Amanda Weiss
@amandaweiss.bsky.social
Assistant Professor, Cornell Department of Government. Political methodology, causal inference, ethics, and criminal justice policy. www.amandakweiss.com Opinions my own, reposts not (necessarily) endorsements, etc.
Screenshotting every data centers post and sending it to @nottone.bsky.social going "IS THIS ALSO PRISONS? DOES IT BELONG IN OUR BOOK?"
Matt Henry@menrywy.bsky.social · 5d agoThe depressed coal community to exploited fracking community to future data center host pipeline should receive more attention right now in data center coverage. Once a community is identified as a sacrifice zone, it's pretty hard to shake that perception.
Okay, for context, the dog is very entertaining. I too have to resist being entertained when such a big noise emerges from such a small creature. But still. Deer are not supposed to be entertained by nominal predators.
Amanda Weiss@amandaweiss.bsky.social · last wk.I am from Indiana, which has a lot of deer. Upstate NY deer are on a whole different level. I was walking the dog and we saw a deer. The dog started barking at the deer. And the deer CAME CLOSER. I think it was ENTERTAINED. And, sure, the dog is not very scary. But the deer is a WILD ANIMAL.
I am from Indiana, which has a lot of deer. Upstate NY deer are on a whole different level. I was walking the dog and we saw a deer. The dog started barking at the deer. And the deer CAME CLOSER. I think it was ENTERTAINED. And, sure, the dog is not very scary. But the deer is a WILD ANIMAL.
So this is an example of why I am skeptical of AI for peer review. It's like improv where the answer is always "Yes, and..." Chat responses are - beyond just being positive(!) - natively structured by existing claims.
Ashley@ashleysays.bsky.social · 2w agoChefs kiss
We *are* quite delightful. But actually though - lovely faculty community, great students, gorgeous gorges... What more could any prospective assistant professor of public law want? academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32519
Moira Rose: Won't You Join Me? (Schitt's Creek)
ALT: Moira Rose: Won't You Join Me? (Schitt's Creek)
static.klipy.com
Josh Chafetz@joshchafetz.bsky.social · 2w agoCornell Government Department hiring an assistant professor in American politics; looking for a public law specialty, with a preference for LPE ... academicjobsonline.org/ajo/jobs/32519
You know, I always thought that I was a Reviewer No. 1... But my last two reviews were each like 5 pages single-spaced (I *am* now on the record saying I like reviewing 😬). I'm starting to worry that I am Reviewer No. 2.
Jo Wolff@jowolff.bsky.social · 2w agoJust as some hotels don’t have a Floor 13, journals shouldn’t have Reviewer no 2.
Ofc I say this and personally put WAY too much effort into reviews. And then I die inside when my papers spend six months under review or get torpedoed because someone was not on board with my type of paper existing or are evaluated by someone who doesn't know how math works. So there's that...
Amanda Weiss@amandaweiss.bsky.social · 2w agoBut that's not my only concern. A big issue with AI reviews IMO — hot take 🚨, maybe big Assistant Professor Energy — is that reviewing is good for reviewers. Like it's good to see new scholarship and know what is being submitted in your field! And good to keep sharp by doing constructive critique!
Optimist: The cup is half full. Pessimist: The cup is half-empty. Political methodologist: The cup is the convex hull of the treated group's covariate values.
Jason Moore@moorejh.bsky.social · 2w agoOptimist: The cup is half full. Pessimist: The cup is half empty. Reviewer #2: You are using the wrong cup and your water is from the wrong source. Further, you are not qualified to handle cups or drink water.
As a practicing political methodologist, I maintain a list of well-identified causes of Republican electoral success. The list includes: * Racist backlash. * Eating chips rather than Cheez-Its at your election night watch party. * David Froomkin predicting a Democratic landslide.
David Froomkin@dfroomkin.bsky.social · 3w agoMy wife says I'm not allowed to predict a Democratic landslide in 2026, because the last time I did that was in 2024.
This exactly. In fully-automated luxury gay space communism, you will be able to *choose* between making spreadsheets with your artist commune polycule and being down bad in your castle.
@lastpositivist.bsky.social · last mo.I think this is too clever by half - enjoy making the spreadsheet for who's doing the dishes in your artist commune polycule with 7 guys defined by one personality trait, meanwhile I'll be crying into my luxurious poster bed while living in a castle.
Also I'm SO PUMPED to be a non-presenting coauthor. 🙏 I like the sound of my voice as much as the next academic, but I did 5 conference presentations on other papers earlier this summer and I am now in my couch potato era. Until APSA.
Amanda Weiss@amandaweiss.bsky.social · last mo.I'm so proud of this paper that @nottone.bsky.social and I did on prisons... massive data collection! the political economy of criminal legal system! jackknife standard errors!
I'm so proud of this paper that @nottone.bsky.social and I did on prisons... massive data collection! the political economy of criminal legal system! jackknife standard errors!
Consortium on the American Political Economy (CAPE)@cape-team.bsky.social · last mo.Live Soon: The Second day of the #APE conference, today at noon ET! Register (yale.zoom.us/meeting/regi...) to join today's events 👇
I’m looking forward to presenting really exciting work (co-authored w/ @amandaweiss.bsky.social) and learn about other great work at @cape-team.bsky.social Annual Research Conference — mine’s tomorrow, 1:30pm ET It’s virtual and everyone is welcome — register here: yale.zoom.us/meeting/regi...
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The Overton window has always struck me as conceptually under-determined. But how else to describe elite movement on court packing? In fact, court packing has made me shift my Overton window on the Overton window.
Noah Rosenblum@narosenblum.bsky.social · 2mo agoEveryone is saying it
I'm lucky to have such an accomplished coauthor. 😉😊 Congratulations @nottone.bsky.social!!!!
Nick Ottone@nottone.bsky.social · 4mo agoBut I'm also very excited to begin as a Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford in August! Looking forward to working with @tomsclark.bsky.social and meeting some wonderful people in the Bay Area. On to the next chapter!
Hell yeah! Though after spending 5 minutes explaining what a blue book is to my students, I discovered that Cornell's blue books are custom-branded and actually white...
ae@aelkus.bsky.social · 4mo agoLLMs are going to force teachers to bring back
I'm a quant methods professor and a millennial, I need someone to save me from myself.
Amanda Weiss@amandaweiss.bsky.social · 4mo agoY'ALL I was reading up on the history of the Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, which is already wild. Then I discovered that THIS is how young Evelyn became Mrs. Kitagawa (even before becoming Dr. Kitagawa).
![Wikipedia screenshot of a biography of Evelyn Kitagawa, which reads: "She was born as Evelyn Mae Rose, in 1920[4] in Hanford, California, to a family of Portuguese Catholic descent. After earning a bachelor's degree in mathematics from the University of California, Berkeley in 1941, she began working for the War Relocation Authority, which ran the internment camps of Japanese-Americans during World War II, as head of its statistics unit. In one of the camps, she met her future husband, Joseph Mitsuo Kitagawa, who had come to the US in 1941 as a divinity student and became an Episcopalian minister while interned. After marrying him, her family disowned her and she lost contact with them."](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:37il2b455gdb47xs5fsbtfw7/bafkreidrxtgsuufidxcvvy6bbvnuzquzn7zywy74cwsocwilcfk537jn6y)
Y'ALL I was reading up on the history of the Kitagawa-Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition, which is already wild. Then I discovered that THIS is how young Evelyn became Mrs. Kitagawa (even before becoming Dr. Kitagawa).
This is a highly specific response and I'm cackling. Also I'm amazed that one of Edith Wharton's non-Age of Innocence works was assigned in the course of anyone's schooling...
Faine Greenwood@faineg.bsky.social · 4mo agoEthan Frome fostered in me a lifelong distrust of New England
I had a lot of fun the other day giving a workshop on the modern DID revolution at Syracuse University's Maxwell School — thank you @adam42smith.bsky.social for hosting! I have posted the slides to my website at amandakweiss.com/did if anyone is interested.
DID Workshop Resources — Amanda Weiss
amandakweiss.com
I made an over-engineered Qualtrics survey to handle my wedding RSVPs (name look-up, custom font packs, etc.) Now I'm like, Should I think of a survey experiment to run on family and friends?!
I just found out, via reviewer request, about AJPS' new submissions stream for reanalyses. I'm intrigued. Philosophers have written about creating groups of dedicated replication scientists (see, e.g., work by Felipe Romero) and I've wondered about how that model would work in poli sci.
i've decided not to listen to the audio of a teacher reporting a kindergartender because frankly I don't want to become the person that that event would turn me into. but one thing I hope we are collectively coming to grips with is what it meant that we have lived among such people this whole time
Drew Harwell@drewharwell.com · 7mo agoNew: A comedian set up a fake ICE tip line as a joke. Then 100 calls flooded in: neighbors ratting on neighbors, a teacher reporting a kindergartener. Fans say the viral TikToks revealed deportation's "banality of evil." Conservatives say he should be in prison wapo.st/4kM4qbF
As a newly-minted BA, I got a job offer to tutor the child of a billionaire and his wife. (Which I turned down. In the interview, the wife asked if I was Jewish, then said "but you look Asian!" She also told me that my hourly rate was too high.) That couple has been in every Epstein files wave.
Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò@olufemiotaiwo.bsky.social · 7mo agobring back shame
It seems like an expression of privilege, naivete, or inhumanity to say that COVID mitigation was not worth it. Lockdowns have consequences and implementation sucked. I'm teaching that generation now. But also - more than 1 million Americans died.
Mark Copelovitch@mcopelov.bsky.social · 9mo agoOh. This is deeply depressing & incredibly ugly about what it says you can get away with if you have the right elite private university on your academic business card. I thought we were done with this, on this issue, with Emily Oster. Sigh.
Designing survey recruitment materials right now and I feel like a walking/talking "Graphic Design Is My Passion" meme...
Ahem. Political science is the *best* science. In all seriousness: Political scientists use the scientific method. And it's not like the political world is mystical/made-up. Assuming a closed physical universe, human behavior has some explanation - it's just hard to identify.* *In all senses
I just learned that Cornell Govt grad students will lead a jeopardy game, featuring faculty trivia, at the end-of-semester party. Learning this is how I also learned that Yale Poli Sci was probably unusual for having a student-written skit full-on *roasting* faculty at the department party...