MIT Concourse - Faculty & Staff
Paula Cogliano
Paula Cogliano earned her B.A. in Stage Management at Ithaca College. She worked at the Old Globe Theater in San Diego, transitioning to Higher Ed Administration at MIT in 2007. Before joining Concourse she worked in the Office of Experiential Learning supporting the Dean as well as D-Lab. Outside her work with Concourse, she is an avid reader, theater enthusiast and culinary adventurer.
Anne McCants
Anne McCants studied economics, German, and history at Mount Holyoke College, and then completed her Masters degree in economics and PhD in history at UCLA and UC Berkeley respectively. She came to MIT in 1991 and is now a Margaret MacVicar Faculty Fellow and the incoming faculty housemaster at Burton Conner. Her teaching is focused in the areas of European economic and social history and social science research methods. She is the author of Civic Charity in a Golden Age: Orphan Care in Early Modern Amsterdam (1997), and numerous articles on historical demography, material culture, and the standard of living in the Dutch Republic. She is currently working on an economic and institutional history of the movement to build cathedrals and other major churches in the Gothic style in North-western Europe in the 12th and 13th centuries. In a second project Anne is working in collaboration with a team of economists, engineers, and historians to study the technical achievement and economic and social impact of the first fully Portuguese-managed railroad project in the Valley of the Tua River in the late nineteenth century. She also serves as the Editor of the Journal Social Science History. Her favorite ways to unwind include cooking (with or without students), working with fibers and textiles, digging in her garden, and riding her bike.
Lee Perlman
Lee Perlman earned his B.A. from St. John's College (Annapolis), and then pursued graduate work in philosophy at the Catholic University of America. He completed an M.A. in political philosophy at Georgetown University, and then earned a Ph.D. at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He has taught at Harvard University, Brown University, Swarthmore College, Phillips Academy (Andover), and, for the past 14 years, at MIT. Dr. Perlman considers himself to be primarily an educator, and prides himself on designing and teaching a number of courses at MIT which offer students an integrated view of the humanities and sciences in the western tradition. Among these are his current courses "Ancient Greek Mathematics and Philosophy" and a course taught jointly with Prof. Bernhardt Trout, "A Philosophical History of Energy." Under a grant from the D'Arbeloff Foundation, Perlman is now writing a book on the the relationship between ancient Greek mathematical thought, the epistmology of Plato, and the ethics of Aristotle.
John Pope
John Pope studied Computer Science and Mathematics during his undergraduate years at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. During graduate school, he shifted his studies to Computer Science and Public Policy, focusing on public perceptions of and attitudes about science and technology. Teaching allows him to share his passion for science and engineering. If taught right, even physics can be fun and exciting for everyone.
Linda Rabieh
Linda Rabieh received her Ph.D in political philosophy from the University of Toronto. Having previously taught at Colorado College and Tufts University, Linda joined the Concourse faculty in 2010. Her studies and writings have focused on classical and medieval political philosophy. She has received a National Endowment of Humanities independent scholars' fellowship, and her 2006 book, Plato and the Virtue of Courage (Johns Hopkins University Press), won the inaugural Delba Winthrop Mansfield prize for excellence in political science. Her current research interests include Plato's depiction of happiness as a harmony of soul, ancient views on ethics in war, and the differences between the ancient and modern understandings of reason. She lives in Cambridge with her husband and twin children.
Saif Rayyan
Saif Rayyan earned his PhD in Theoretical Particle Physics from Virginia Tech, where he studied the properties of neutrinos and how certain theoretical models explain why matter dominated anti matter at the early stages of the universe. After finishing his PhD, he switched his interests to improving physics education. He taught at Virginia Tech and Beloit College, and then joined MIT as a Postdoctoral Associate in physics education research. At MIT, he developed and tested online tools and content for introductory physics, and has been involved in teaching 8.01 and 8.011. In his spare time, Saif enjoys cooking and trying new foods and recipes.
Robert Winters
Robert Winters studied mathematics as an undergraduate at the City University of New York, attended graduate school at MIT and received his Ph.D. in mathematics from Boston University in 1990. His primary field is dynamical systems, but he spends considerable time these days consulting on election systems. He served on the mathematics faculty of Harvard University, Wellesley College, and Brandeis University before joining the Concourse program. When not in the classroom, he writes about civic and political affairs in and around Cambridge as editor of the Cambridge Civic Journal. He is also Chair of the Local Walks/Hikes Committee of the Boston Chapter of the Appalachian Mountain Club and serves as an appointed member of several boards for the City of Cambridge. He was instrumental in starting Cambridge's recycling program and has for many years been known as the City's composting guru.
