In Berlin in the early 1870s, tourists began visiting a neighborhood called Barackia. It did not have museums, palaces, or any other typical attractions. Barackia was a working-class neighborhood where people grew their own food, lived in small dwellings, and established communal arrangements outside the normal reach of government. For a while, anyway: In 1872, […]
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What if there were a way to create accurate replicas of ancient and historical instruments that could be played and heard? In late 2024, senior MIT postdoc Benjamin Sabatini wrote MIT Professor Eran Egozy to ask just that, and about a collaborative research project between the Center for Materials Research in Archeology and Ethnology (CMRAE) and […]
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Leslie “Les” Perelman, an influential figure in college writing assessment; a champion of writing instruction across all subject matters for over three decades at MIT; and a former MIT associate dean for undergraduate education, died on Nov. 12, 2025, at home in Lexington, Massachusetts. He was 77. A Los Angeles native, Perelman attended the University […]
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The Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) at MIT has awarded funding to eight new research studies to understand how artificial intelligence innovations can be used in the fight against poverty through its new Project AI Evidence. The age of AI has brought wide-ranging optimism and skepticism about its effects on society. To realize […]
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Maria Yang ’91, the William E. Leonhard (1940) Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, has been appointed vice provost for faculty at MIT, a role in which she will oversee programs and strategies to recruit and retain faculty members and support them throughout their careers. Provost Anantha Chandrakasan announced Yang’s appointment, which is effective […]
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The 2026 Times Higher Education World University Ranking has ranked MIT first in three subject categories: Arts and Humanities, Business and Economics, and Social Sciences, repeating the Institute’s top spot in the same subjects in 2025. The Times Higher Education World University Ranking is an annual publication of university rankings by Times Higher Education, a leading British […]
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Today, MIT plays a key role in maintaining U.S. competitiveness, technological leadership, and national defense — and much of the Institute’s work to support the nation’s standing in these areas can be traced back to 1953. Two months after he took office that year, U.S. President Dwight Eisenhower received a startling report from the military: […]
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Brian Hedden PhD ’12 has been appointed co-associate dean of the Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing (SERC) at MIT, a cross-cutting initiative in the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing, effective Jan. 16. Hedden is a professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, holding an MIT Schwarzman College of Computing shared position with the […]
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James Baldwin was a prodigy. That is not the first thing most people associate with a writer who once declared that he “had no childhood” and whose work often elides the details of his early life in New York, in the 1920s and 1930s. Still, by the time Baldwin was 14, he was a successful […]
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Keeril Makan has been appointed vice provost for the arts at MIT, effective Feb. 1. In this role, Makan, who is the Michael (1949) and Sonja Koerner Music Composition Professor at MIT, will provide leadership and strategic direction for the arts across the Institute. Provost Anantha Chandrakasan announced Makan’s appointment in an email to the […]
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