Oliver L. Haimson | Lightnews

Oliver Haimson

@haimson.bsky.social

1.7K followers 1.2K following 160 posts

Associate Professor at UM School of Information researching social computing, HCI, designing trans tech, social media, identity transitions, content moderation. 🏳️‍⚧️ he/him

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Computer science 26%

Psychology 21%

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Oliver Haimson @haimson.bsky.social · Jul 30

Trans Technologies is available now! My book examines how technology creates new possibilities for transgender people, and how trans experiences, in turn, create new possibilities for technology.

"An absolute must-read for anyone that cares about technology and trans liberation." - Alex Hanna

Reposted by Oliver L. Haimson

Alice Ross @alice-ross.bsky.social · 3d

Really looking forward to this upcoming @aies-edinburgh.bsky.social event, where the great @naz-andalibi.bsky.social and @haimson.bsky.social will be talking about emotion, gender, marginalisation and AI 🤩

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gender-and...

Gender and the Machine: Trans Tech, Emotion and AI

Join us for this afternoon of events discussing gender, marginalisation and emotion in AI and digital technologies

www.eventbrite.co.uk

Reposted by Catherine D’Ignazio, Oliver L. Haimson

Dr Kevin Guyan @kevinguyan.bsky.social · 5d

🗣️ Featuring talks by @haimson.bsky.social and @naz-andalibi.bsky.social, plus a panel discussion and networking reception.

Co-organised by the Gender + Sexuality Data Lab and @aies-edinburgh.bsky.social, supported by @edfuturesinstitute.bsky.social.

www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gender-and...

Gender and the Machine: Trans Tech, Emotion and AI

Join us for this afternoon of events discussing gender, marginalisation and emotion in AI and digital technologies

www.eventbrite.co.uk

Reposted by Oliver L. Haimson

Dr Kevin Guyan @kevinguyan.bsky.social · 5d

📢 GENDER AND THE MACHINE

Join us in Edinburgh on 20 Nov to explore entanglements of gender, marginalisation and emotion across tech and AI.

🗓️ Thurs 20 Nov 2025
📍 Edinburgh
👋 All welcome

Register here: www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/gender-and...

#data #AI #tech #emotion #trans #LGBTQ #queer

Event poster for Gender and the Machine.

Reposted by Oliver L. Haimson

AI Ethics & Society @aies-edinburgh.bsky.social · 7d

✨📣 Excited to announce our upcoming event GENDER AND THE MACHINE!

Join us on Nov 20th for an afternoon exploring gender, marginalisation and emotion in tech - talks by @haimson.bsky.social and @naz-andalibi.bsky.social, plus panel discussion and networking reception

⬇️ sign up

shorturl.at/QlMfx

Gender and the Machine: Trans Tech, Emotion and AI

Join us for this afternoon of events discussing gender, marginalisation and emotion in AI and digital technologies

shorturl.at

Oliver Haimson @haimson.bsky.social · 8d

This Wednesday I'm giving a virtual talk at the Institute for Technoscience & Society at York University @stsyorku.bsky.social ! Info on how to register is here: www.yorku.ca/research/its...

Reposted by Oliver L. Haimson

Maria Murray @maria-murray.bsky.social · 20d

Incredible piece of work, the ingenuity in working around algorithimic censorship #cscw2025 #freepalestine

Reposted by Luigina Ciolfi, Brian Keegan

Oliver Haimson @haimson.bsky.social · 23d

I put together this list of work on trans/queer topics at #CSCW2025 - lots of exciting papers to check out! 🏳️‍⚧️🏳️‍🌈

padlet.com/haimson/tran...

trans/queer CSCW 2025!

a guide to trans and queer-focused papers etc. at CSCW 2025! feel free to add your paper if I missed it :)

padlet.com

Oliver Haimson @haimson.bsky.social · 24d

You gotta watch out when @cfiesler.bsky.social organizes an ethics workshop at CSCW - you just might meet your future spouse there! Happened to me and @naz-andalibi.bsky.social 10 years ago 🥰 #CSCW2025 #CSCW2015

Reposted by Oliver L. Haimson

TransLash Media @translash.org · 28d

We honor the legacy of Miss Major Griffin-Gracy, a fierce protector of our collective freedom. Our hearts are with her loved ones and all who carry her vision forward.

"We will honor Miss Major forever." - @imarajones.bsky.social

An illustration of Miss Major surrounded by candles with blue background and a famous quote of hers written in gold. The quote reads“I don’t need their permission to exist; I exist in spite of them. I want you to train and teach and love on and create families within my community and gender non-conforming people, so that we can understand that we have a culture, we have a history, we have a reason to be here. We have a purpose. We’re entitled to be loved, and seek happiness, and share that with the people that we care about.” -Miss Major Griffin-Gracy

Oliver Haimson @haimson.bsky.social · Oct 9

Excited for my PhD advisee Senami Kojah, whose paper "Silencing the Voiceless: Social Media Content Moderation for At Risk Marginalized Populations in High-Stakes Violence and Human Rights Contexts in Nigeria" is the 1st paper presentation at #CSCW2025! Online program starts tomorrow at 7am CET.

Oliver Haimson @haimson.bsky.social · Sep 4

If you're eligible, please consider participating in my PhD advisee @lameiro.bsky.social's interview study with online sex workers about non-consensual intimate deepfakes. Quick screening survey: bit.ly/deepfakesint...

Please also help spread the word by sharing with potential participants!

Reposted by Oliver L. Haimson

Cat Hughes @celticqueen13.bsky.social · Aug 23

#books are awesome.

Reposted by Oliver L. Haimson

Tim Newman @tnewmsblues.bsky.social · Aug 21

If you talk to globally subcontracted workers who contribute to AI systems, you see not only the issues they experience at work but also how those conditions shape AI tools themselves. The labor conditions of these workers is so often overlooked as a contributing factor to overall AI model quality.

Oliver Haimson @haimson.bsky.social · Aug 19

same, I also read a lot of trans fiction outside of work! Are you on GoodReads? I keep track of my non-work reading there www.goodreads.com/user/show/24...

Oliver Haimson @haimson.bsky.social · Aug 18

My reading volume dropped 60% on the tenure track compared to grad school! New Medium post on the realities of academic reading.

I’d love to hear from others: how much are you actually able to read as an academic?

medium.com/@haimson/how...

How Much I Read Every Month During the Tenure Track

My reading volume dropped 60% on the tenure track; here’s what my data says about the reality of academic reading

medium.com

Reposted by Oliver L. Haimson

onion person @junlper.beer · Aug 16

everyone transgender

Reposted by Lesley A. Hall, Oliver L. Haimson

Charlotte Clymer @charlotteclymer.bsky.social · Aug 16

"Don't feel bad if you're not reading every great book. No one ever has, and no one ever will."

Read Whatever the Hell You Want

Enjoy yourself.

charlotteclymer.substack.com

Reposted by Oliver L. Haimson

Jeremy Foote @jeremydfoote.com · Aug 15

Thanks for the kind words! Glad you found it useful!

Around the same time, another group in our lab, led by @groceryheist.cc, published a related paper that you might also be interested in:

dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

I've also written about founders and their original goals (often not growth!)

No Community Can Do Everything: Why People Participate in Similar Online Communities | Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

Large-scale quantitative analyses have shown that individuals frequently talk to each other about similar things in different online spaces. Why do these overlapping communities exist? We provide an answer grounded in the analysis of 20 interviews with ...

dl.acm.org

Reposted by Brian Keegan

Oliver Haimson @haimson.bsky.social · Aug 15

Just read this incredible paper by @s0hw.bsky.social & @jeremydfoote.com: Why Do People Participate in Small Online Communities? The authors question the assumption that growth is always good, and instead show many benefits of small online communities. Highly recommended!

dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/...

Why do People Participate in Small Online Communities? | Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction

Many benefits of online communities---such as obtaining new information, opportunities, and social connections---increase with size. Thus, a "successful'' online community often evokes an image of hun...

dl.acm.org

Oliver Haimson @haimson.bsky.social · Aug 8

New article out in @theconversation.com!

"When people at high risk of algorithmic harm such as trans people and disabled people are also those most wary of AI, that’s an indication for AI designers, developers and policymakers to reassess their efforts."

theconversation.com/transgender-...

Transgender, nonbinary and disabled people more likely to view AI negatively, study shows

Some of the marginalized groups most likely to be harmed by AI are also most wary of it. A new study’s findings raise questions about equity and consent in technology design.

theconversation.com

Reposted by Oliver L. Haimson

Phoebe Toups Dugas 🏳️‍⚧️ @snapdragoness.itch.io · Aug 8

There are very good reasons for this! Very nice article @haimson.bsky.social !

Transgender, nonbinary and disabled people more likely to view AI negatively, study shows
theconversation.com/transgender-...

Transgender, nonbinary and disabled people more likely to view AI negatively, study shows

Some of the marginalized groups most likely to be harmed by AI are also most wary of it. A new study’s findings raise questions about equity and consent in technology design.

theconversation.com

Reposted by Brendan Nyhan, Oliver L. Haimson, Nelson Flores

jael holzman @jael.bsky.social · Aug 7

“Discretionary awards shall not be used to fund, promote, encourage, subsidize, or facilitate … denial by the grant recipient of the sex binary in humans or the notion that sex is a chosen or mutable characteristic”

TL;dr grants to be denied to entities who acknowledge the existence of trans people

Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking

By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and to improve the process of Federal

www.whitehouse.gov

Reposted by Oliver L. Haimson

Phoebe Toups Dugas 🏳️‍⚧️ @snapdragoness.itch.io · Aug 5

I wrote an explainer for the impact of payment processor censorship on the LGBTQIA+ community.

theconversation.com/thousands-of...

Thousands of games have been censored from major platforms, with LGBTQIA+ creators caught in the crossfire

Payment processing companies have ceded to pressure from an ‘anti-porn’ group, causing Steam and itch.io to ban tens of thousands of games almost overnight.

theconversation.com

Oliver Haimson @haimson.bsky.social · Aug 5

Thanks so much, @tnewmsblues.bsky.social! Very proud of @bzfzhang.bsky.social (DR. Zhang as of yesterday!) and his amazing work on this paper.

Oliver Haimson @haimson.bsky.social · Aug 5

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!

Reposted by Oliver L. Haimson

Michaelanne Thomas @michaelannephd.bsky.social · Aug 5

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.

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."

Oliver Haimson @haimson.bsky.social · Jul 30

* read free open access: direct.mit.edu/books/oa-mon...

* buy now: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255186... or wherever books are sold (get 20% off with code READMIT20 at www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/777584...)

* add to GoodReads: www.goodreads.com/book/show/21...

Trans Technologies

How technology creates new possibilities for transgender people, and how trans experiences, in turn, create new possibilities for technology.Mainstream tec

direct.mit.edu

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