sarah edwards

The cover page for my EJCS essay on digital freakshows

NEW PUB ANNOUCEMENT!

out today in @ejcs-journal.bsky.social, I wrote about lolcows, livestreaming, and how platform affordances and anti-fan practices catalyze digital freakery.

journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

Abstracts due on 12/1: I'm editing a special issue of the Int'l Journal of Communication on "the imaginative landscape of AI." Help us map the imaginaries of this stuff beyond the tech industry fluff: https://comai.space/en/call-for-papers-the-imaginative-landscape-of-ai-visions-positions-conflicts-

Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence and Austerity in the Neoliberal University Martha Kenney and Martha Lincoln Abstract This article examines the expansion of generative artificial intelligence (genAI) into higher education. We argue that genAI’s incursion into university systems represents an effort by Silicon Valley to capture lucrative new markets for their products, as well as enhanced credibility by association. Drawing on our experience as faculty in the California State University (CSU) system—the first university system to contract with OpenAI to provide ChatGPT Edu system-wide—we assess the rhetoric that justifies and legitimizes genAI contracts in higher education. We suggest that the uncritical adoption of genAI in higher education poses problems for labor conditions, the integrity of intellectual property, and student learning on campuses, particularly under the conditions of austerity that are commonly found in public universities.

New preprint alert! 🚨

“Let Them Eat Large Language Models: Artificial Intelligence and Austerity in the Neoliberal University”

Algorithms and the Occult - ASAP/Review

Just in time for Halloween, our @asapjournal.bsky.social cluster on Algorithms and the Occult is out! 👻

Featuring @emmaquilty.bsky.social, @aketchum22.bsky.social, @xrw.bsky.social, @drs.bsky.social, @serife.bsky.social, @thechristinet.bsky.social, @jessrauchberg.bsky.social, and more!

Abstract for the new Platforms & Society article "Hot tubs, yoga pants, and gamba: Twitch's controversial metas as cultural negotiations of platform governance" by CJ Reynolds.

🚨New publication alert! This one was a personal favorite of mine to work on, including fun facts about such topics as streamers farting into microphones for money. “Hot tubs, yoga pants, and gamba” is out now and open access in Platforms & Society. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/fr/@martfoto1?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Martin Woortman</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/fr/photos/un-couple-de-mannequins-debout-devant-une-structure-metallique-oQ_gZcYbx1M?utm_content=creditCopyText&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=unsplash">Unsplash</a>

[New paper] "You and TikTok are, and will remain at all times, independent contractors", By ‪@taylorannabell.bsky.social‬, @sophiebishop.bsky.social, & ‪@cgoanta.bsky.social‬ policyreview.info/articles/ana... #TikTok #Monetisation #PlatformGovernance

Recruitment graphic for "Survey of Academic Twitter" Twitter (or X) has changed quite a lot in the past few years. I am researching how communication and media scholars use the platform and think about how it has changed. Please take this survey and share your thoughts! Contains a QR code and URL to the survey, as well as contact information for Ben Pettis <ben.pettis@richmond.edu>. Project reviewd and Approved by the University of Richmond Institutional Review Board for the Protection of Human Subjects of Research (URIRB). For more information, email irb@richmond.edu or call (804) 484-1565. Project Number: URIRB250920

I’m studying what communication and media scholars think about Twitter/X and its recent whirlwind of changes. If this sounds like you (and you've ever used twitter), please take this survey and share your thoughts.

sl.richmond.edu/Ee

And please share/circulate to help this reach the right people!

You can add up all the enjoyable pursuits of LLMs and the work productivity hacks and none of them, separately or together, will be more important than AI’s ecological costs or political disruption.

“We” is more important here.

Opinion | What A.I. Really Means for Learning

www.nytimes.com/2025/08/12/o...

The Open-Source Software Saving the Internet From AI Bot Scrapers Anubis, which block AI scrapers from scraping websites to death, has been downloaded almost 200,000 times.

New from 404 Media: the open-source piece of software saving the internet from AI bot scrapers. Anubis has been downloaded almost 200,000 times. We spoke to the creator: www.404media.co/the-open-sou...

OPPOSITION TO AI workshop at #cscw2025 with @saysvera.bsky.social @richmondywong.bsky.social and more... ‬ Position papers due by July 1, details and CFP at oppositiontoai.wordpress.com

The resistance is growing --JOIN US!

✨New publication! My article “The limits of 'zero tolerance' policies for animated pornographic media” just got released in @pornstudiesjournal.bsky.social!! www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Reach out if you don’t have access and want a copy (preprint below) 📩

🧵 of the findings 👇

Big Tech takes a harder line against worker activism, political dissent A tighter labor market and lower corporate tolerance has stifled employee input on controversies over company policy, AI safety and the Israel-Gaza war.

I spoke to WaPo for this story and I think it overlooks the most interesting part. Yes tech corporations are taking a hard line (we’ve known that for a while), what’s surprising is people are still fighting back. And they will continue to do so.

www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...

Special issue on scams, fakes, and frauds in New Media & Society (2022) if you don't already have it on your list!

🔥CFP HOT OFF THE PRESS!🔥 I'm really excited to be editing this special issue on Cultural Workers and Generative AI with @grohmannrafael.bsky.social and Daphne Idiz for AI & Society. Abstract submission deadline 30th June, get in touch with questions!

MORE INFO: link.springer.com/journal/146/...

Hello I've decided to use Blue Sky now. In unrelated news, my book 'Influencer Creep' will be published with University of California press in October 2025. It's about the ways influencer culture has transformed creative work.

Preorder here: www.ucpress.edu/books/influe...

When Social Media Influencers Were Women | Opinion Influencing's third decade marks a gendered difference in digital entrepreneurship as the industry strays from its roots in fashion and style. As the industry transforms, will we remember a time when ...

new essay with @brookeerinduffy.bsky.social out in @newsweek.com this morning!

we examine the influencer industry's oft-overlooked gender politics and what this oversight means for the future of digital work.

www.newsweek.com/when-social-...

Join us APRIL 14TH for #CCSNChats: "Archiving the Internet?" ft. Sakyra Abbitt, Camille Lawrence, Meredith Clark & Zakiya Collier!

These all-stars will discuss the practices & politics of archiving the internet in the volatile context of platforms 🔗🧵👇
www.eventbrite.com/e/ccsn-chats...

The first page of my article. Includes title, author info, abstract, and first few paragraphs of intro.

Really excited to share my latest article, "Articulating algorithmic ableism: The suppression and surveillance of disabled TikTok creators," is now published in Journal of Gender Studies!

A beautiful conversation between disability + creator studies.

Read here ↪️ shorturl.at/ft5

Hands off! Our healthcare, research, jobs National strategy call - Feb 13 National day of action - Feb 19 Rally + Press Conference - Feb 25, Washington DC

Hot take: education is a Good Thing™ and net positive for society. I guess that's why the techno-fascists are hell-bent on destroying it. Fuck 'em

#HigherEd #LaborForHigherEd

On W Feb 19 there are lots of actions planed at campuses and capitols across the nation. More info at:

labor4highered.org

Platforms aren't forever, but I predict the TikTok ban is going to hurt those who rely on the app the most: millions of American creators & small business owners as they navigate economic uncertainty and inflation.

A highly unregulated economy just became much more precarious.

CCSN The Content Creator Scholars Network

🎉 The CCSN is now on Bluesky! 🎉 The Content Creator Scholars Network: Your community for critical studies on digital creators, platform economies & cultures. Join us for resources, events, blogs, and collaborative knowledge—there’s something for everyone interested in creator culture www.ccsn.site

🚨 The CCSN is coming to ICA! 🚨 If you're exploring creator culture, don't forget to submit your work and join us (due - Jan 31) for our full-day pre-conf packed with insightful speakers, workshops & research talks. Check out the full CFP on our website and follow our newsletter! 👇 ccsn.site/ica

Spotify (Un)wrapped: how ordinary users critically reflect on Spotify’s datafication of the self within creative workshops Each year, Spotify nudges users to share aesthetically pleasing data stories ‘wrapped’ and repackaged from their listening behavior. This article approaches Spotify Wrapped as an annual algorithmic...

Publication news! 🎺 It’s Wrapped season… and Taylor’s (@taylorannabell.bsky.social) and my article on our Spotify (Un)wrapped project is now out in the Journal of Gender Studies. The article outlines how creative workshops can be used to critically analyse ‘algorithmic events’ like Wrapped.

Yay!!! So excited to see this out 🤩

Standing In as a Famed, Diverse Virtual Influencer: Proxy Labor and Identity Construction in Computer-Generated Influencer Production | The Velvet Light Trap This article examines issues of labor and representation in computer-generated influencer production. I explore the implications of this production for behind-the-scene workers and identity constructi...

⚠️New Publication Alert⚠️ My article "Standing in as a Famed, Diverse Virtual Influencer : Proxy Labor and Identity Construction in Computer-Generated Influencer Production" is out, as part of the Velvet Light Trap Fall 2024 Special Issue on Creative Labor and Precacity. doi.org/10.7560/VLT9...

The abstract for Jess and Jess's article on influencer snark

my latest with @jessmaddox.bsky.social is out this morning in @femmediastudies.bsky.social! We propose influencer snark as a feminist media practice to address concerns of credibility, authenticity, and representation in the influencer industry.

please share!!!

www.tandfonline.com/eprint/XZSZD...

VLT 94 CFP — Labor and Precarity CFP: Creative Labor and Precarity The Velvet Light Trap, Issue 94 (to be published Fall 2024) Special Issue Theme Work in the media industries has always been characterized by precarity and instabili...

Deadline extended for the Velvet Light Trap's CFP on Creative Labor and Precarity 💫! New submission deadline is October 1, 2023. Read more about the CFP here: docs.google.com/document/d/1...

The Velvet Light Trap is a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal of film+television+new media. Graduate students at UW-Madison and UT-Austin coordinate issues in alternation, and each issue is devoted to a particular theme. Learn more here: https://utpress.utexas.edu/journals/the-velvet-light-trap/