When: Every Monday (except Holidays) during the semester Time: 4:15pm - 5:45pm Where: Room 14N-417 Come by for snacks, and tea with Literature Section friends, instructors, students, etc. What are you reading? What 21L classes are you taking or hoping to take? This event is specifically geared towards undergrads; but open to friends of the community that engage in the literary and humanities at MIT.
Presented by: Jacqueline Ngo Mpii CEO & Founder of Little Africa, Cultural Tourism expert, DEI advisor, and Cultural Ambassador Little Africa as a neighborhood, a concept, a city guide, a cultural space, and a company that maps and amplifies Black presence in Paris and beyond Abstract: Over a century ago African art profoundly influenced the Parisian avant-garde shaping the works of Picasso, Matisse, Derain and many others. It was also during this period that as Daniel Maximin notes in La France Noire “Africans Antilleans and African Americans met for the first time in Paris.” Today the traces of these cultural intersections are still visible—whether in art and gastronomy design and fashion music and literature—manifesting as infinite hybridizations.Yet beyond this historical legacy Black communities continue to actively shape Parisian identity not just as subjects of the past but as entrepreneurs, artists, and cultural innovators defining the city’s present and future. In this talk Jacqueline Ngo Mpii founder and CEO of Little Africa offers an insider’s perspective on how Black life is lived represented and transformed in contemporary Paris. Jacqueline Ngo Mpii is a dynamic leader and the founder of Little Africa, a transformative platform dedicated to promoting the rich cultural heritage of […]
Stop by for snacks and tea with the SHASS community, students, and instructors! HumaniTea is a program partnering with other units in SHASS to gather, share some food and thought, and enrich our shared MIT experience in the process. Once a month, SHASS community members, instructors, and students from diverse fields of studies, backgrounds, and interests can stop in and enjoy a cup of tea or snack. Monday, February 24 Monday, March 17 Monday, April 7 Monday, May 5 @ 4:15 - 5:45PM Building 14E-304* *Directions: Third floor of Building 14 from the Lewis Music Library stairs, through the CMS/W doors. Alternatively, take the elevator to the 3rd floor and navigate to the opposite end of the hallway, through third floor and CMS/W doors! Sign up for HumaniTea info: bit.ly/mithumanitea
When: Every Monday (except Holidays) during the semester Time: 4:15pm - 5:45pm Where: Room 14N-417 Come by for snacks, and tea with Literature Section friends, instructors, students, etc. What are you reading? What 21L classes are you taking or hoping to take? This event is specifically geared towards undergrads; but open to friends of the community that engage in the literary and humanities at MIT.
Presented by Johann Noh Research Professor at the Institute for Sinographic Literatures and Philology, Korea University and Research Associate and Program Coordinator of the Global Humanities Initiative, MIT Abstract: In premodern East Asia, the countries of the Sinographic cultural sphere sustained a long-standing community of knowledge and culture by constructing and engaging with a shared corpus of texts. However, this community was never a monolithic entity. Each country within the Sinographic sphere selectively imported, published, and disseminated Sinitic texts according to its unique historical and cultural context, as well as its contemporary needs. Through these texts, literati across East Asia participated in a common intellectual tradition, while also reinterpreting and localizing its meanings—thus cultivating a dynamic interplay between cultural unity and diversity. Furthermore, the practical functions of the Sinographic script in everyday language and writing practices varied considerably across regions. In Korea, for instance, Korean-style and idu-style Sinitic coexisted; in China, classical vernacular and early modern vernacular Sinitic coexisted; and in Japan, Japanese-style Sinitic developed. While the elite may have shared a common literary medium, the broader linguistic landscape was marked by rich regional variation. This presentation focuses on the Korean case, examining the role of textual circulation—arguably the most significant mechanism for cultural transmission […]
Join us for the 2025 SECOND GLOBAL HUMANITIES FORUM! This session introduces the The Good Life: Religions, Philosophies & Sciences pillar inviting participants to explore how religious, philosophical, and scientific ways of thinking and being can foster good lives and good living in an uncertain world. 2nd GHI Forum · Title: The Good Life: Religions, Philosophies & Sciences · Date: April 11, 10:00–11:30 AM EDT · Where: Online (Zoom link and Online Registration HERE) · Speakers: Rafal K. Stepien, Simran Jeet Singh, Andreas Ohlemacher, Wiebke Denecke 【Abstract】 How do religious, philosophical, and scientific ways of thinking and being nurture good lives? Taking this as a foundational question, this Forum of the MIT Global Humanities Intitiative is devoted to bringing greater clarity and honesty into our understandings of belief, reason, and human discovery in all its myriad dimensions. Hosted by the MIT Pillar on ‘The Good Life’, the Forum outlines the challenges facing our endeavor, discusses and debates diverse conceptions of the good life stemming from several of the world’s intellectual traditions and devotional practices, explores the experiential potential of engaged scholarship in the first-person, and proposes ways to harvest the meaning-making potentials of religions, philosophies, and sciences in the service of more cosmopolitan modes of inter-personal, inter-communal, and inter-religious human […]
When: Every Monday (except Holidays) during the semester Time: 4:15pm - 5:45pm Where: Room 14N-417 Come by for snacks, and tea with Literature Section friends, instructors, students, etc. What are you reading? What 21L classes are you taking or hoping to take? This event is specifically geared towards undergrads; but open to friends of the community that engage in the literary and humanities at MIT.
Presented by Sasha Rickard PhD candidate in Political Science at Boston College and Assistant Director of Concourse, MIT Abstract: Despite Socrates’ reputation as a moral gadfly, there is much disagreement about his position on the role of pleasure in the good life. In the ancient world, schools of thought as opposed as Epicureanism and Stoicism grew out of interpretations of Socratic teachings. Neither is this disagreement resolved by modern scholars. In Plato’s Philebus, Socrates interrogates a young interlocutor about the nature and goodness of pleasure. In the course of this interrogation, Socrates walks us through a phenomenological account of pleasure in its many forms, helping us to clarify our own experiences as well as the Socratic perspective on the role of pleasure in the good life. At the same time, through the arguments and decisions of Socrates’ interlocutors, Plato shows us something about the allure of hedonism. I will suggest that a careful reading of the Philebus helps to resolve the long-standing disagreement about Socrates’ perspective on pleasure, and to point to forces which incline us in the modern world, and especially intellectually ambitious young people, toward the belief that pleasure is the greatest good. Sasha Rickard is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Boston College, […]
When: Every Monday (except Holidays) during the semester Time: 4:15pm - 5:45pm Where: Room 14N-417 Come by for snacks, and tea with Literature Section friends, instructors, students, etc. What are you reading? What 21L classes are you taking or hoping to take? This event is specifically geared towards undergrads; but open to friends of the community that engage in the literary and humanities at MIT.
Join us for an evening with Julia Malye, author, translator, and rising literary voice, as she discusses her latest novel, Pelican Girls—a sweeping historical epic that brings to light a little-known chapter of French and American history. A work of sweeping historical fiction, the novel follows the perilous journey of young women sent from Paris to Louisiana in 1721, bound for arranged marriages in a colony desperate for settlers. But Pelican Girls is more than just a historical epic—it’s a deeply human story of survival, resilience, and sisterhood, set against the backdrop of colonial expansion, Indigenous resistance, and the brutal realities of the 18th-century Americas. Written simultaneously in French and English, Pelican Girls is also a fascinating exploration of language, identity, and the act of storytelling itself. During this conversation, Malye will discuss the research and creative process behind the novel, her experience writing in two languages, and how translation shapes literature. She will be joined by Shuchi Saraswat, writer, editor, and senior editor at AGNI, for a lively discussion about historical fiction, cross-cultural storytelling, and the art of bringing lost voices back to life. Our author talk will be followed by a Q&A session, with a book signing and a glass of wine. The event will […]
Literature Section
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
77 Massachusetts Avenue 14N-407
Cambridge, MA 02139
tel: (617) 253-3581
