Nora Draper

Our department at the University of Toronto is hiring an assistant professor of sociology of race / ethnicity this fall.

I'm not on the hiring committee but am very happy to talk to you about the position if you are interested. You can email, DM, or find me at ASA.

jobs.utoronto.ca/job/Toronto-...

My university has announced a fund to essentially poach doctoral students from US institutions. DM me if you do work on the history/social impacts of AI and are interested in being poached 😂

Essential thread on the (lack of) ethics in the ChangeMyView Reddit research project and how/why to do better

Looks beautiful and fascinating! Congratulations!!

Pierre Poilievre declared defeated in his seat

can’t tell you how much joy i get from seeing pierre poilievre lost his seat

One takeaway this morning is that we're way closer to US-style polarization than we've grown accustomed to thinking.

Poilievre didn't win, but the politics he represents — whatever you think of them — are *not* diminished.

I mean, the Conservatives won their largest vote share in nearly 40 years.

He could, for instance, have written about any number of topics. Here are some ideas for free.

1. What cults are the Anthropic crew in, and what is the ideological ancestry of these cults? (We've done the work for him here, hint hint, its eugenics: firstmonday.org/ojs/index.ph...).

A screenshot of a ChatGPT conversation reading: "can you write something about robert e. lee in the voice of washington post staff writer gillian brockell?" "Certainly! Here's an excerpt written in the voice of Gillian Brockell, a staff writer at The Washington Post, reflecting on Robert E. Lee's legacy: The Complicated Legacy of Robert E. Lee: A Figure Divided by History By Gillian Brockell When Robert E. Lee's name is invoked, it is often as a symbol of Southern pride military brilliance, or a tragic, doomed cause. But history has a way of shifting its lens, and in recent years, the image of Lee -- the Confederate general, the hero of lost causes -- has become increasingly more fraught. The man who stood as the face of a rebellion that tore the nation apart now stands at the center of an ongoing reckoning over the Confederacy's legacy, and our struggle to reconcile memory with reality."

When I left the Washington Post in 2023, my colleagues and I were worried AI would hoover up our work and enable "zombies" to churn out stories based on our reporting and writing styles.

Today WaPo announced a partnership with OpenAI. And here it is: Zombie Gillian Brockell. I DID NOT WRITE THIS.

BREAKING: We filed a class action lawsuit today to protect international students in New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Maine, Rhode Island, and Puerto Rico from the Trump administration's abrupt and unlawful termination of their legal status.

Wow, we are now being officially advised against travel to the USA by the Canadian Association of University Teachers. I never thought I'd see the day. ☹️ #AcademicChatter

“It is 2025, and seemingly everyone wants us in the humanities to do stuff ‘with AI,’ informed not by what the technology avails but by the hopes it encodes.”

A former Meta employee reviews the new Facebook memoir Sarah Wynn-Williams’ memoir is a courageous feat, but it glosses over her own indifference to warnings from policymakers, civil society, and internal teams outside the U.S. about serious harm to commu...

Review of Careless People written by former head of public policy for Bangladesh at Meta.

Sandra Harding’s writing highlights science’s political role in the everyday lives of everyday people. May we remember her words and celebrate her vision. A tremendous loss

Come work with me! 1 year postdoc opportunity to work with me on workers' roles in AI safety. Social science and participatory methods a must, experience working with trade unions a +
More info & apply here -->
qmul-jobs.tal.net/vx/mobile-0/...

In all the bluster and the threats of tariffs and annexation, nationalist jokes and hockey game boos, this is where my mind always went.
You can always count on @brandimorin.bsky.social to bring the perspective that mainstream media ignores. #landback

CFPB's former chief technologist issues an urgent warning to the court that several years' worth of sensitive data is about to be destroyed, with damaging consequences
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

VICTORY: The NH House just voted to withdraw HB 476, a 15-week abortion ban. Extreme and baseless anti-abortion rights policies have no place in the Granite State, period. #nhpolitics

Also provides really great context for that VC interview from last week that framed the tech worker resistance as a employees getting caught up in fashionable progressive causes

This new article from @histoftech.bsky.social provides essential testimony of resistance within tech industry. It’s also valuable for anyone (like me!) researching the history of worker organizing w/in science and tech companies

“People, young and old, have particular needs that they’re satisfying by moving time and attention to these phones. Again, that may not be ideal. But there is a huge gap between “not ideal” or even “bad for us” on balance and being the chief cause of such a high level of distress among youth.”

A thoughtful and nuanced response to claims that social media and smartphones are the root cause of a crisis in teen mental health

One thing getting me through this week is all the reminders of the wonder of Ichiro Suzuki. What a gift to be a baseball fan while that guy was playing

Sharing this because what Mia says here about the Wired headline is an important lesson about how to do your job when it really fucking matters

As a Canadian I still have access to TikTok and will describe what's happening there for the low low price of $10.00CAD per minute.

We did a nat’l survey after that election and people were *even more* concerned about behavioral data use for political messaging than commercial messaging. People have never loved this part of the tech/politics romance, no matter who is involved.

This is disappointing. The best thing about conferences is hearing smart people grapple with timely topics and issues. But sometimes they feel more like showcases for already “finished” work

Really proud of this special theme and profoundly grateful to the authors and guest editors for sharing their insights! Thanks to @bigdatasoc.bsky.social for hosting us!

What is RedNote? The TikTok alternative that doesn't allow showing skin or LGBTQ+ content With heavy censorship of bodies and LGBTQ+ topics, RedNote might not be everything TikTok refugees are seeking.

I know that many folks are following along with the astonishing uptick in RedNote downloads (comm/creator studies researchers have been studying Xiaohongshu *for years*).

This news is worrisome:

www.advocate.com/news/what-is...

Hard to overstate just how much of the tech industry’s horrifically dystopian present grew right out of its transparently misogynistic past