series Editor, for research-based commentaries by MIT’s humanistic scholars
Links are to archival pages, so a bit slower to open.
MIT’s acclaimed humanistic scholars offer research-based perspectives on many significant contemporary issues, and in my role as Comms Director for the School (2008-2022), I had the opportunity to propose, develop, and serve as the series editor for the follow group of thematic commentaries. Free to read online. Precís + links below.
COMMENTARIES
SOLVING CLIMATE
Browse the climate series
In this series MIT faculty, graduate students, and alumni share ideas and research that are significant for solving the economic, political, ethical, and cultural dimensions of the climate crisis.
Full Commentary
"History shows that not everywhere fares equally poorly when faced with climatic stresses. Open-access societies—ones that tolerate a diversity of views and do not restrict agency to a preordained elite—have generally proved more innovative and resilient than less-open ones." For example, the 17th century Dutch Republic.
— Anne McCants, Professor of History, MacVicar Faculty Fellow
COMMENTARIES
THE HUMAN FACTOR
Solving the political, cultural, economic dimensions of global issues
Browse the Human Factor Series
MIT is working to advance solutions to major issues in planetary and human health, education, and innovation, and multi-disciplinary collaboration is one key to resolving these issues of our time. With that in mind, we launched The Human Factor Series — a collection of stories and interviews that highlight research and perspectives on the human dimensions of major national and global challenges. Contributors to this series describe humanities and social science research that generates social innovation, and share ideas for cultivating multi-disciplinary, sociotechnical collaborations.
COMMENTARIES
ELECTION INSIGHTS
Browse the election insights series
2016 Presidential election – commentaries on topics from economic security to gender bias to the state of the U.S. electoral system itself.
2018 Midterm elections — commentaries on the future of work, national security, the role that "we, the people" have in the defense of democracy, and more.
2020 Presidential election during a pandemic — commentaries on the Covid-19 threat, how heroic election administration experts across the country created the most secure election in American history, and more.
2022 Midterm elections — commentaries on the future of democracy, civic discourse, and more.
COMMENTARIES
ELECTION INSIGHTS | REDUCING GUN VIOLENCE
John Tirman (1950-2022), longtime Executive Director and Principal Research Scientist, MIT Center for International Studies; photo by Allegra Boverman
Redefining liberty
”Preventing gun violence will entail disrupting gun culture — redefining liberty to include freedom from violence, insisting that citizen safety is implicit in the Second Amendment, and scripting gun-free versions of Hollywood heroism. A tall order, but in April, one opinion poll asked, ‘Would you definitely vote for or definitely vote against a candidate for Congress who wants stricter gun control laws?’ Sixty percent said ‘yes’ to a stricter-law candidate.”
— John Tirman
Full Commentary
COMMENTARIES
ETHICS, COMPUTING, AND AI
Browse the Ethics & Computing series
Developed to mark the launch of MIT’s new College of Computing in 2018. The Institute made the series into a book that was distributed to all Institute faculty, the press, and guests to the launch events.
Collaborating closely with Dean Melissa Nobles to support planning for the new college, we invited faculty from all five MIT schools to offer perspectives on the societal and ethical dimensions of emerging AI technologies. The resulting commentaries are “practical, inspiring, concerned, and clear-eyed views from an optimistic community deeply engaged with issues that are among the most consequential of our time.”
Contents
Foreword / The Tools of Moral Philosophy / When Programs Become Unpredictable / Computing is Deeply Human / Who’s Calling the Shots on AI? / Safeguarding Humanity / The Common Ground of Stories / In Praise of Wetware / Blind Spots / The Impact of AI on Society / Clues for AI from Biomedicine / The Environment for Ethical Action Biological Intelligence and AI / Machine Anxiety / Blending and Bilinguals / A Dream of Computing / A Network of Practitioners
Also see: Ethical AI by Design / Two Commentaries by Susan Silbey / Hello World
COMMENTARIES
21st CENTURY CITIZENSHIP
Research-based insights and resources for strengthening democracy at home and around the world — from faculty across the School’s disciplines.
A distilled selection of commentaries on the state of U.S. democracy, from MIT's humanities and social science fields. What can leaders and We, the People do to sustain and strengthenAmerican democracy?
COMMENTARIES
COMPUTING AND AI: HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVES FROM MIT
Browse the Computing & AI series
Faculty in the humanistic fields propose the knowledge and perspectives from their fields that should be integrated into the new MIT College of Computing, as well as opportunities that advanced computing makes possible in their fields. In her foreword Dean Nobles writes: "Together, the commentaries in this series offer a guidebook to myriad productive ways that the technical, humanistic, and scientific fields can join forces at MIT, and elsewhere.”
COMMENTARIES
THE MEANINGS OF MASKS
Examples of Venetian Carnival Masks; the upper middle mask is a Baute mask, worn beyond the Carnival season for various social and political occasions. In “Venetian Masks,” Professor Jeffrey Ravel writes that “Masking...had become a way to allow Venetians to intermingle socially, economically, and culturally for a large part of the year without calling into question the archaic political order."
Browse the Mask Series
With this series of commentaries — inspired by an idea from Professor of Literature Sandy Alexandre, and published early in the pandemic — MIT faculty explore the historic, creative, and cultural meanings of masks, offering fresh ways to think about, appreciate, and practice protective masking.
Eric Klopfer | Graham Jones | Jeffrey Ravel | Catherine Clark
COMMENTARIES
ON CULTURE
Browse the Culture Series
For this series, which aims to help advance discussion of MIT’s shared values , we collaborated with Assistant Dean Tracie Jones, now Deputy Director for the ICEO. The series was launched with a remarkable commentary titled Culture is a Meaning-Making Practice by Heather Paxson, Kenan Professor of Anthropology. In it, Paxson provides foundational thinking about how anthropology — the scientific study of humanity, including societies, behavior, norms, and values — understands the concept of “culture.”
Team for the Commentaries Projects on this page
Leadership/Advisor; Dean Melissa Nobles (now Chancellor Nobles)
Concept, Series Editor, Design: Emily Hiestand / Co-Editor: Kathryn O’Neill
Mask Commentary: Concept: MIT Professor of Literature Sandy Alexandre
Democracy Commentary: Developed with input from the MIT History faculty
Culture Series: developed with Dean Tracie Jones (now Deputy Director, MIT ICEO)