Lana Cook, Ph.D., Associate Director of the MIT Systems Awareness Lab. She leads cross-disciplinary research advancing the science and practice of systems change. Previously, she served as a strategist and program designer at MIT Open Learning, where she helped incubate innovative educational initiatives, including the Refugee Action Hub (ReACT) and Emerging Talent programs. She was also the founding co-chair of MIT’s Migration Summit. Lana earned her Ph.D. in English from Northeastern University, with a focus on contemporary American literature, cinema studies, and visual culture. As a 2014 Northeastern University Humanities Center Fellow, her research explored the cultural and conceptual meanings of virality. She holds a B.A. in English and Philosophy from the University of New Hampshire. She is currently writing a book on the women of the psychedelic sixties and the role of aesthetics in personal and collective transformation. Her scholarship has appeared in South Atlantic Quarterly, Configurations, Chacruna, Forced Migration Review, and other venues.
» Pillar: Public Literacies: Civic Systems, Media & Emotional Intelligence