A new fight with old battle lines
Book explores what France’s LGBTQ rights battle says about identity and belonging.
Department
Linguistics and Philosophy
"Song of the Human": An origin story
New work by composer Pete M. Wyer draws inspiration from MIT linguistic scholar Shigeru Miyagawa's hypothesis on the origins of human language.
At forum, MIT community tackles tough ethical questions of climate change
Why is it so hard for human beings to address climate change? What can motivate effective action?
Nine SHASS faculty members awarded named professorships
Honored positions afford faculty additional support for research.
New faculty in the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences
SHASS welcomes eight new faculty members for 2016.
Analyzing the 2016 election: Insights from 12 MIT scholars
Experts from the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences weigh in on topics from polling to rhetoric to individual campaign issues.
QS ranks MIT the world’s top university for 2016-17
Ranked No. 1 for the fifth straight year, the Institute also places first in 12 of 42 disciplines.
Seeking big answers
PhD student Rebecca Millsop uses philosophy to take on contentious questions about how we define art.
![“Children seem to interpret disjunction like conjunction,” observes MIT Linguistics Professor Danny Fox. However, Fox adds, although “it has been claimed children are very different from adults in the interpretation of logical words,” the study’s larger implication is almost the opposite — namely that “the child is [otherwise] identical to the adult, but there is a very small paramet...](/sites/default/files/styles/term_page__news_article/public/images/201605/MIT-Language-Acquisition.jpg?itok=tYsyxezn)
Why children confuse simple words
Study: Kids have “and/or” problem despite sophisticated reasoning.
Seven from MIT elected to American Academy of Arts and Sciences for 2016
Prestigious honor society announces 213 new members this year.
QS World University Rankings rates MIT No. 1 in 12 subjects for 2016
MIT ranked within the top 5 globally for 19 of 42 subject areas.