After World War II MIT formed a committee—famously known as the “Lewis Report”—to reassess the institute’s educational mission. Completed in 1949, the report recommended creating a school equal in stature to the existing science and engineering schools, dedicated to humanities, arts, and social sciences. Originally called the School of Humanities and Social Sciences, it added “Arts” about 25 years later and became SHASS. The report argued that the rapid, world‑changing developments of the nuclear age (e.g., the Manhattan Project) required not only technical expertise but also informed leaders and citizens capable of critical, contextual thinking about history, economics, culture, and identity.
Today SHASS is a core part of MIT: roughly 1,000 undergraduates must complete at least eight SHASS courses over four years, covering music, theater, history, anthropology, economics, linguistics, philosophy, literature, and political science. Three faculty members—physicist‑historian David Kaiser, anthropologist Heather Paxson, and economist Jonathan Gruber—discussed what makes SHASS special.
Kaiser recalled the historical context of the Lewis Report, emphasizing that breakthroughs like nuclear weapons demanded “informed leadership” and “informed citizenry.” He stresses that SHASS equips students to think about the societal and ethical implications of cutting‑edge physics (e.g., quantum theory, time dilation) while mastering technical skills. He also highlights a long‑running interdisciplinary course that requires physics majors to write essays, read non‑technical texts, and construct coherent arguments—embodying the mantra “writing is thinking.”
Paxson illustrated SHASS’s interdisciplinary collaborations: political scientists Adam Berinsky and Charles Stewart, together with operations‑research specialist Chara Podimata, are using AI to study how chatbots influence voter information; music and theater director Jay Scheib recently staged Wagner in Germany; and her own “Art‑Craft‑Science” class had students follow a poorly written mozzarella‑making kit, then write a lab report to reflect on tacit knowledge—an exercise that anticipates the hands‑on, AI‑aware pedagogy MIT values.
Gruber shared his own undergraduate story: taking 14.01 (Intro to Economics) revealed how mathematics could answer real‑world questions, shifting his career from a math‑averse student to a leading health‑policy economist. He noted that SHASS was once a “second‑class citizen” but now is essential for MIT to compete with Ivy League institutions, providing students with a public‑good perspective rather than a narrow technical focus.
All three agree that AI is reshaping every discipline, and ethical, regulatory, and societal debates must happen where AI developers and humanists sit side by side. MIT’s unique advantage lies in this proximity, enabling collaborative projects that blend technical innovation with humanities insight.
The upcoming SHASS 75th‑anniversary conference (Sept 24‑25) will feature over 40 speakers, panels, alumni stories, and performances by the Music and Theater Arts department (original compositions, dance, jazz). The event aims to showcase that solving today’s “big‑ticket” problems requires more than a technical fix—it demands sustained interdisciplinary teamwork, a muscle MIT is actively strengthening through initiatives like MITHIC.
Review: SHASS’s evolution demonstrates that scientific breakthroughs are inseparable from humanistic inquiry. By institutionalizing cross‑disciplinary curricula and research, MIT equips students with both technical mastery and societal insight—an essential combination for future innovation and responsible leadership.