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]
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]
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 |
Disobedience Award was active from May 2017 to September 2019.
Mr. Epstein's contributions have already disrupted the lab's work. It will not hand out this year's Disobedience Award — a $250,000 prize that has recognized #MeToo activists and others "challenging the norms, rules or laws that sustain society's injustices" — as Mr. Ito focuses on "healing the Media Lab community," according to an email he sent that was reviewed by The Times.