very very grateful for the past 5 years I’ve spent building community and doing science with so many wonderful people ❤️

For people who are concerned about having their devices seized at US airports starting Monday when ICE "assists" the TSA, EFF has this guide: www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

Solidarity with Emily Tucker and her open letter to students. Tucker writes, "But the great thing is, you don’t have to go along with this, and I urge you not to. You can refuse to use the chatbot. You can tell your professors that you don’t want them to use it or to require you to use it."

Yesterday I successfully defended my dissertation, so I am now officially (ish) Dr. Alyssa. I'm so grateful for the support of my committee -- @michaelann.bsky.social, @kennyjoseph.bsky.social, @foucaultwelles.bsky.social, & @davidlazer.bsky.social -- as well as my family, friends, and labmates.

we were supposed to demonstrate understanding of foundational concepts in the ✨ canon of network science ✨ but unfortunately i am still not sure what that is 🤷‍♀️ i know so many centrality measures tho

Looking for something ✨network-y ✨ to do the Sunday before NetSci 2026 starts? How about 𝗔 𝗛𝗶𝗴𝗵𝗲𝗿-𝗢𝗿𝗱𝗲𝗿 𝗛𝗮𝗰𝗸𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗼𝗻? We'll explore the Bluesky starter pack dataset from 𝘼 𝘽𝙡𝙪𝙚 𝙎𝙩𝙖𝙧𝙩 (doi.org/10.3886/ICPS...). 🚨Fill out this form by March 13🚨 tinyurl.com/26warr3n tinyurl.com/ytzfhc74

excited that @wins-society.bsky.social once again will have a satellite at @netsciconf.bsky.social where our mentorship program is back by popular demand! you can submit at this link: forms.gle/nFivVAiE4gdE...

hi come join the highest-order hackathon ever! yay networks!!! www.philchodrow.prof/higher-order...

Hi all, I'm leading a study! We're looking to understand transfem experiences searching for information related to transitioning online, setting transition-related goals, and making decisions based on the information acquired in these searches.

NEW STUDY! @juliahusar.bsky.social and I have a grant to build trans health and wellbeing tech, and we need input from other trans women and transfems to make sure it serves us all well. This is research BY transfems FOR transfems and we're inviting y'all to be part of it. Also, we're paying!

Two queer women with a 6 year old in school today stopped to film ICE and for their bravery ICE agents murdered one before the other’s eyes. The grief in the survivor’s voice is a knife to the gut. Destroying people and their bonds is what ICE has always done.

It appears ICE murdered someone in cold blood today and their plan is — per usual — to create a fog of lies so the killer does not face justice. We simply can't let that happen. The shooter has to be arrested and so does Bovino. They can't just kill people on the street.

Reading this piece by @sesmith.lol made my (Gen X) head spin. You, too, should definitely read it. "The concern arises when algospeak also reflects a larger softening of language, one driven by the desire to pursue safety over reality, dilution over strength."

never a good sign when you’re on hold trying to get your specialty medication long enough that you figure out when the hold music loops

We didn’t spend free time on ERGs because we thought it would benefit shareholders, it was because it made our lives slightly less miserable as a cog in the machine and it let us consolidate what little power we had.

hi i’m a tiny crumb of peanut dust

more cozyposting: just knit a chunky mobius strip cowl

thinking about that time in college when i posted about my sleep schedule on the polyphasic sleep subreddit and someone was like “bestie that’s not polyphasic that’s a sleep disorder” and i went “haha couldn’t be me” then got diagnosed with narcolepsy like 6+ years later

made a practice quilt for the creature to get better at longarm quilting and quilt binding. i don’t think she’s impressed.

this thread will just be me doing a puzzle because it’s nice to do something you’re bad at

just found several interview transcripts for my undergrad thesis, along with an early draft of said thesis. past me did her qualitative coding with 3 highlighters and a lot of caffeine, near as i can tell. i need to go email my thesis advisor and thank her for putting up with me 🥺

A note on learning physics ⚛️ for starting PhD students: At the risk of saying something completely useless because everyone has it worked out There is no magic trick, your classmates *may* be faster than you, but they are still studying as long as they need to and you are quite capable of the same

An excellent thread on structural bullshit in academia, how to avoid mental traps, and encouragement to people from marginalized backgrounds. The system isn’t fair, but it can be gamed and it’s designed to intimidate people into failing. Don’t let them fool you.

The United States welcomes human traffickers like Andrew Tate, but it defintely does not want you if you have ever worked to keep child pornography off the internet. A strong statement of what passes for American values, I guess.

We need to be able to see that the line "accommodations have gone too far" is an expression of the ableist notion that disabled students do not belong in higher ed. Its fundamentally an anxiety about the fact that disabled students get an "advantage" over abled students.

It's that time of year again... time for #DisabledInSTEM 2026 Mentorship applications! I'm so excited to be running this program for the sixth year and seeing the growth over the years! Mentee form: forms.gle/um5DvYnBi3tn... Mentor form: forms.gle/BvaxnQm8uhUR... Applications due December 5th!

The #DisabledInSTEM Mentorship Program has almost an equal number of applicants for mentees and mentors! Just sad to see interest extremely low this year. I’m not sure how I could reach people better so please share within your networks! 💜

dear hypergraph enthusiasts, I am thinking about applying to do a satellite hackathon at @netsciconf.bsky.social focusing on our Bluesky starter pack dataset! if you work with higher-order networks and would be interested in giving a brief methods talk at this hypothetical session, please reach out!

hot off the (virtual) press in @transstudies.bsky.social: a collaboration with @pranavgoel.bsky.social, @crazybrokeasian.bsky.social, and @diesagar.bsky.social on information flows in US local & national news about transgender people (spoiler alert: it’s complicated) doi.org/10.57814/557...

hi researcher friends! if you conduct & record interviews with people and are concerned about the privacy risks of using online transcription services, i have good news, now with a minimal, kinda bad UI! github.com/asmithh/tran...

💜 this lab & these people

Of course, people don't agree on what is "safe" and "fair" and that's why moderation is hard. But you can't solve a network-level problem with individual-level tools

Moderation isn't simply about taking things down, it's also about building a collectively safe space. Telling someone they can just "label" (or hide/block) something they don't like won't address their concern that their community isn't safe

come network about networks with your network???

This morning at 11am, corner of Hathorn and Broadway in Somerville MA. 3 ICE vehicles idling on nearby corners. I was following two ICE cars that were cruising around the neighborhood. This person was just walking down the sidewalk when two ICE vehicles stopped and officers jumped out to stop him.

Must read www.bostonreview.net/articles/a-g...

currently reading this and stopping every few pages to go Oh No but i just wanted to emphasize the extent to which data, especially ill-gotten data or really dubious acts of quantification, get used to build up & justify dangerous rhetoric.

Finally! 🤩 Our position piece: Against the Uncritical Adoption of 'AI' Technologies in Academia: doi.org/10.5281/zeno... We unpick the tech industry’s marketing, hype, & harm; and we argue for safeguarding higher education, critical thinking, expertise, academic freedom, & scientific integrity. 1/n

I wrote about the intentionally byzantine process of getting a COVID vaccine this fall defector.com/how-the-fuck...

With fall fast approaching, many students will start applying for graduate school. If you need tips and tricks when interviewing with the PI and deciding where to apply/accept - A thread 🧵 Feel free to add to this!

Learning how to linocut simply to illustrate my most banger bsky posts 😂

Okay, an ill-advised story time. I do not talk about my body unless it is entirely on my terms and it is unidirectional. BUT, this is so familiar to me. I am not athletic. (I’ve written about that.) But I also don’t have much somatic sense — don’t know where my body is in space.

The First Lego League is a competition that schools from all over the place compete in. As part of the competition they need to consult with an expert. A lot of clubs use our program to make that connection. This year's theme is archaeology. It's all-hands-on-deck for archaeologists.

I keep seeing this circulating, and I'm disappointed in my colleagues in the natural sciences who think if they can "shed" enough of their humanity they will some how be protected from fascism. Scientists who are bending to jingoism to try and protect funding aren't asking the right questions.

mood?

The use of national security rhetoric to justify mass incarceration echoes the same logic that led to the forced removal and incarceration of over 125,000 Japanese Americans—our parents, grandparents and extended families—under Executive Order 9066. #AlligatorAlcatraz #NeverAgainIsNow

I have had death threats for my work on trans rights. I have been stalked. I have had people try and have me thrown out of my University. I am by no means alone, and lots of trans-inclusive academics have spoken publicly about the violence and harassment they face. But no mention of that here.

To restate; a woman from a movement known for threatening libel suits against their students to prevent criticism wrote an essay complaining about how her colleagues agreeing she sucks at her job is a threat to academic freedom. Anyway, evergreen: www.gracelavery.org/undermining-...