Melissa Nobles | |
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![]() Nobles in 2024 | |
7th Chancellor of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology | |
Assumed office August 18, 2021 | |
Preceded by | Cynthia Barnhart |
9th Dean of the MIT School of Humanities,Arts,and Social Sciences | |
In office 2015–2021 | |
Preceded by | Deborah Kay Fitzgerald |
Succeeded by | Agustín Rayo |
Personal details | |
Born | New York City,New York,U.S. | May 13,1963
Education | Brown University (BA) Yale University (MA,PhD) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Political science |
Institutions | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
Thesis | Responding with good sense:the politics of race and censuses in contemporary brazil (1995) |
Doctoral advisor | James C. Scott |
Melissa Nobles (born May 13,1963) is an American political scientist,currently serving as Massachusetts Institute of Technology's 7th chancellor (the top administrator for student life) since August 2021. She is also a professor of political science at MIT.
Nobles served as the 9th dean of MIT School of Humanities,Arts,and Social Sciences from 2015 to 2021. Her scholarship focuses on the comparative study of racial politics,categorization,violence,and reconciliation. [1] [2]
Melissa Nobles was born on May 13,1963 [3] at Sydenham Hospital in Harlem,New York City. Her mother was a social worker while her father worked as a police officer. [4] Nobles' mother and father were raised in South Carolina and Tennessee,respectively;both attended schools that were legally segregated on the basis of race. [5] [6]
Nobles was raised primarily in the Bronx;her family moved to New Rochelle,New York,when she was in junior high. [4] In high school,she was president of her school's Black culture club as well as class president. [4] [5]
Nobles received a Bachelor of Arts with a major in history from Brown University in 1985,as well as a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy in political science at Yale University in 1995. Her doctoral advisor was James C. Scott. [7] Her doctoral dissertation was titled Responding with good sense:the politics of race and censuses in contemporary brazil (1995). [8]
After receiving her doctorate,Nobles held fellowships at the Boston University Institute for Race and Social Division and the Harvard Radcliffe Institute. [7]
Nobles joined the faculty of MIT in 1999 as an associate professor of political science. [4] She held the Cecil and Ida Green Career Development Professorship from 1997 to 2000 and was appointed the Arthur and Ruth Sloan Professorship in 2010. [9] Between 2013 and 2015,Nobles headed the university's department of political science. From 2013 to 2014,Nobles was vice-president of the American Political Science Association. [7]
Nobles served as the Kenan Sahin Dean of the MIT School of Humanities,Arts,and Social Sciences,from 2015 to 2021. [10] She was named MIT's 7th chancellor (the top administrator for student life) on June 17,2021,assuming the chancellor's office on August 18,2021. [11]