MIT Disobedience Award
United States award
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The MIT Disobedience Award, given by the MIT Media Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was a $250,000 cash-prize award that recognized and honored the efforts of an individual or an organization whose ethical disobedience of authority resulted in a positive social impact.[1] The award was active from May 2017 to September 2019,[2] when it was cancelled after connections between the Media Lab and Jeffrey Epstein became public.[3]
The physical award was a glass orb, fabricated by MIT Media Lab professor Neri Oxman.[4]
The Disobedience Award was an international award, and individuals and organizations from all disciplines and specialties, including science, medicine, human rights, politics, law, journalism, and technology, were eligible for nomination.[5]
History
The Disobedience Award was created by former director of the MIT Media Lab Joi Ito and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman in July 2016.[6] In July 2017, the Media Lab presented the Disobedience Award to recipients Marc Edwards and Mona Hanna-Attisha to honor their efforts in exposing high levels of lead in the water supply of Flint, Michigan during the Flint Water Crisis.[7][8][9] In 2018, the annual award was presented to the founder of the #MeToo movement, Tarana Burke, and to BethAnn McLaughlin and Sherry Marts;[10][11] who were recognized for activism in the #MeToo movement and the #MeTooSTEM movement, and for efforts in combating sexual harassment and misconduct in science and in academia.[12][13]
In September 2019, one of the awards' jurors Anand Giridharadas resigned after news came out involving Ito's associations with Jeffrey Epstein.[14][15] MIT gave orbs similar to the glass orb that was part of the prize to both Epstein and Hoffman.[4]
Recipients
| Year | Name | Affiliation |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Mona Hanna-Attisha and Marc Edwards[5] | Hurley Medical Center's Pediatric Residency Program and Charles Lunsford Professor of Civil Engineering |
| 2018 | Tarana Burke, BethAnn McLaughlin, and Sherry Marts[16] | #MeToo and #MeTooSTEM Movements |