About Us

The Comparative Global Humanities Initiative (GHI) was born in 2021 with the goal of creating an MIT-based worldwide community that works globally towards reinvigorating humanistic learning and education by radically expanding the geographical scope and temporal depth of humanistic disciplines, thereby reimagining their critical relevance to the grand challenges of today’s world. GHI supports the study of the world’s cultures and their diverse histories in all their historical, linguistic, cultural, scientific, and technological manifestations; promotes the creation of new cross-disciplinary methodologies and theories based on the world’s cultural archives and conceptual vocabularies; advances the critical study of the social, political, and creative functions of cultural heritage in today’s world; and powers the building of new infrastructures of research, collective reflection & action that allow us to leverage systemic change in our communities & homes, educational institutions, political systems, and transnational diplomacy & collaborations.

Through a growing community of scholars, students, partners, and associates, locally and around the world, the Initiative seeks to develop new cultural practices of knowing, teaching, sharing, and acting. We aim to contribute to efforts already under way to create a cross-disciplinary undergraduate curriculum that equips MIT graduates with humanistic values and a critical understanding of society and the broader world, as they emerge as global changemakers and leaders on a planet facing overwhelming challenges.

GHI is shaped like a MANDALA EYE, embodying the uniquely diverse color scheme, self-awareness, and quest for deeper insight of our community. It reminds us of the interdependence of all living things. 

Our MANDALA EYE is organized around nine big topics—PILLARS—that constitute the conceptual foundation and transformative action platform for GHI. Led by pillar coordinators who serve as thought leaders for these big-topic problem areas in today’s world, the pillars house individual PROJECTS that concretely leverage the broader mission of the pillars. Project leaders conceive, plan, and implement their projects in collaboration with the relevant pillar coordinators, and in dialogue with both the GHI leadership team and other GHI pillar coordinators or GHI members.

At the center of GHI’s Mandala Eye, the AREA EXPERT HUB houses our community of scholars working across the world’s major philological and cultural traditions. Their highly specialized expertise enables GHI to create new global, comparative knowledge about human societies and the human experience in deep time and space. Members serve various of GHI’s projects and some also offer consultancy services.

We are a growing community and welcome new members and ideas for congenial projects! Please reach out to the GHI leadership team if you are interested in joining GHI.

LIST OF PILLARS & RELATED PROJECTS