Headlines

3 Questions: Chappell Lawson on U.S. security policy

October 6, 2020 Peter Dizikes MIT News

The year 2020 has featured an array of safety and security concerns for ordinary Americans, including disease and natural disasters. How can the U.S. government best protect its citizens? That is the focus of a new scholarly book with practical aims, “Beyond 9/11: Homeland Security for the Twenty-First Century,” published by the MIT Press. The volume features chapters written by 19 security experts, and closely examines the role of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which was created after the September 2001 terrorist attacks on the U.S.

Why soldiers fight

October 5, 2020 Leda Zimmerman MIT Political Science

Political science graduate student Matthew Cancian brings his own military experience to bear on battlefield psychology

A champion of renewable energy

October 2, 2020 Hannah Meiseles MIT News

It’s an amazing moment when a topic learned in the classroom comes to life. For senior Darya Guettler, that moment came on a sweltering day while installing solar panels in low-income communities in Los Angeles, alongside workers who had been previously incarcerated.

Finding patterns in the noise

September 28, 2020 Leda Zimmerman MIT Political Science

Using novel computational approaches, graduate student Shiyao Liu develops better tools for analyzing data.

Seeing the light

May 13, 2020 Leda Zimmerman Political Science

Blindsided by a pandemic and hunkering down at home instead of celebrating spring on campus, MIT seniors might reasonably be feeling blue. But a group of political science majors glimpse brighter days ahead, as they springboard from rewarding academic programs into meaningful careers.

Teaching Remotely: Political Economy

May 12, 2020 Molly Ruggles MIT Open Learning

Theories of the State and the Economy (17.100) is a graduate seminar, normally consisting of in-person lectures and facilitated discussions. Faced with quickly transitioning to online teaching and without prior experience, Professors Suzanne Berger and Michael Piore met the challenge in several ways.

Charles Stewart on the Covid-19 pandemic’s impact on the 2020 elections

April 16, 2020 School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

Charles Stewart III is the Kenan Sahin Distinguished Professor of Political Science at MIT and the founder of the MIT Election Data and Science Lab. SHASS Communications spoke with him recently about the broader impacts of the pandemic on the U.S. elections, in particular the decisions that need to be made, quickly, to increase the extent of voting-by-mail and other safe voting methods for the general election in November.

Why do banking crises occur?

March 10, 2020 Peter Dizikes MIT News Office

In a new book, political scientist David Singer finds two key factors connected to financial-sector collapses around the globe.

How door-to-door canvassing slowed an epidemic

February 26, 2020 Peter Dizikes MIT News Office

A study co-authored by an MIT professor shows how much that program, consisting of door-to-door canvassing by community volunteers, spread valuable information and changed public practices during the epidemic. The findings also demonstrate how countries with minimal resources can both fight back against epidemics and gain public trust in difficult circumstances.