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MIT Forums for Equity Promote Inclusion, Examine Social Issues

Jan 18, 2021
Jay London
Slice of MIT

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During the summer of 2020, to support the MIT community in becoming more equitable and inclusive, the MIT Alumni Association established the MIT Forum for Equity. The series aims to initiate thoughtful conversations about issues related to social justice.

The 12 Forums for Equity that took place in 2020 attracted more than 4,500 total registrants and featured a roster of more than 30 speakers that included 19 MIT alumni. Webcasts have focused on MIT-related topics, including improving the pipeline to MIT for students who come from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds, and pertinent topics related to current events, such as a discussion of the Black Lives Matter movement within the context of American history.

Watch all the 2020 Forums for Equity in the playlist above or learn more about selected webcasts previously featured on Slice of MIT below.

Identity Framing and Black Lives Matter
Featuring Tabitha Bonilla ’07, assistant professor of human development and social policy at Northwestern University

“This spring and summer…particularly with the pandemic in full swing in the United States, we saw social media being able to highlight a lot of the violence that occurs for unnamed people and the disproportionate harms that have been inflicted on the Black community,” Bonilla says. “Social media has been a form to draw particular attention to these pockets of the community, as Black Lives Matter has often continued to do.”

Research on Race, Ethnicity, and Immigration
Featuring Neil Ruiz PhD ’14, associate director for global migration and demography research at Pew Research Center

“There are over 45 million immigrants in the US, more than any other country,” Ruiz says. “And we are at the highest point in our history of the country’s population that is foreign-born or an immigrant, about 14 percent.”