Cella (is on the job market)

The tech worker movement and the rise of the tech oligarchy Published in Science as Culture (Ahead of Print, 2026)

New commentary by @cellllla.bsky.social, @perhaxis.bsky.social and myself: "The tech worker movement and the rise of the tech oligarchy". www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

CHI26 workshop “Crip HCI: Cyborg Perspectives on Disability Justice” invites self-identified fellow cyborgs to consider what the field of HCI might gain from a deeper engagement with cyborg perspectives on disability justice, “crip HCI”, and better AT. Submissions due Feb 12.
t1dsign.org/chi-2026

E106: CMU Coup? (w/ Sheila Liming & Catherine Evans) — re:verb On today’s show, Alex and Calvin sit down with the co-authors of a viral op-ed in The Chronicle of Higher Education regarding the controversial restructuring of the English Department at Carnegie Me...

🎆re:verb is back in 2026 with our first new episode of the year!🎉

This episode hits very close to home for Calvin & Alex:

E106: CMU Coup? (w/ @caevans.bsky.social & @seeshespeak.bsky.social)

www.reverbcast.com/podcasts/202...

THRILLED that Brian Chen's new policy brief, "The Big AI State: How the Trump Administration is Shaping US Industrial Policy toward 'Global Technological Dominance'" is live! Trump is not "deregulating"; his admin is intervening in the market BIG TIME to bolster AI. datasociety.net/library/the-...

Join us for BD&S 2026 Colloquium, Panel 1: Constructing Alternatives through Community Data & Data Activism
Jan 21 | 16:00–18:00 GMT (11:00 AM–1:00 PM EST)
uky.zoom.us/j/85254638887

#DataActivism #CriticalDataStudies #DataJustice

So fun writing this with you ☺️

A new piece I cowrote with my brilliant colleague @cellllla.bsky.social is out! 🙏🙏

The tech industry is seizing on Pittsburgh’s industrial history to sell its AI future. "The endurance of communities forced to survive the boom & bust cycles of other industrial times is now recast as ‘grit,’” write Ana Carolina de Assis Nunes & @cellllla.bsky.social. datasociety.net/points/data-...

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

Excellent new paper from @js-tan.bsky.social and Kathleen Thelen, on the political economy of the cloud company business model and how it feeds the AI race and techno-nationalism journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...

Worker Voice: How Tech Workers Are Speaking Up At Work & Beyond - TechEquity Collaborative Join us to hear directly about how tech workers are choosing to speak up in their workplaces and the lessons they've learned from doing so.

This needs to change. Workers need a voice on the job.

Join us on January 27th, 12-1 pm PST to hear directly about how tech workers are choosing to speak up, lessons they’ve learned in the process, and ways in which you can spark that voice in other colleagues. techequity.us/event/worker...

Despite Crackdown on Activism, Tech Employees Are Still Picking Fights

New from @noamscheiber.bsky.social, featuring @emilymazo.bsky.social @js-tan.bsky.social @techworkerscoalition.org @alphabetworkersunion.org & many more: “tech worker activism has continued amid the crackdown, albeit more cautiously”
www.nytimes.com/2025/12/26/b...

How UMich is forcing a data center on Ypsilanti The combined 144 acres the University seems to have settled on are agricultural or recreational use land. No one deserves to have their local park taken over by a data center.

When universities stop serving the common good and start serving their corporate interests:

"Deception, deflection, and disregard: How UMich is forcing a data center on Ypsilanti."

#AcademicSky

www.michigandaily.com/opinion/colu...

Opinion | A Coup at Carnegie Mellon? The university is replacing the humanities with more computers.

Carnegie Mellon’s literature PhD is being liquidated in favor of “computation,” casualized labor, and AI.

That has profound ramifications for, students, faculty, and program alums like myself.

I wrote it about it (w/ Catherine Evans, a current PhD student).

www.chronicle.com/article/a-co...

Opinion | A Coup at Carnegie Mellon? The university is replacing the humanities with more computers.

No one wants to watch their PhD program be eliminated. It’s nearly the same story when it’s “innovated” away.

Me & @seeshespeak.bsky.social in the Chronicle. Read it below ⬇️

www.chronicle.com/article/a-co...

Text reads: “new report: turning the tide: climate action in and against tech by Tamara Kneese, Data & Society” with an image of Data Centers in front of an orange sky with images of protestors juxtaposed with tech work happening

This report is how I have channeled my rage as the tech industry has grown in wealth and power at the expense of workers, communities, and the environment. The old mechanisms of reform aren’t sufficient in a time of AI ascendance and data center accelerationism datasociety.net/library/turn...

Y'all wanna warn your friends before you get on the "AI companion" bandwagon and warn your friends, help them get informed.

Thrilled to see my book described as “exploring influencer culture,” given that it focuses almost solely on Tila Tequila. A dream of mine since 2008.

Seen on CMU campus ❤️

management pushing dumb ai policies and tools on you?

twc and friends have launched workersdecide.tech to pool resources, stories and strategies to organize and push back.

don’t let the bubble drag your job down with it!

join science for the people for a collective discussion about what the impacts of AI are, and how we can put workers in control of our work and it's conditions – as well as how to begin organizing our coworkers to join us in this fight. bit.ly/sftp-ai-work...

BREAKING: 30 more Starbucks locations are joining the strike.

Starbucks workers in 25 cities are jumping into the week-long strike.

Now @sbworkersunited.org members at 95 stores in 65 cities have walked off the job.

Supply Chain Solidarity: Lessons from the Lithium Frontlines - Climate and Community Institute Workers and organizers, representing different parts of the transportation supply chain, journey across Nevada to learn first-hand about the impacts of lithium mining for electric vehicle batteries.

In 2024, we convened a group of 25 workers and organizers across the transportation supply chain. They traveled over 3 days and 600+ miles across Nevada to tour the frontlines of new lithium mining in the US. Watch our new documentary that follows their journey. climateandcommunity.org/nvfilm

I'm fortunate to be able to teach my new class on "Building Technologies for the Resistance" next semester. If you're a CMU student, consider enrolling! This will be a collaborative, project-based class where you'll get to prototype resistance technologies.

this is how you do investigative journalism

Alice Wong’s legacy is the political horizon she helped articulate. A horizon where disabled knowledge is central, and care is a shared commitment. She taught us to name grief & rage without collapsing under them, to celebrate disabled brilliance without ignoring the material conditions shaping life

The incredible, indomitable, inspirational Alice Wong has left us.

I'm so grateful to have known her on social media, and so grateful for all the words she shared with us and all the actions she encouraged us into making.

May we live up to her example.

(so you don't have to go to Instagram)

Worker Led Movements Against AI: A Discussion with Tamara Kneese Mon, Nov. 17, 2025

I’ll be in conversation with Sana Ahmad next Monday, November 17 at @weizenbauminstitut.bsky.social about our new @commonnotions.bsky.social book on digital workers’ inquiry and my forthcoming @datasociety.bsky.social report on climate action in and against the tech industry

Interview Outreach Hi! Thank you so much for your interest in participating in my study on generative AI tools in the tech workplace. This form is intended to collect your contact information and give you a little more ...

For my dissertation, I'm looking to interview early-career tech workers about LLMs in the workplace! The interviews for this research study are confidential. If you are interested in being interviewed, or would like to know more, please fill out this form! forms.gle/xGnQthnM7wNZ...

Recruiting Ph.D. Students for Fall 2026 We are an interdisciplinary research group at the University of Colorado Boulder that uses design to understand and reimagine socio-technical systems.

Interested in accessibility, visualization, or data ethics? I'm looking for Ph.D. students to join @data-and-design.org at CU Boulder Info Sci in Fall 2026.

data-and-design.org/recruiting/phd

Cover of Notes Toward a Digital Workers’ Inquiry by the Capacitor Collective

Our new book, Notes Toward a Digital Workers’ Inquiry, is out today!

Use the code DIGI-WORKERS-HOMIE on the @commonnotions.bsky.social site for a 25% discount