MIT Forum for Equity Series: On Black Lives Matter

In keeping with the MIT community’s efforts to address systemic racism and support the community in becoming more equitable and inclusive, the MIT Alumni Association presented the first MIT Forum for Equity, an online conversation with Melissa Nobles, dean of MIT’s School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, who discussed the Black Lives Matter movement within the context of American history.

In the interactive forum recorded on August 12, 2020, Nobles shared her research on racial and ethnic politics and issues of retrospective justice, and took live questions from participants. The conversation was moderated by Sujata Gupta, a 2018 MIT Knight Science Journalism fellow and social sciences writer for Science News.

“The US has a deeply complicated history which deals with African Americans, and all Americans by virtue of being in the U.S.,” Nobles says. “We are a gloriously diverse country that is as complex as its history. We do ourselves no favors when we simplify that history.”

Sponsored by the Alumni Association, the MIT Forum for Equity series aims to engage alumni/ae through thoughtful online conversations that help educate, inform, and examine issues of social justice and help to catalyze change in our communities and in the world. More conversations are scheduled throughout the 2020–21 academic year.

About Melissa Nobles

Melissa Nobles is the Kenan Sahin Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences, and professor of political science. Her research and teaching have focused on the comparative study of racial and ethnic politics, and issues of retrospective justice. Her current research centers on constructing a database of racial killings in the American South from 1930 to 1954. Learn more about Melissa Nobles.