STS.050 | Spring 2016 | Undergraduate

The History of MIT

Calendar

Reflection papers due before first class of the week, starting week two.

WEEK # CLASS TOPICS
1 1 Introduction, Course Overview. What is MIT? Why MIT?
2 America in 1850: The Age of Transformation
2 3 William Barton Rogers and MIT’s Foundational Years
4

Guest Speaker: Matthew Pearl, New York Times best-selling author of The Technologists

Recitations will meet at the Institute Archives and Special Collections

3 5 No Class
6 MIT Museum Workshop
4 7 Growing Pains: MIT in Boston, MIT-Harvard Merger
8

Guest Speaker: Douglass Shand-Tucci, historian, author of MIT: The Campus Guide by Princeton Architectural Press, and numerous books on Boston architectural history

Recitations Special Workshop: MIT Museum Architecture and Design Collection.

5 9

The Great Stride: MIT’s Move to Cambridge

Early due date for Document Report

10 Guest Speaker: Professor Mark Jarzombeck, author of Designing MIT: Bosworth’s New Tech
6 11 MIT in the 1920s and 1930s
12

Guest Speaker: Martha Eddison Sieniewicz, Special Assistant to the President of MIT

Final due date for Document Report

7 13 World War II and the Aftermath
14 Guest Speaker: Emily Vanderbilt Wade, Class of 1945
8 15 Guest Speaker: Professor David Kaiser
16 MIT Mid-Century
9 17 Guest Speaker: Professor David Mindell
18

Sputnik and the Cold War

Early due date for Plan Report

10 19 MIT in the 1960s
20

Guest Speaker: Karen Arenson, Class of 1970

Final due date for Plan Report

11 21 No Class
22 Guest Speaker: Susan Hockfield, President Emerita and Professor of Neuroscience
12 23 MIT in the 1970s and 1980s
24 Hacks, Kludges, Improvisations: MIT in the Late 20th Century
13 25

Current Student Experience at MIT – Presentations

Each student will give a one-minute presentation about a person, class, experience, club, or living group that has had an impact on his or her life.

26 Guest Speaker: Sanjay Sarma, Vice President for Open Learning
14 27 Guest Speaker: Alan Marcum, Director of Treasury
28

21st Century MIT

Final Project Paper / Report Due

Course Info

Instructor
As Taught In
Spring 2016
Learning Resource Types
Written Assignments
Activity Assignments