Liz Rodwell
@lizrodwell.bsky.social
Media & Tech anthropologist, STS nerd. Studying Conversational UX/AI. Founder of the UH UX Lab. My TV/Japan book: http://dukeupress.edu/push-the-button (Views are my own and not that of my employer.)
My newest article is out! More about conversation designers and conversational AI. It’s called “Someone Behind This Technology: Conversation Designers in the Artificial Intelligence Loop” #sts #anthropology #conversationdesign Here’s a link to get it free: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/XNX78...
Someone Behind This Technology: Conversation Designers in the Artificial Intelligence Loop
Artificial intelligence (AI) tools are advancing rapidly, yet their development remains opaque, particularly in terms of the collaborative practices that shape their design. This article presents f...
urldefense.com
October 24, 2025 at 2:35 PM
My newest article is out! More about conversation designers and conversational AI. It’s called “Someone Behind This Technology: Conversation Designers in the Artificial Intelligence Loop” #sts #anthropology #conversationdesign Here’s a link to get it free: www.tandfonline.com/eprint/XNX78...
Lemme see if I got this right. The guy who lies almost every time he opens his mouth insisted a guy he hates be indicted for maybe lying to Congress? Hmm. #Comey
September 26, 2025 at 1:17 AM
Lemme see if I got this right. The guy who lies almost every time he opens his mouth insisted a guy he hates be indicted for maybe lying to Congress? Hmm. #Comey
I keep finding myself drawn to posting here every once in a while, mostly to say things like “what do we do, guys?” In a sort of existential rather than practical way.
September 26, 2025 at 1:05 AM
I keep finding myself drawn to posting here every once in a while, mostly to say things like “what do we do, guys?” In a sort of existential rather than practical way.
When I psych myself to post on here I am reminded that it has already fallen into the Twitter pattern wherein I only see a few people’s posts and nobody sees mine. I mean truly what is the point?
September 23, 2025 at 1:03 AM
When I psych myself to post on here I am reminded that it has already fallen into the Twitter pattern wherein I only see a few people’s posts and nobody sees mine. I mean truly what is the point?
The censorship has somehow gotten even more demoralizing this week.
September 18, 2025 at 2:43 AM
The censorship has somehow gotten even more demoralizing this week.
If you’re wondering how TX public University professors are doing right now, the answer is “really not great.” We’re worried and sad, but still working hard despite endemic poor mental health. We are accepting massage gift cards or coffees (joking). #aaup #txprofessors #professors
September 11, 2025 at 12:51 AM
If you’re wondering how TX public University professors are doing right now, the answer is “really not great.” We’re worried and sad, but still working hard despite endemic poor mental health. We are accepting massage gift cards or coffees (joking). #aaup #txprofessors #professors
Well this quote certainly sums up what’s wrong with the U.S. right now:
“House Speaker Mike Johnson called for a moment of silence on the chamber floor, which quickly turned into a shouting match about whether the observance was too little or too much.” (From the WSJ) #gunviolence
“House Speaker Mike Johnson called for a moment of silence on the chamber floor, which quickly turned into a shouting match about whether the observance was too little or too much.” (From the WSJ) #gunviolence
September 11, 2025 at 12:43 AM
Well this quote certainly sums up what’s wrong with the U.S. right now:
“House Speaker Mike Johnson called for a moment of silence on the chamber floor, which quickly turned into a shouting match about whether the observance was too little or too much.” (From the WSJ) #gunviolence
“House Speaker Mike Johnson called for a moment of silence on the chamber floor, which quickly turned into a shouting match about whether the observance was too little or too much.” (From the WSJ) #gunviolence
I have a fantasy- earning a royalty check for my book. If you know of a library or course that could benefit from a really awesome book about TV experiments, independent journalism, right wing trolls battling with Indy media in Japan please check out: www.dukeupress.edu/push-the-but...
Push the Button
www.dukeupress.edu
August 12, 2025 at 6:33 PM
I have a fantasy- earning a royalty check for my book. If you know of a library or course that could benefit from a really awesome book about TV experiments, independent journalism, right wing trolls battling with Indy media in Japan please check out: www.dukeupress.edu/push-the-but...
As someone who studies and loves computers, and has since I was a kid, I still share McLuhan’s general discomfort. I am uneasy in the present moment even as I work on AI. slate.com/technology/2...
Peter Thiel Just Accidentally Made a Chilling Admission. Five Decades Ago, One Man Saw It Coming.
He was laughed out of academia for this take about the internet. Turns out he was right.
slate.com
July 28, 2025 at 10:56 PM
As someone who studies and loves computers, and has since I was a kid, I still share McLuhan’s general discomfort. I am uneasy in the present moment even as I work on AI. slate.com/technology/2...
Trump has now spent an estimated $63,000,000 of our money golfing since Jan. 20. Think of what that could do for our schools.
www.pennlive.com/news/2025/07...
www.pennlive.com/news/2025/07...
July 28, 2025 at 6:43 AM
Trump has now spent an estimated $63,000,000 of our money golfing since Jan. 20. Think of what that could do for our schools.
www.pennlive.com/news/2025/07...
www.pennlive.com/news/2025/07...
The Atlantic continues its helpful series on AI. I’ll be using this article in my fall classes. Thank you @theatlantic.com and- y’all should subscribe. www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
The Entire Internet Is Reverting to Beta
The AI takeover is changing everything about the web—and not necessarily for the better.
www.theatlantic.com
June 24, 2025 at 10:59 PM
The Atlantic continues its helpful series on AI. I’ll be using this article in my fall classes. Thank you @theatlantic.com and- y’all should subscribe. www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Universities need the best students- from all over the world-
and their critical thinking skills.
“Applicants [for student visas] will be vetted for ‘any indications of hostility towards the citizens, culture, government, institutions or founding principles of the U.S.’
and their critical thinking skills.
“Applicants [for student visas] will be vetted for ‘any indications of hostility towards the citizens, culture, government, institutions or founding principles of the U.S.’
June 18, 2025 at 10:12 PM
Universities need the best students- from all over the world-
and their critical thinking skills.
“Applicants [for student visas] will be vetted for ‘any indications of hostility towards the citizens, culture, government, institutions or founding principles of the U.S.’
and their critical thinking skills.
“Applicants [for student visas] will be vetted for ‘any indications of hostility towards the citizens, culture, government, institutions or founding principles of the U.S.’
Resurfacing because a few people texted me this (I’m in Japan on a Fulbright right now.)
The Fulbright people are absolutely lovely, generous, and considerate. They deserved better. We all, in research oriented professions, deserve better. #fulbright www.msnbc.com/top-stories/...
The Fulbright people are absolutely lovely, generous, and considerate. They deserved better. We all, in research oriented professions, deserve better. #fulbright www.msnbc.com/top-stories/...
The Fulbright board has resigned after accusing Trump of political meddling
The Fulbright program has long had bipartisan support to operate independently. Trump might be changing that.
www.msnbc.com
June 11, 2025 at 11:54 PM
Resurfacing because a few people texted me this (I’m in Japan on a Fulbright right now.)
The Fulbright people are absolutely lovely, generous, and considerate. They deserved better. We all, in research oriented professions, deserve better. #fulbright www.msnbc.com/top-stories/...
The Fulbright people are absolutely lovely, generous, and considerate. They deserved better. We all, in research oriented professions, deserve better. #fulbright www.msnbc.com/top-stories/...
I’m in Tokyo right now working with colleagues at Waseda University. When I tried to explain what’s going on in the U.S. to them, they were shocked.
Brutal account of what it’s like to teach at the University of Florida right now in the NYT—extraordinary climate of fear. People afraid to say intersectional and talk about lynchings. Fake students trying to entrap Muslim faculty or just making things up altogether. www.nytimes.com/2025/05/07/o...
May 9, 2025 at 11:34 AM
I’m in Tokyo right now working with colleagues at Waseda University. When I tried to explain what’s going on in the U.S. to them, they were shocked.
Is anyone else sad a lot these days? I study convo AI as an anthropologist and tend to have a nuanced view, but my 9 year old told me this morning how much he loves to write and I hope he will keep trying to write even when no one else is. I still try bc I love it too nymag.com/intelligence...
Everyone Is Cheating Their Way Through College
ChatGPT has unraveled the entire academic project.
nymag.com
May 9, 2025 at 11:21 AM
Is anyone else sad a lot these days? I study convo AI as an anthropologist and tend to have a nuanced view, but my 9 year old told me this morning how much he loves to write and I hope he will keep trying to write even when no one else is. I still try bc I love it too nymag.com/intelligence...
I do a lot of research in Tokyo and one of my peculiar specialties is getting on a train and becoming so engrossed in reading on my phone that I ride somewhere very random and far away. It just happened again. Where am I this time?
May 6, 2025 at 7:57 AM
I do a lot of research in Tokyo and one of my peculiar specialties is getting on a train and becoming so engrossed in reading on my phone that I ride somewhere very random and far away. It just happened again. Where am I this time?
I have had Yeats’ The Second Coming circling around in my mind on a loop for the last week:
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/...
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/...
The Second Coming
Turning and turning in the widening gyre The falcon cannot hear the falconer; Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold; Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and eve...
www.poetryfoundation.org
April 30, 2025 at 11:36 AM
I have had Yeats’ The Second Coming circling around in my mind on a loop for the last week:
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/...
“The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.”
www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/43290/...
I hear Columbia University is hiring another new president. Sounds like a relaxing job. Maybe I’ll apply.
April 23, 2025 at 11:43 AM
I hear Columbia University is hiring another new president. Sounds like a relaxing job. Maybe I’ll apply.
I often talk up the importance of anthropology to technology and engineering. If you love #conversationalAI and #conversationdesign too, here's my nudge to take a linguistic anthropology course (or check out any of the learning opportunities I link to). anthrocareerready.net/how-can-ling...
How can linguistic anthropology help you work with AI? - The Anthropology Career Readiness Network
I started working on voice assistants as a usability challenge in 2019 after one of the students in my User Experience (UX) Principles class asked, “I
anthrocareerready.net
April 4, 2025 at 7:43 PM
I often talk up the importance of anthropology to technology and engineering. If you love #conversationalAI and #conversationdesign too, here's my nudge to take a linguistic anthropology course (or check out any of the learning opportunities I link to). anthrocareerready.net/how-can-ling...
Interested in AI? UX? STS and ethnographies of scientific work environments? Please check out my new article in Science, Technology, & Human Values : journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1... @sthv.bsky.social #ai #converstionalai #conversationdesign #uxresearch
Between Code and Culture: The Evolving Role of Conversation Designers and UX in AI Development - Elizabeth Rodwell, 2025
Artificial intelligence (AI)-related technologies available to consumers have been rapidly advancing but without parallel insight into the social process of the...
journals.sagepub.com
March 24, 2025 at 3:31 PM
Interested in AI? UX? STS and ethnographies of scientific work environments? Please check out my new article in Science, Technology, & Human Values : journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1... @sthv.bsky.social #ai #converstionalai #conversationdesign #uxresearch
Just for something different on a Monday morning, I got to attend this beautiful concert Saturday and maybe listening to it today will move you too. (Music starts an hour and three minutes into the video. There is a lecture first.) www.mercuryhouston.org/st-john-pass...
Bach's St. John Passion premiering March 22 — Mercury Chamber Orchestra
www.mercuryhouston.org
March 24, 2025 at 2:14 PM
Just for something different on a Monday morning, I got to attend this beautiful concert Saturday and maybe listening to it today will move you too. (Music starts an hour and three minutes into the video. There is a lecture first.) www.mercuryhouston.org/st-john-pass...
Please take a moment today and write to your representatives about protecting the Department of Education. Even if your reps seem like they might not be sympathetic, our students and colleagues (and selves) deserve this show of support.
March 21, 2025 at 1:36 PM
Please take a moment today and write to your representatives about protecting the Department of Education. Even if your reps seem like they might not be sympathetic, our students and colleagues (and selves) deserve this show of support.
One of my 9 yos read to me from a book that Einstein had one outfit he wore every day so he had dozens of the same shirt and pants. I will now be telling people who question my lack of interest in clothes that I’m basically Einstein. #parenting
March 16, 2025 at 1:53 PM
One of my 9 yos read to me from a book that Einstein had one outfit he wore every day so he had dozens of the same shirt and pants. I will now be telling people who question my lack of interest in clothes that I’m basically Einstein. #parenting
I found this completely relatable. I didn’t have a concussion but I was going through something else with my health recently and I had most of these thoughts. www.late-review.com/p/the-hairsh...
the hairshirt doldrums
on having a brain injury
www.late-review.com
March 8, 2025 at 2:08 AM
I found this completely relatable. I didn’t have a concussion but I was going through something else with my health recently and I had most of these thoughts. www.late-review.com/p/the-hairsh...
Oh Philly. Lol apple.news/ASDtxRiZHSmG...
'There's an illegal DJ on the highway': The wildest Philly police scanner highlights after the Eagles' victory — Daily Dot
Philadelphia police had their hands full on Feb. 9, 2025, as Eagles fans flooded the streets to celebrate the team's Super Bowl LIX victory over the Kansas City Chiefs. As is tradition, the revelry qu...
apple.news
February 10, 2025 at 11:52 PM
Oh Philly. Lol apple.news/ASDtxRiZHSmG...