New faculty members join School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences in 2025, numbering 14 in total.

New faculty members join School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences in 2025, numbering 14 in total.

New Faculty Members and Researchers Join MIT's Diverse Academic Community

MIT has welcomed several new faculty members and researchers across various departments, bringing a wealth of expertise in diverse fields such as political methodology, linguistics, music, and media studies.

Political Methodology

Naoki Egami, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science, specializes in political methodology and develops advanced statistical methods for political science and broader social science research. His research primarily focuses on external validity and generalizability of research findings, the application of machine learning and artificial intelligence for social sciences, and causal inference involving network and spatial data.

Egami's academic work has been published in leading journals across political science, statistics, and computer science, such as the American Political Science Review, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series B, NeurIPS, and Science Advances. Prior to MIT, he was an assistant professor at Columbia University, holds a PhD from Princeton University (2020), and a BA from the University of Tokyo (2015). Egami is also a faculty affiliate of the Institute for Data, Systems, and Society at MIT.

Linguistics and Philosophy

Viola Schmitt is an associate professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, with a special interest in semantics. She focuses on understanding general constraints on human language meaning. Rachel Fraser is another associate professor in the same department, whose research interests lie in the areas of syntax, semantics, and formal linguistics.

Bar Luzon joins the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy as an assistant professor. Luzon completed her BA in philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and her PhD in philosophy at New York University.

Music and Theater Arts

Paris Smaragdis, a professor in the Music and Theater Arts Section, has a shared appointment in the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. His research lies at the intersection of signal processing and machine learning, especially as it relates to sound and music. Pascal Le Boeuf, a Grammy Award-winning composer, jazz pianist, and producer, also joins the Music and Theater Arts Section as an assistant professor. Mark Rau, another assistant professor in the same section, is involved in developing graduate programming focused on music technology and has a background in musical acoustics, vibration and acoustic measurement, audio signal processing, and physical modeling synthesis.

Comparative Media Studies/Writing

Becca Lewis, an assistant professor in the Comparative Media Studies/Writing program, specializes in the rise of right-wing politics in Silicon Valley and online. Rebekah Larsen and Angela Saini are also assistant professors in the same program. Saini is a science journalist and author, whose work has appeared in National Geographic, Wired, Science, and Foreign Policy.

Department of Political Science

Valentin Figueroa joins the Department of Political Science as an assistant professor. His research examines historical state building, ideological change, and scientific innovation, with a regional focus on Western Europe and Latin America. Bailey Flanigan is another assistant professor in the department, with a shared appointment in the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. Her research combines tools from across multiple disciplines to advance political methodology and strengthen public participation in democracy.

History Section

Ben Lindquist, an assistant professor in the History Section, has a shared appointment in the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. His work observes the historical ways that computing has circulated with ideas of religion, emotion, and divergent thinking.

Notable Achievements

Brian Hedden PhD '12 is a professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy and the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT, with a shared appointment in the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing. He is also a professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences. Hedden's research focuses on the computational modelling of language and music perception and production.

Pascal Le Boeuf, a Grammy Award-winning composer, jazz pianist, and producer, joins the Music and Theater Arts Section as an assistant professor at MIT. His work has been widely recognized and awarded, including a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition.

Naoki Egami, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at MIT, has had his work published in academic journals and news outlets such as The Guardian and Business Insider. Prior to MIT, he worked as a researcher at the Data and Society Research Institute.

These new faculty members and researchers bring a diverse range of expertise and perspectives to MIT, further enriching the academic community and driving groundbreaking research across various disciplines.

1. The Department of Political Science at MIT has welcomed Valentin Figueroa as an assistant professor, who specializes in historical state building, ideological change, and scientific innovation.
2. Rebekah Larsen and Angela Saini are assistant professors in the Comparative Media Studies/Writing program, with Saini being a science journalist and author.
3. Naoki Egami, an associate professor in the Department of Political Science, has his research published in prestigious journals like the American Political Science Review and Science Advances.
4. Viola Schmitt is an associate professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, focusing on understanding general constraints on human language meaning.
5. Paris Smaragdis, a professor in the Music and Theater Arts Section, has a shared appointment in the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
6. Becca Lewis, an assistant professor in the Comparative Media Studies/Writing program, researches the rise of right-wing politics in Silicon Valley and online.
7. The Institute for Data, Systems, and Society at MIT has taken Naoki Egami as a faculty affiliate.
8. Mark Rau, an assistant professor in the Music and Theater Arts Section, is involved in developing graduate programming focused on music technology.
9. Rachel Fraser is another associate professor in the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy, with research interests in syntax, semantics, and formal linguistics.
10. Bar Luzon has joined the Department of Linguistics and Philosophy as an assistant professor, completing her undergraduate studies in philosophy at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and her PhD in philosophy at New York University.
11. The MIT Schwarzman College of Computing has Bailey Flanigan as a shared assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and the Electrical Engineering and Computer Science department.
12. Ben Lindquist, an assistant professor in the History Section, has a shared appointment in the MIT Schwarzman College of Computing in the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.
13. Pascal Le Boeuf, a Grammy Award-winning composer, joins the MIT community as an assistant professor in the Music and Theater Arts Section.
14. Brian Hedden, a professor in the Departments of Linguistics and Philosophy, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, and Brain and Cognitive Sciences, focuses on the computational modeling of language and music perception and production.

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