The MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) was founded in 1950 in response to “a new era emerging from social upheaval and the disasters of war,” as outlined in the 1949 Lewis Committee Report.
The report’s findings emphasized MIT’s role and responsibility in the new nuclear age, which called for doubling down on genuine “integration” of scientific and technical topics with humanistic scholarship and teaching. Only that way, the committee wrote, could MIT tackle “the most difficult and complicated problems confronting our generation.”
As SHASS marks its 75th anniversary, Dean Agustín Rayo answers questions about why the need for developing students with broad minds and human understanding is as urgent as ever, given pressing challenges in the midst of a new technological revolution.
Q: Many universities are responding to artificial intelligence by launching new technical programs or updating curricula. You’ve suggested the change is deeper than that. Why?
A: Artificial intelligence isn’t just changing the way students learn — it’s transforming every aspect of society. The labor market is experiencing a dramatic shift, upending traditional paths to financial stability. And AI is changing the ways we bring meaning to our lives: the ways we build relationships, the ways we pay attention, and the things we enjoy doing.
The upshot is that the most important question universities need to ask is not how to adapt our pedagogy to AI — although we certainly need to address that. The most important question we need to ask is how to provide an education that brings real value to students in the age of AI.
We need to ensure that universities provide students with the tools they need to find a path to financial security and to build meaningful lives.
We need to produce students with minds that are both nimble and broad. We need our students to not only be able to execute tasks effectively, but also have the judgment to determine which tasks are worth executing. We need students who have a moral compass, and who understand how the world works, in all of its political, economic, and human complexity. We need students who know how to think critically, and who have excellent communication and leadership skills.
Q: What role do the humanities, arts, and social sciences play in preparing MIT students for that future?
A: They’re essential, and are rightly a core part of an MIT education: MIT has long required its undergraduates take at least eight courses in HASS disciplines to graduate.
Fields like philosophy, political science, economics, literature, history, music, and anthropology are crucial to developing the parts of our lives that are essentially human — the parts that will not be replaced by AI.
They are crucial to developing critical thinking and a moral compass. They are crucial to understanding people — our values, institutions, cultures, and ways of thinking. They are crucial to creating students who are broad thinkers who understand the way the world works. They are crucial to developing students who are excellent communicators and are able to describe their projects — and their lives — in a way that endows them with meaning.
Our students understand this. Here is how one of them put the point: “Engineering gives me the tools to measure the world; the humanities teach me how to interpret it. That balance has shaped both how I do science and why I do it.” (Full interview here.)
Q: Some people worry that emphasizing humanistic study could dilute MIT’s technological edge. How do you respond to that concern?
A: I think the opposite is true.
MIT is an important engine for social mobility in the United States, and a catalyst for entrepreneurship, which has added billions of dollars to the American economy. That cannot be separated from the fact that we are a technical institution, which brings together the country’s most talented undergraduates — regardless of socioeconomic background — and transforms them into the next generation of our country’s top scientific and engineering leaders.
MIT plays an incredibly important role in our country. So, the last thing I want to do is mess with our secret sauce.
But I also think that the age of AI is forcing us to rethink what it means to be a top engineer.
Think about artificial intelligence itself. The challenges we face are not just technical. Issues like bias, accountability, governance, and the societal impact of automation are no less important. Understanding those dimensions helps technologists design better systems and anticipate real-world consequences.
Strengthening the humanities at MIT isn’t a departure from our core mission — it’s a way of ensuring that our technical leadership continues to matter in the world.
Q: What kinds of changes is MIT SHASS pursuing to support this vision?
A: There’s a lot going on!
We’ve launched the MIT Human Insight Collaborative (MITHIC) as a way of strengthening research in the humanities, arts, and social sciences, and of deepening collaboration with colleagues across MIT.
We’re shaping the undergraduate experience to ensure that every MIT student engages with the big societal questions shaping our time, from democratic resilience to climate change to the ethics of new technologies.
We’re building stronger connections through initiatives like the creation of shared faculty positions with the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing (SCC). And we recently launched a new Music Technology and Computation Graduate Program with the School of Engineering.
We’re partnering with SERC (the SCC’s Social and Ethical Responsibilities of Computing) to design new classes on the intersection of computing and human-centered issues, such as ethics.
And we’re elevating the humanities — for their own sake, and as a space for experimentation, bringing together students, faculty, and partners to explore new forms of research, teaching, and public engagement.
This is a very exciting time for SHASS.