Alyssa Smith

@cetaceanneeded.bsky.social

she/her Assistant Professor at the College of the Holy Cross PhD '26 @nunetsi.bsky.social Website: https://asmithh.github.io/ Knitter, narcoleptic, whale fan, and powerlifter

The weird-ass college classes that changed my life were Credit for Reddit and Network Cultures, both of which focused on understanding how people have existed in, and made sense of, the internet since its invention. This is (approximately) what I got a whole-ass PhD in almost 10 years later.

Colin M. Henry@henryhenryhenry.com · 4w ago

post the weird ass college class that changed your life for me it was a summer course on Tolkien ecocriticism, in which i wrote a paper on the ring-bearer as eco-terrorist

“if we don’t stand up for the free speech of racists, it puts everyone’s free speech in danger.” - guy who only ever talks about free speech when it’s racism

I'm incredibly honored to be one of the inaugural winners of the Ctrl-Z award. The sequence of events preceding and following this retraction were harrowing (and are honestly still stressful), but I hope this will be an opportunity for more open dialogue about mistakes + self-retraction in science.

Retraction Watch@retractionwatch.com · 2mo ago

The Center for Scientific Integrity is proud to announce the inaugural winners of the 2026 Ctrl-Z Award. Named for the universal keyboard shortcut for “undo,” the Ctrl-Z Award this year honors @cetaceanneeded.bsky.social and @katelaskowski.bsky.social for choosing transparency over reputation.

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."

An Open Letter to Georgetown Students, In Response to Recent Announcements about "Generative AI"

Image source: Bibliothèque nationale de France An Open Letter to Georgetown Students, In Response to Recent Announcements by the University about “Generative AI” Dear students, As you know, in …

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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

Michael Ann, sociotechnical femme@michaelann.bsky.social · 7mo ago

Oh this is fun… Northwestern had a very practice-based qual structure so you can actually read two of mine: 1) Self presentation wp.me/p2O4Fr-aT 2) Folk theorization wp.me/p2O4Fr-aO 3) Design and solo teach a seminar for undergrads on social computing and research writing

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.

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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!

Julia Husar@juliahusar.bsky.social · 8mo ago

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.

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.

Christopher Wiggins@cwnewser.bsky.social · 9mo ago

NEWS: In a heartbreaking video, after ICE shot and killed a woman in Minneapolis, a woman who was in the same SUV cries out: “They killed my wife. I don’t know what to do." “We stopped to videotape, and they shot her in the head,” the distraught woman sobs. www.advocate.com/news/minneso...

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