In 2015, Harlem-born Melissa Nobles was named Kenan Sahin Dean of the School of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at MIT (SHASS), the first black dean of one of the five academic schools.

A member of the MIT faculty since 1995, Nobles has been the Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professor of Political Science since 2010 and served as head of MIT’s Department of Political Science until 2013.

Her research focuses on comparative studies of racial and ethnic politics, and issues of retrospective justice. Nobles is the author of Shades of Citizenship: Race and the Census in Modern Politics (Stanford University Press, 2000) and The Politics of Official Apologies (Cambridge University Press, 2008).

[Nobles offers MIT] a vision of the humanities, arts, and social sciences as the human stage on which our scientific and technical solutions have purpose and meaning.

L. Rafael Reif, MIT President