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 LabJoi 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]
^"Disobedience Award". MIT Media Lab. Archived from the original on 2020-07-27. Retrieved 2020-08-11. Disobedience Award was active from May 2017 to September 2019.
^Hsu, Tiffany; Tracy, Marc; Griffith, Erin (2019-09-05). "Jeffrey Epstein's Donations Create a Schism at M.I.T.'s Revered Media Lab". The New York Times. ISSN0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2020-06-29. Retrieved 2020-08-11. 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.
