Lily L. Tsai is the Ford International Professor of Political Science and the director of the MIT Governance Lab (MIT GOV/LAB). Lily is a scholar of governance, legitimacy, and the role of moral evaluations in political behavior, with particular interests in the creation of trust, cooperation, and community. Lily joined the MIT faculty in 2004, having studied English literature, creative writing, and international relations at Stanford, and completing an MA in political science at Berkeley and a PhD in government at Harvard. She served as Chair of the MIT Faculty from 2021 to 2023, during which time she was responsible for the faculty deliberation of the MIT Statement on Free Expression and Academic Freedom adopted in 2022. Lily is the author of two books, Accountability without Democracy and When People Want Punishment: Retributive Justice and the Puzzle of Authoritarian Popularity, and over two dozen journal articles. In 2016, she founded MIT GOV/LAB to work with policymakers and practitioners on innovations in democratic governance and civic engagement. She has served as an advisor for more than 40 undergraduate and graduate students, and she is the current Class of 1960 Innovation in Education Fellow. In 2023 she organized the Compass Initiative, which brings together faculty and students from humanities and STEM to design classes and activities that promote debate and reflection about moral, social, and civic questions.
