MIT anthropologist Amy Moran-Thomas reflects on the deep connection.

“When I think of health now, I think of the disarray in bigger ecosystems and infrastructures that is also landing in human bodies.”

Image: Hurricane Hattie Belize, by Delvin "Pen" Cayetano, 1996, Oil on Canvas; ©2018 Artists Rights Society, New York/ VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn; reproduced with permission | Image of painted Blue/Green swirling waves with "Hattie" painted in bold capsred at top 

Christine J. Walley, professor of anthropology at MIT and member of the MIT Task Force on the Work of the Future, explores how robots have often been a symbol for anxiety about artificial intelligence and automation. Walley provides a unique perspective in the recent research brief “Robots as Symbols and Anxiety Over Work Loss.”

In the midst of Covid-19’s unfolding and unequal death tolls and of ongoing police, state, and everyday violence against Black, Brown, Asian, and Indigenous communities in the United States and elsewhere, we in MIT Anthropology stand against racist white supremacy, believing, with anthropologist Leith Mullings, that "anthropology is uniquely positioned to make a decisive contribution to the critical interrogation of contemporary racism...

"In shamanic rituals and in computer-mediated virtual reality, a mask conceals one identity to reveal new possibilities. Seen in this light, virus protection masks offer an opportunity to replace a visage of fear with a public expression of strength as a community."

— Manduhai Buyandelger, Associate Professor of Anthropology

Graham Jones and Stefan Helmreich are two of the thirty-one MIT instructors awarded.

The mask is one of the most important human artifacts in all of anthropology. It is a tool of transformation that allows its wearers to transcend themselves, taking on timeless roles in ritual dramas. Repositories of power, masks are sacred objects, crafted with ingenuity.

Amah Edoh, associate professor in anthropology, has received the Everett Moore Baker Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.

Post-doctoral Fellow Héctor Beltrán is interviewed for Data and Society's series, "#unsettle: Strategies for Decolonizing Tech Research".

Associate Professor Amy Moran-Thomas is the recipient of a 2020 James A. and Ruth Levitan Prize. The prize is awarded to instructors in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) in recognition of their outstanding contributions to research.

Associate Professor Amy Moran-Thomas' research is featured on MIT News. Her research on the global diabetes epidemic is the focus of her new book, Traveling with Sugar (Univ. of CA Press).

Associate Professor Graham Jones and Seth Riskin, Manager of the MIT Museum Studio and Compton Gallery, are offering a new class, Paranormal Machines: Technologies of Enchantment in Science, Art, and Culture. The class "explores the human experience of the disconcerting and the uncanny in relation to technology" and how "people and cultures build stories and beliefs around out-of-the-ordinary experiences".

Professor Heather Paxson shares her thoughts on why anthropological methods are "uniquely suited for studying the effects of automation and digital technologies in social life".

Ankita Reddy, a graduating double major in Anthropology and Biology, will begin her post-graduation life as a researcher at the start-up E25Bio continuing the work on a globally deployed diagnostic device for mosquito-borne illnesses that she worked on as an undergraduate.

HASTS graduate student Steven Gonzales uses his anthropological training to research cloud computing and communities.

Professor Susan Silbey is awarded MIT's highest faculty honor

Professor Heather Paxson gathers stakeholders across the field of anthropology for a historic meeting to pilot a project for moving scholarly journals to Open Access.

Associate Professor Graham Jones has been recognized for his excellence in undergraduate teaching by being named a MacVicar Faculty Fellow, MIT's highest honor in undergraduate teaching.

Professor Susan Silbey in her role as Chair of the Faculty at MIT gave the opening remarks at the recent celebration for the opening of the new Stephen A. Schwarzman College of Computing.

At the invitation of SHASS Dean Melissa Nobles, Professors Susan Silbey, Heather Paxson, and Stefan Helmreich were asked to offer their perspectives on the "societal and ethical dimensions of emerging technologies".