@michaelannephd.bsky.social
Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information | anthropology of technology | precarity, activism, collaboration | Latin America + US | also parenting, animals, & tiny things | michaelannethomas.com
Big congrats to Dr. @bzfzhang.bsky.social, who just defended his dissertation! It's been such an honor to work with Ben over the past 5 years, along with co-advisor @michaelannephd.bsky.social. Ben will start as Assistant Professor at Stony Brook University, & I'm so excited to follow his research!
05.08.2025 15:58 — 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
professional image of Ben Zhang with text that reads, "Congratulations Dr. Ben Zefeng Zhang on the successful defense of your dissertation Infrastructuring Data Values: An Ethnography of AI Production, Labor, and Data Marketplace in the Chinese Datafied State, Oliver Haimson and Michaelanne Thomas, serving as committee co-chairs, presided over the oral defense."
Many congrats to Dr. @bzfzhang.bsky.social on his successful dissertation defense! @haimson.bsky.social and I are proud advisors, and anticipate great things from him as an assistant professor at Stonybrook University.
05.08.2025 15:08 — 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0ACM COMPASS registration deadline has been extended to July 10! Come join us July 22-25, 2025, in Toronto 🤩
08.07.2025 15:32 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0One of the best conference games! I didn’t know what @robinb.bsky.social’s work was about for a good while (like long after CHI was over) since we focused on getting to know each other outside of work/research. 💗
29.04.2025 02:25 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
The mods of r/ChangeMyView shared the sub was the subject of a study to test the persuasiveness of LLMs & that they didn't consent. There’s a lot that went wrong, so here’s a 🧵 unpacking it, along with some ideas for how to do research with online communities ethically. tinyurl.com/59tpt988
26.04.2025 22:02 — 👍 1296 🔁 539 💬 53 📌 181Very proud of our @chi.acm.org paper "The Making of Performative Accuracy in AI Training: Precision Labor and Its Consequences." Spearheaded by doctoral advisee Ben Zefeng Zhang based on his 9 months of ethnographic fieldwork living & working as an AI data trainer in China.
23.04.2025 19:18 — 👍 12 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 1![Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion will continue at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design
Dear Colleagues,
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) will continue at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design because our academic program and DEl initiatives are legally compliant, in alignment with our university values, and an extension of the mission of our school.
On Thursday, March 27, 2025 at 3:30 p.m., President Ono, Provost McCauley, CFO Chatas, and VP for Medical Affairs Runge wrote to the University of Michigan community announcing the elimination of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI), the discontinuation of the university DEl 2.0 Strategic Plan, university-wide elimination of diversity statements, and legal review of existing programs to ensure they comply with federal law and guidance. Two hours prior to this announcement, I was walking through Pierpont Commons and took a picture of this University of Michigan sign, which explicitly states, "Our Core Values:
Integrity, Respect, Inclusion, Equity, Diversity, Innovation." The move to eliminate the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion directly contradicts these institutional values. While I, as Dean, and Stamps, as a school, did not directly create the University of Michigan's Culture Journey or signify these six values, we have collectively worked to honor them.
Integrity, Respect, Inclusion, Equity, Diversity, and Innovation are aspirations that establish a benchmark by which to measure our actions, actions that work to build and sustain our community. Throughout the 2024 national election, DEl, immigrants, and trans communities have been targeted as political flashpoints. On January 27, 2025, two DEI-related
Executive Orders that potentially impact the university were issued, including the Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity order, which expands the application of the Supreme Court ruling that struck down... [truncated due to character limit]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7v32ymwa2bz72sihnbipopxg/bafkreibfthiw2qsoxpbh5qghqwfpycrlxbvxgenrtyoyveavx5k4rgi6ka@jpeg)
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion will continue at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design Dear Colleagues, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) will continue at the Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design because our academic program and DEl initiatives are legally compliant, in alignment with our university values, and an extension of the mission of our school. On Thursday, March 27, 2025 at 3:30 p.m., President Ono, Provost McCauley, CFO Chatas, and VP for Medical Affairs Runge wrote to the University of Michigan community announcing the elimination of the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (ODEI), the discontinuation of the university DEl 2.0 Strategic Plan, university-wide elimination of diversity statements, and legal review of existing programs to ensure they comply with federal law and guidance. Two hours prior to this announcement, I was walking through Pierpont Commons and took a picture of this University of Michigan sign, which explicitly states, "Our Core Values: Integrity, Respect, Inclusion, Equity, Diversity, Innovation." The move to eliminate the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion directly contradicts these institutional values. While I, as Dean, and Stamps, as a school, did not directly create the University of Michigan's Culture Journey or signify these six values, we have collectively worked to honor them. Integrity, Respect, Inclusion, Equity, Diversity, and Innovation are aspirations that establish a benchmark by which to measure our actions, actions that work to build and sustain our community. Throughout the 2024 national election, DEl, immigrants, and trans communities have been targeted as political flashpoints. On January 27, 2025, two DEI-related Executive Orders that potentially impact the university were issued, including the Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity order, which expands the application of the Supreme Court ruling that struck down... [truncated due to character limit]
![I assure you, the Stamps School's academic program and initiatives to support faculty, students, and staff are fully legal and ethical. Secondly, the central claim in the "Dear Colleague" letter is erroneous, which attempts to argue that the United States wasn't founded upon structural racism. Despite efforts to rewrite history, the fact remains that the United States was founded upon systemic and structural racism. Chattel slavery, African Americans designated as 3/5ths a person, broken treaties and forced relocation, and Jim Crow laws are just a few examples of racism that is structural and systemic. A further example that systemic and structural discrimination existed in the country's formation is the fact that women did not have the right to vote until 1920, as suffrage has existed for only 105 years. The forces behind the "Dear Colleague" letter want to ignore these difficult truths that our country was formed on very unequal and discriminatory terms. Wealth that was generated through the formation of the United States came from land-taking and the greatest form of dehumanization, enslavement. These are difficult truths that our own
University of Michigan's Inclusive History
Project articulates through the most profound scholarly rigor and peer review. We must reckon with these difficult truths and figure out how to co-build the future together. This mandate of reckoning with history is the imperative that the civil rights movement and generation gave us, and we must now steward onward. Rather than reaffirming that we are operating academic programs that are legally compliant and affirming the value and prestige of the peer-reviewed knowledge production produced by the University of Michigan's 100 academic programs that are ranked in the national top 10 within their respective fields, yesterday, the university chose to eliminate the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion..... [truncated due to character limit]](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:7v32ymwa2bz72sihnbipopxg/bafkreieiju2ivbgrhm7723wgu3ttfvia32vh3umapjfv3axlg333v24lxq@jpeg)
I assure you, the Stamps School's academic program and initiatives to support faculty, students, and staff are fully legal and ethical. Secondly, the central claim in the "Dear Colleague" letter is erroneous, which attempts to argue that the United States wasn't founded upon structural racism. Despite efforts to rewrite history, the fact remains that the United States was founded upon systemic and structural racism. Chattel slavery, African Americans designated as 3/5ths a person, broken treaties and forced relocation, and Jim Crow laws are just a few examples of racism that is structural and systemic. A further example that systemic and structural discrimination existed in the country's formation is the fact that women did not have the right to vote until 1920, as suffrage has existed for only 105 years. The forces behind the "Dear Colleague" letter want to ignore these difficult truths that our country was formed on very unequal and discriminatory terms. Wealth that was generated through the formation of the United States came from land-taking and the greatest form of dehumanization, enslavement. These are difficult truths that our own University of Michigan's Inclusive History Project articulates through the most profound scholarly rigor and peer review. We must reckon with these difficult truths and figure out how to co-build the future together. This mandate of reckoning with history is the imperative that the civil rights movement and generation gave us, and we must now steward onward. Rather than reaffirming that we are operating academic programs that are legally compliant and affirming the value and prestige of the peer-reviewed knowledge production produced by the University of Michigan's 100 academic programs that are ranked in the national top 10 within their respective fields, yesterday, the university chose to eliminate the Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion..... [truncated due to character limit]
In case link stops working, here are screenshots of the text that I reassembled from the mailchimp URL. Apologies I could only alt text the first 2000 characters due to word limit. This text and images are quoted from original link posted at top of thread by Carlos F. Jackson, Dean and Professor.
30.03.2025 20:25 — 👍 43 🔁 15 💬 0 📌 3Yes!!!
Finally a university leader standing up publicly for what is right.
No to anticipatory compliance.
Thank you UMich Dean Carlos F. Jackson: may you be an inspirational for many others.
mailchi.mp/04bd06b0c03c...
The President of the University of Minnesota steps up! This is the message we've all been hoping for at #UMich.
@umn-tc-aaup.bsky.social
Today, I defended my pre-candidacy paper, "'Do not perceive me': Multi-marginalized Twitch streamers, mutually constitutive identity disclosures and identity concealments, and safety and wellbeing within toxic technocultures" and passed with 🌟 Distinction 🌟
06.02.2025 20:52 — 👍 23 🔁 2 💬 3 📌 3Very excited to talk more! And love using multiple mediums (ie here, lab, etc) to collectively think and process. I’ll ask more questions as I think of them or as you share. 🤗
25.01.2025 00:27 — 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0Curious how you (and these individuals) define “thriving.” And how do they know when they’ve achieved it?
23.01.2025 22:00 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0"those who have contributed the least to climate change are often among the most affected, leading to a gulf of responsibility that creates significant challenges for climate action." Thanks @rsoden.bsky.social et al for this new climate action forum in ACM Interactions!
10.01.2025 16:48 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0classic
10.01.2025 16:39 — 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
this post brought to you by my coworker
04.12.2024 22:05 — 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0sad to leave the twitter feed I’ve been curating since 2006 behind. hopeful to see so many whom I love and respect here on bluesky. 🧡
03.12.2024 14:34 — 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0
