The MIT School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (SHASS) has announced several leadership changes for the 2024-25 academic year.
« I am confident that these outstanding members of the SHASS community will demonstrate exceptional leadership. I am excited to see each of them implement their vision for the future of their respective units, » said Agustin Rayo, Kenan Sahin Dean of MIT SHASS.
Christine Walley will head the Anthropology section. Walley, a professor emerita of anthropology, earned her PhD in anthropology from New York University in 1999. Her first ethnography, « Rough Waters: Nature and Development in an East African Marine Park, » explored environmental conflicts in rural Tanzania.
Seth Mnookin will lead the Comparative Media Studies/Writing program. Mnookin, a long-time journalist and science writer, was a 2019-2020 Guggenheim Fellow. He graduated from Harvard College in 1994 with a degree in history and science and was a Joan Shorenstein Fellow at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government in 2004. Mnookin will also continue as director of the Graduate Program in Science Writing.
Kieran Setiya will chair the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy. Setiya, a professor of philosophy and head of the philosophy section, specializes in ethics, epistemology, and the philosophy of mind. He earned his PhD in philosophy from Princeton University in 2002.
In the Literature section, associate professors Sandy Alexandre and Stephanie Frampton will serve as co-heads. Alexandre’s research spans from the late 19th century to contemporary Black American literature and culture. She earned her PhD in English language and literature from the University of Virginia in 2006. Frampton, also co-chair of the Ancient and Medieval Studies program, earned her PhD in comparative literature from Harvard University in 2011.
Jay Scheib will lead the Music and Theater Arts section. Scheib, a professor of music and theater arts, earned his MFA in theater directing from Columbia University School of the Arts. He has received the MIT Edgerton Award, the Richard Sherwood Award, a National Endowment for the Arts/TCG fellowship, an OBIE Award for best direction, and a Guggenheim Fellowship.
In the Science, Technology, and Society program, Kate Brown will serve as head. Brown, a Thomas M. Siebel Distinguished Professor in the History of Science, focuses her research on the intersections of history, science, technology, and biopolitics in creating large-scale disasters and modernist wastelands. Her upcoming book, « Tiny Gardens Everywhere: A Kaleidoscopic History of the Food Sovereignty Frontier, » will be published in 2025 by WW Norton & Co. Brown has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Carnegie Foundation, the European University Institute, the Kennan Institute, Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. She earned her PhD in history from the University of Washington in Seattle.
In the Women’s and Gender Studies program, Sana Aiyar will serve as interim head. Aiyar, an associate professor of history and a modern South Asian historian, earned her PhD from Harvard University in 2009 and was an Andrew Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at Johns Hopkins University in 2009-2010.
