“Today, over 5,000 faculty across Penn State campuses, including University Park and the Commonwealth Campuses, won their faculty union, the Penn State Faculty Alliance, SEIU Local 668, with 2,510 faculty members voting Union Yes!!! …the union won with almost 75% of the vote!!”

New(ish) article w my former masters advisees Anna Bunting, Dinah George, John McClure, Megan Husted & Skyler Kriese and our community advisors Rhonda Anderson, Dr. Leonard, & Theresa Landrum is out in Environmental Justice. journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1...

8 more days to submit an abstract to our 4s panel, "Taking Back Technopower: STS and strategic interventions in the fight against technofascism." Looking forward to an engaging conversation centered on the (totally small, very easy) q: "how do we win?" Apply by 4/30: www.4sonline.org/accepted_ope...

New article by Britt Paris, Serita Sargent and me in Big Data & Society We discuss collective bargaining around AI and how organized labor can meaningfully push back on—and even refuse—the pervasive narrative of AI inevitability journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

#CfA I'm organizing an open panel "Resisting the Datafied University" at #4S2026 in Toronto Please share widely & submit! www.4sonline.org/call_for_sub...

BREAKING: In response to huge cuts in Trump's budget request, NSF is shuttering its SBE directorate. Staff will be transferred to other parts of the agency and "grants that align with Administration priorities" will be maintained. That & more w/ @maxkozlov.bsky.social & @edwrdchen.bsky.social

Not the main point here, but I do not ever recall a federal agency making significant programmatic and personnel changes as a result of the PRESIDENT'S BUDGET PROPOSAL, which does not change any law or funding allocations. Congress hasn't acted yet. What are we doing here?

three more weeks to submit abstracts to our 4S open panel, that articulate STS-flavoured responses to the most important question of our times: "how do we win?"

If you support LPL and want to help us, please spread the word! We are looking for some early-career person to join us for a summer of research. Full details >> short.lucyparsonslabs.com/lpl2026apps

Join us for BD&S 2026 Colloquium, Panel 4: Governing Digital Infrastructures: Platforms, AI, and the Public Interest (Mar 18 | 15:00–16:30 GMT / 11:00 AM–12:30 PM EST) uky.zoom.us/j/83382671765 #DataGovernance #STS

hi STS people! are you engaged in political struggle against fascism? do you have things to share: strategic reflections, organizing artefacts, etc.? do you have thoughts about how we will win? if so, you should submit something to our open panel at 4S this year! www.4sonline.org/accepted_ope...

A huge win for the residents I work with in Southeast Michigan! We're celebrating this victory, while continuing the work to push for a system that prioritizes community health in the first place without relying on on polluter-payouts after damage is done. lnkd.in/er67EuP5

Sierra Club & SW Detroiters Celebrate $100M Penalty, Clean Air Wins in EES Coke Ruling cleantechnica.com/2026/02/17/s...

i don’t see how any of the benefits of chatgpt and other consumer-facing LLMs can possibly outweigh their incredible ability to induce suicides

didn't CMU recently announce that it's going to be like extremely important that incoming students know how to use this thing that nobody seems to use in reality, and that appears to make work reliably worse for anyone who's not half-assing everything they do?

I want to drive a dump truck of cow manure to the Microsoft headquarters and drop it off in the lobby as a thank you. They didn't ask for it, they didn't want it, but maybe they can figure out how to get rid of it.

As the federal government continues its top-down assault on higher education, universities are internally building repression and surveillance machines that mirror the Trump administration.

"Europeans recognize his vision about free public transit and universal childcare. We expect our governments to make these kinds of services accessible to all of us,” said Verbeek. “We pay higher taxes and get civilized societies in return."

If someone says (as they did to my student), Are you trying to fight AI by yourself? They can say, thankfully I am not alone. And if it is useful, STPP has developed an explanation: stpp.fordschool.umich.edu/research/com...

As people increasingly use AI—especially with institutional support—it is getting harder for scholars (esp junior) to practice informed refusal. I am guiding my students how to still say no, and explain how it violates their ethical and environmental principles. A movement starts from below!

in @michigandaily.bsky.social -- Op-ed written by students and grad workers organizing against disciplinary charges for students alleged to have protested Accountability in a time of genocide www.michigandaily.com/opinion/op-e...

Are you a UM worker/student and want to hear better takes than the dude below on AI from university of Michigan faculty, students, staff? then join the mass meeting on 10/28 at 7 to stop the UM-Los Alamos data center and its support of nuclear weapons! bit.ly/UMichNoAIMeeting

The government is seeking injunctive relief and penalties of up to $109,024 per day, per environmental violation from EES Coke Battery and DTE Energy. planetdetroit.org/2025/09/dte-...

This example particularly stood out to me: great way to piss off voters in a swing state is by cancelling grants related to air pollution. "A doctoral student’s grant was canceled because she was studying low-income neighborhoods with high rates of air pollution."

I talked to @embermcc.bsky.social, one of the hundreds of scientists who had their grant money revoked by NSF. Her research, focused on environmental injustices, and exemplifies what type of research the government is trying to eliminate. @insideclimatenews.org insideclimatenews.org/news/0605202...

I find these articles frustrating because in so far as AI is denigrating academic labor and the learning process (and it is), it’s doing so in a system that was already denigrating academic labor and turning college into a transactional investment.

Proud of you @embermcc.bsky.social! Gift link to NYT article on NSF terminations here: www.nytimes.com/2025/04/22/s...

Live footage of me today:

We also need to talk about the knock-on burdens these grant terminations are creating, for university administrators, students, and PIs, who have to find replacement funds, hop on crisis meetings, figure out how to file appeals, expedite paperwork and reimbursement requests, etc.

NEW: Mahmoud Khalil's wife gave birth to their child without him after ICE denied their request to let him be present. “This was a purposeful decision by ICE to make me, Mahmoud, and our son suffer,” Dr. Abdalla said. “My son and I should not be navigating his first days on earth without Mahmoud."

This is so depressing: the Trump admin has terminated a grant that was going to reinterview Black Americans from the National Survey of American Life, one of the most important mental health surveys of the 21st century and one that sociologists still use more than 2 decades after data were collected

Does that include downriver communities, e.g. Ecorse, Inkster, River Rouge? The pollutants in that area have been so bad that in years past (not sure how bad it is now), you knew when the wind was out of the SW due to the rotten egg aroma from the smelters.

There are some folks (who I can vouch for for whatever that's worth) tracking the terminated NSF grants to facilitate coordinated responses, media coverage, etc: Form to add a terminated grant: airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni... Current grants on the list: airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...

My PhD student's NSF grant was terminated today. Her dissertation investigates why air pollution monitoring, metrics, and regulations don't properly capture the harms experienced by marginalized communities--esp in the most polluted Detroit neighborhoods. She and I are happy to talk with press etc.

All NIH study sections canceled indefinitely. This will halt science and devastate research budgets in universities.

So excited about this! If you want to help us make a Michigan-based science and tech policy fellowship a reality, see the job posting below (Nov 17 deadline)! And if you want to apply, stay tuned!! 👀 fordschool.umich.edu/news/2024/st... #scipolicy #techpolicy #altac #policy #michigan

GEOGRAPHERS for JUSTICE in PALESTINE a pre-AAG workshop Sunday, March 23, 2025 - Detroit, MI Please share widely, and sign up for further information below. #geosky docs.google.com/document/d/e...

Did you leave the #EASST4S2024 presidential plenary session wondering how to put STS in concert with applied policy from the academy (while mentoring students to do the same)? Check out University of Michigan’s Technology Assessment Project or find these folks (unfortunately their panel was Tues).

This article could also be written about Ann Arbor amid the frequent power outages due to DTE’s crumbling infrastructure.

This panel was incredible — I learned so much from my colleagues about this project that I knew about, but didn’t *know* — UM’s Science, Technology & Public Policy program is doing truly remarkable work that engages STS in applied policymaking & transforms early career scholars in the process.

Looking forward to the #EASST #4S conference starting on Tuesday!! Who will be there? I am co-organizing a panel about UM's Technology Assessment Project, Tuesday at 4pm along with @mollyak.bsky.social, Denia Djokić, and Margarita Rodriguez Morales! #STS stpp.fordschool.umich.edu/technology-a...

Environmental exposure has become a troubling & widespread component of everyday life; but how have our understandings of environmental exposure also *become troubled* by the democratization of epistemologies surrounding it? Join our series Friday at #EASST4S2024 to hear more!

Looking forward to our 3 panels on the Next-Generation Intersections of STS and Public Policy today!! First one is up at 8:30am (then 1:30 and 3:40pm!) Room 313A. Join us!! #4sHonolulu23 #4S2023 #STS