CORE MESSAGES
MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
The heart of my work was a collaboration with the School deans, faculty, and colleagues across MIT to help the Institute move the perception of MIT into alignment with the reality of the 21st C. Institute in which100% of MIT undergraduates study the humanities, arts, and social sciences, and all the liberal arts departments are ranked among the finest in the world. We also championed the mutually-informing qualities of the STEM and liberal arts fields — producing stories that showed how these knowledge domains are partners in making a better world. The following are some of the key messages we shaped to help tell the MIT story in full.
MESSAGE
MIT considers the humanistic fields essential.
Excerpt
“From climate change to poverty to disease, the challenges of our age are unwaveringly human in nature and scale; and engineering and science issues are always embedded in broader human realities. So our students need an in-depth understanding of human complexities — the political, cultural, and economic realities that shape our existence — as well as fluency in the powerful forms of thinking and creativity cultivated by the arts, humanities, and social sciences.”
— Dean Deborah Fitzgerald, 2014 | Full commentary
MESSAGE
100% of MIT undergrads study the humanities, arts & social sciences.
Photo by Dominick Reuter
Increasingly, MIT students recognize the power of combining knowledge in the Humanistic and STEM fields — for leadership, successful careers, solving complex issues, and lifelong well-being.
MESSAGE
MIT’s Humanistic fields are top-ranked worldwide
While the findings from the major university-ranking organizations vary slightly from year to year, MIT’s humanistic fields are now routinely assessed to be among the top departments in the world.
Representative stories
MIT Social Sciences ranked #1 worldwide
MIT Humanities and Arts ranked #2 worldwide
MIT Economics ranked #1 worldwide
MIT Linguistics ranked #1worldwide
MESSAGE
You can be your whole self at MIT.
The whole self message features the many MIT “bilinguals” — students who focus deeply on both Humanistic + Sci/Tech fields, often earning dual degrees. For this campaign, students describe, in their own words, the ways these combined fields advance their career plans, creative passions, and well-being. Their insights are amplified by the other MIT Schools, who are pleased to show how multi-dimensional MIT’s students are.
Meet the MIT Bilinguals
Links to an archived page, so a bit slow to open.
Professors contribute to the “whole self” message:
"As an engineer and historian, I’ve been ‘bilingual’ my entire career,” says David Mindell. “Dual competence is a good model for MIT undergraduates as well: master two fundamental ways of thinking about the world — one technical and one humanistic or social. Sometimes these modes will be at odds with each other, which raises critical questions. Other times they will be synergistic and energizing."
Interview with Professor Mindell
MESSAGE
The humanities, arts, and social sciences teach power skills.
Esther Duflo, MIT SHASS PhD,1999, received the Nobel Prize in Economics in 2019, along with Abhijit Banerjee, and Michael Kremer “for their experimental approach to alleviating global poverty.”
In their humanities, arts, and social science studies and explorations, MIT students gain what Anant Argawal, an MIT EECS professor and CEO of edX, calls the power skills: critical thinking and communication abilities, creativity, cultural and historical perspectives, fluency in languages, a moral compass, and knowledge about economic and political forces.
MESSAGE
The School’s classes help students discover core values and creative powers.
For the following invited commentary for Times Higher Education in 2021, the Deans of the School of Architecture & Planning and the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences shaped a statement about the essential partnership forged at MIT between the Humanistic and STEM fields. The two Schools communication teams were honored to assist in the process.
Link to an archival site, so a bit slow to open.
Excerpt
“At MIT, we make the case that the humanities, arts, and design disciplines develop key career and leadership skills in students, and have an essential research role in solving major civilizational problems… Equally important…we want them to think about meaning and the best way to live; to experience the agency of creativity; to gain an understanding of shared human history….For their singular role in the process of becoming our whole selves — discovering core values, a moral compass, creative powers, historical and cultural perspectives — the arts and humanities are rightly renowned.”
IMPACT
MIT leaders amplify the School’s messages.
L. Rafael Reif, MIT President, 2012-2022; photocredit Dominick Reuter
"Humanity faces urgent challenges — challenges whose solutions depend on marrying advanced technical and scientific capabilities with a deep understanding of the world's political, cultural, and economic complexities."
“To tackle our global challenges — from water and food scarcity and climate change to digital learning, innovation, and human health — we need ambitious new answers from science and engineering. But because these challenges are rooted in culture, economics, and politics, meaningful solutions must reflect the wisdom of these domains too.”
— L. Rafael Reif, 17th President of MIT, 2012-2022