Headlines

Grounded in Geology

April 6, 2017 Sarah C. Baldwin MIT Political Science

PhD student Renato Lima de Oliveira examines how a country's natural resources affect its politics and policies.

Bern Notice

April 3, 2017 Peter Dizikes MIT News

In MIT speech, Bernie Sanders contends future of U.S. politics “must be” progressive.

India May Be Rethinking Nuclear First Strikes

March 31, 2017 Max Fisher The New York Times

India may be reinterpreting its nuclear weapons doctrine, circumstantial evidence suggests, with potentially significant ramifications for the already tenuous nuclear balance in South Asia.

3 Questions with Richard Nielsen: How political science helps combat terrorism

February 3, 2017 School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

Richard Nielsen is an MIT assistant professor of political science who writes on international law, the political economy of human rights, political violence, and political methodology. His current book project, Deadly Clerics, explores why some Muslim clerics adopt the ideology of militant jihad while most do not.

Election Data and Science Lab Launches at Massachusetts Institute of Technology       

January 10, 2017 The MIT Election Data and Science Lab (MEDSL)

A new enterprise dedicated to researching and improving elections based on scientific principles launches today at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The MIT Election Data and Science Lab (MEDSL) will generate, advance, and disseminate scientific knowledge in an effort to develop a comprehensive evidence base about the conduct of elections in order to improve their performance.

The courage to dissent

November 17, 2016 Sarah C. Baldwin MIT News

For graduate student Amanda Rothschild, political science meets personal history in her studies of how the United States responds to genocide.

Electing to vote or not

October 14, 2016 Sarah C. Baldwin

Ariel White: Understanding how government, policies, and people affect voting behavior

Fotini Christia and Ali Jadbabaie on researching the dynamics of sociopolitcal change

October 14, 2016 Leda Zimmerman School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences

Borders between disciplines at MIT have proven increasingly permeable in recent years. Now, with the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society (IDSS), researchers in the social sciences have a powerful platform for collaborating with peers in engineering and the natural sciences. Fotini Christia, associate professor of political science, and the grant’s principal investigator Ali Jadbabaie, recently named JR East Professor of Engineering in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, associate director of IDSS, and director of the Sociotechnical Systems Research Center (SSRC), discuss one such shared collaboration.

From Babylon to Baudelaire and Back: A scholar heeds the call of family history

May 26, 2016 Sarah C. Baldwin MIT Political Science

When Marsin Alshamary arrived at Wellesley, in 2009, she had several years of French under her belt and a burning love of literature. Four years later she graduated — with honors — with a BA not only in French, but in international relations as well. The following year, she joined MIT’s political science department as a PhD candidate in comparative politics and international relations. She was in the process, to paraphrase Friedrich Nietzsche, of becoming who she was.

Examining Accountability Through the Lens of Local Politics

April 8, 2016 Sarah C. Baldwin

“All politics is local,” Thomas “Tip” O’Neill famously said. If the former Speaker of the House were alive today, chances are he would approve of the work of Justin de Benedictis-Kessner. Not only does the doctoral candidate in political science focus on local politics, he does it in the very city O’Neill represented for more than three decades.

MIT Political Science celebrates 50th anniversary: rigor, relevance, and impact

December 16, 2015 Kathryn O'Neill SHASS Communications

“At MIT, we aim to produce not just scientists and engineers, but citizens and educated human beings who appreciate the complexities of the world around them and are committed to making a difference. That is MIT and achieving that vision depends on MIT Political Science.” -MIT President L. Rafael Reif