Mallory James
@secondordersocialresearch.com
political economy & engineering studies research. neurodiverse, first-generation college student, she/her. PhD anthropology, Chicago. academic writing teacher. energy expert on non-normative terms.
Pinned
#AcademicSky I did it! 12 years after the original idea, I finished my new theoretical argument about responsible engineering on the basis of archival data! #STS scholars interested in #engineeringethics or #ethics generally should please read this! 💚 doi.org/10.1080/1937...
So interesting
this is just such a stark contrast to the general Western mood that climate politics is dead. THIS is what climate politics is about (the political economy of decarbonization). Everything else follows.
Ethiopia last year banned the import of new gasoline-powered cars. Nepal reduced import duties on EVs so much that they are now cheaper than cars with internal combustion engines. Brazil raised tariffs on car imports to compel Chinese automakers to set up plants inside Brazil. Etc
November 11, 2025 at 11:02 AM
So interesting
Just read this interesting piece from 2018 defining the "analog slot" for social studies of technology, and I think this concept should remain part of the conversation for #sts and #anthropology as we increase our attention to the social studies of #AI. doi.org/10.14506/ca3...
What Should an Anthropology of Algorithms Do?
| Cultural Anthropology
doi.org
November 8, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Just read this interesting piece from 2018 defining the "analog slot" for social studies of technology, and I think this concept should remain part of the conversation for #sts and #anthropology as we increase our attention to the social studies of #AI. doi.org/10.14506/ca3...
"But what if we do not have common problems, but bitter conflicts over the very definition of our problems, in a context of ever greater polarisation?"
#AcademicSky #research #science
Horizon Europe’s collaborative projects ask for the impossible www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/hori...
#AcademicSky #research #science
Horizon Europe’s collaborative projects ask for the impossible www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/hori...
Horizon Europe’s collaborative projects ask for the impossible
Social sciences funding would be best spent on narrower calls. But would it dry up if we stopped pretending we can save the world, asks Andreas Schedler
www.timeshighereducation.com
November 6, 2025 at 8:37 AM
"But what if we do not have common problems, but bitter conflicts over the very definition of our problems, in a context of ever greater polarisation?"
#AcademicSky #research #science
Horizon Europe’s collaborative projects ask for the impossible www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/hori...
#AcademicSky #research #science
Horizon Europe’s collaborative projects ask for the impossible www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/hori...
Random heartwarming news: Yesterday, I discovered that the Bavarian State Library, which does not allow people to wear their coats into the library, started providing red blankets to be used by the students inside the library who are cold 🥰
#gratitude
#gratitude
November 5, 2025 at 4:29 PM
Random heartwarming news: Yesterday, I discovered that the Bavarian State Library, which does not allow people to wear their coats into the library, started providing red blankets to be used by the students inside the library who are cold 🥰
#gratitude
#gratitude
So many of the doors that I walked through have closed behind me: 😢
Admissions are literally paused at the place that built my mind 🧠and asked me to become more than I was:
socialsciences.uchicago.edu/programs-stu...
We hope it's temporary . . . 🚪😿 #Science #academicchatter #educationsky
Admissions are literally paused at the place that built my mind 🧠and asked me to become more than I was:
socialsciences.uchicago.edu/programs-stu...
We hope it's temporary . . . 🚪😿 #Science #academicchatter #educationsky
Doctoral Programs | The University of Chicago Division of the Social Sciences
socialsciences.uchicago.edu
November 5, 2025 at 12:32 PM
So many of the doors that I walked through have closed behind me: 😢
Admissions are literally paused at the place that built my mind 🧠and asked me to become more than I was:
socialsciences.uchicago.edu/programs-stu...
We hope it's temporary . . . 🚪😿 #Science #academicchatter #educationsky
Admissions are literally paused at the place that built my mind 🧠and asked me to become more than I was:
socialsciences.uchicago.edu/programs-stu...
We hope it's temporary . . . 🚪😿 #Science #academicchatter #educationsky
I am *still* not using Facebook or Instagram, or corporate-controlled outlets NYT or Wall Street Journal, from April 2025 to now. My attention is valuable--yours too💰
Here's a how-to guide: imaginethenews.com/media-libera...
#MediaLiberationDay #MediaRevolution #TheRevolutionWillNotBeMonetized
Here's a how-to guide: imaginethenews.com/media-libera...
#MediaLiberationDay #MediaRevolution #TheRevolutionWillNotBeMonetized
Media Liberation Day
On November 5, 2025, The Media Revolution (UK) is launching the Media Liberation Day campaign, a movement bringing awareness to the rupture in the legacy mainstream media system. Now captured by...
imaginethenews.com
November 5, 2025 at 9:32 AM
I am *still* not using Facebook or Instagram, or corporate-controlled outlets NYT or Wall Street Journal, from April 2025 to now. My attention is valuable--yours too💰
Here's a how-to guide: imaginethenews.com/media-libera...
#MediaLiberationDay #MediaRevolution #TheRevolutionWillNotBeMonetized
Here's a how-to guide: imaginethenews.com/media-libera...
#MediaLiberationDay #MediaRevolution #TheRevolutionWillNotBeMonetized
Reposted by Mallory James
The 400 richest Americans are now worth a record $6.6 trillion.
The entire bottom 50% of America is worth just $4.2 trillion.
Read that back.
When 400 people control more wealth than half a country’s population, we have a very serious problem.
The entire bottom 50% of America is worth just $4.2 trillion.
Read that back.
When 400 people control more wealth than half a country’s population, we have a very serious problem.
November 3, 2025 at 1:30 AM
The 400 richest Americans are now worth a record $6.6 trillion.
The entire bottom 50% of America is worth just $4.2 trillion.
Read that back.
When 400 people control more wealth than half a country’s population, we have a very serious problem.
The entire bottom 50% of America is worth just $4.2 trillion.
Read that back.
When 400 people control more wealth than half a country’s population, we have a very serious problem.
Five years ago, my newest @engrstudies.bsky.social paper was chapter 2 of my #Anthropology dissertation.
I am trying to keep the space alive for the intersection of disciplinary knowlege X a topic that lots of interdisciplinary and #STS scholars have already 👣 traveled through.
I am trying to keep the space alive for the intersection of disciplinary knowlege X a topic that lots of interdisciplinary and #STS scholars have already 👣 traveled through.
October 29, 2025 at 11:25 AM
Five years ago, my newest @engrstudies.bsky.social paper was chapter 2 of my #Anthropology dissertation.
I am trying to keep the space alive for the intersection of disciplinary knowlege X a topic that lots of interdisciplinary and #STS scholars have already 👣 traveled through.
I am trying to keep the space alive for the intersection of disciplinary knowlege X a topic that lots of interdisciplinary and #STS scholars have already 👣 traveled through.
Reposted by Mallory James
Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs
- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
Harvard FAS Cuts Ph.D. Seats By More Than Half Across Next Two Admissions Cycles | News | The Harvard Crimson
The Faculty of Arts and Sciences slashed the number of Ph.D. student admissions slots for the Science division by more than 75 percent and for the Arts & Humanities division by about 60 percent for th...
www.thecrimson.com
October 21, 2025 at 5:11 PM
Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs
- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero
There's another energy reading group starting up! Perfect for those who prefer to meet earlier in the day, earlier in the week:
📖 I'm excited to convene a virtual reading group on #EnergyHeritage with @energy-ethics.bsky.social! Engaging w/ scholarship, fiction & artistic projects, we'll meet monthly from Nov-April for discussion and creative responses. Details + registration: energyethics.st-andrews.ac.uk/cee-reading-...
CEE Reading Group | Energy Ethics
energyethics.st-andrews.ac.uk
October 29, 2025 at 10:56 AM
There's another energy reading group starting up! Perfect for those who prefer to meet earlier in the day, earlier in the week:
Hi #STS! I am sure that many if you have read and/or taught the work of 'our' Ludwig Fleck--who technically pre-dated STS although claimed as canonical for history and philosophy of science for "Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact" (1979 [1935])--but here's some biographical info...(1/3)
Vaccine subterfuge: How vaccine-makers fooled the Nazis from inside a concentration camp lab
Confined first at Auschwitz then Buchenwald, a Jewish microbiologist conspired with a ragtag team of scientists and rebels to send dud typhus vaccines to the German soldiers on the eastern front.
www.gavi.org
October 28, 2025 at 4:16 PM
Hi #STS! I am sure that many if you have read and/or taught the work of 'our' Ludwig Fleck--who technically pre-dated STS although claimed as canonical for history and philosophy of science for "Genesis and Development of a Scientific Fact" (1979 [1935])--but here's some biographical info...(1/3)
Reposted by Mallory James
Whenever people complain about the number of folks relying on food stamps, it is worth reminding them that SNAP is, by too large of a degree, a subsidy for corporations that refuse to pay a living wage and their political allies who reject public policy prescriptions to reduce income inequality.
October 27, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Whenever people complain about the number of folks relying on food stamps, it is worth reminding them that SNAP is, by too large of a degree, a subsidy for corporations that refuse to pay a living wage and their political allies who reject public policy prescriptions to reduce income inequality.
Reposted by Mallory James
Ann Johnson Institute Writing Retreat for #HPS & #STS scholars, 6-12 July 2026 at Ampersand Inn, Newton New Jersey. Theme is "Context of Discovery in Science & Technology", and the objective is project completion. 10 scholars will be selected. Applications due 17 November 2025
sc.edu/study/colleg...
sc.edu/study/colleg...
The Ann Johnson Institute for Science, Technology and Society - McCausland College of Arts and Sciences | University of South Carolina
sc.edu
September 14, 2025 at 6:28 PM
Ann Johnson Institute Writing Retreat for #HPS & #STS scholars, 6-12 July 2026 at Ampersand Inn, Newton New Jersey. Theme is "Context of Discovery in Science & Technology", and the objective is project completion. 10 scholars will be selected. Applications due 17 November 2025
sc.edu/study/colleg...
sc.edu/study/colleg...
Found this insightful
Choice is a ubiquitous part of many modern societies. But how did we get here? Based on her book ‘The Age of Choice’ – nominated as a finalist for the prestigious Cundill History Prize – Sophia Rosenfeld’s Essay argues that choice is not always the same thing as freedom
Why an abundance of choice is not the same as freedom | Aeon Essays
It’s only in recent history that freedom has come to mean having a huge array of choices in life. Did we take a wrong turn?
buff.ly
October 26, 2025 at 2:17 PM
Found this insightful
But that was where the First Ladies used to work: www.thepersistent.com/white-house-... ♀️😭 ❕️
Is the idea here that we women (but only the richest of us) are supposed to sit around in dresses and be looked at, 👁📷 rather than actually DOING IMPORTANT WORK? 📝 #strongwomen #feminist
Is the idea here that we women (but only the richest of us) are supposed to sit around in dresses and be looked at, 👁📷 rather than actually DOING IMPORTANT WORK? 📝 #strongwomen #feminist
Trump Has Demolished a History of Work by First Ladies
The East Wing was the nation's symbolic heart.
www.thepersistent.com
October 25, 2025 at 8:01 AM
But that was where the First Ladies used to work: www.thepersistent.com/white-house-... ♀️😭 ❕️
Is the idea here that we women (but only the richest of us) are supposed to sit around in dresses and be looked at, 👁📷 rather than actually DOING IMPORTANT WORK? 📝 #strongwomen #feminist
Is the idea here that we women (but only the richest of us) are supposed to sit around in dresses and be looked at, 👁📷 rather than actually DOING IMPORTANT WORK? 📝 #strongwomen #feminist
Interesting defense of the analog over the digital for #sustainability. Are #STS thinkers able to work with this line of argument and move it forward, or are we instead necessarily trapped into the reactive space of critiquing technosolutionism? islandpress.medium.com/in-praise-of...
In Praise of Analog Cities: Futureproofing in a Time of Crisis
By Mikael Colville-Andersen
islandpress.medium.com
October 23, 2025 at 4:58 PM
Interesting defense of the analog over the digital for #sustainability. Are #STS thinkers able to work with this line of argument and move it forward, or are we instead necessarily trapped into the reactive space of critiquing technosolutionism? islandpress.medium.com/in-praise-of...
Today I got a genuine giggle from opening my email inbox to hear that certain people "would be truly honoured to welcome you as an invited Speaker at the prestigious World Conference Plant Science and Sustainable Agriculture" 🌱on the basis of my paper published yesterday. 😂 (1/5)
#AcademicSky
#AcademicSky
October 23, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Today I got a genuine giggle from opening my email inbox to hear that certain people "would be truly honoured to welcome you as an invited Speaker at the prestigious World Conference Plant Science and Sustainable Agriculture" 🌱on the basis of my paper published yesterday. 😂 (1/5)
#AcademicSky
#AcademicSky
#AcademicSky I did it! 12 years after the original idea, I finished my new theoretical argument about responsible engineering on the basis of archival data! #STS scholars interested in #engineeringethics or #ethics generally should please read this! 💚 doi.org/10.1080/1937...
October 22, 2025 at 5:55 PM
#AcademicSky I did it! 12 years after the original idea, I finished my new theoretical argument about responsible engineering on the basis of archival data! #STS scholars interested in #engineeringethics or #ethics generally should please read this! 💚 doi.org/10.1080/1937...
Reposted by Mallory James
I lived with my dad when I was very young and he didn’t apply for food stamps or free school lunches, though we qualified.
So, I went hungry. It was awful. I begged neighbors for saltine crackers. I can say it was the worst time of my life.
Children shouldn’t go hungry. Restore SNAP benefits.
So, I went hungry. It was awful. I begged neighbors for saltine crackers. I can say it was the worst time of my life.
Children shouldn’t go hungry. Restore SNAP benefits.
October 22, 2025 at 2:40 PM
I lived with my dad when I was very young and he didn’t apply for food stamps or free school lunches, though we qualified.
So, I went hungry. It was awful. I begged neighbors for saltine crackers. I can say it was the worst time of my life.
Children shouldn’t go hungry. Restore SNAP benefits.
So, I went hungry. It was awful. I begged neighbors for saltine crackers. I can say it was the worst time of my life.
Children shouldn’t go hungry. Restore SNAP benefits.
️✨New theoretical argument regarding 'responsible engineering' out today!✨
doi.org/10.1080/1937...
️I ask:❔How is it possible for engineers to both be ethical & responsible (according to their codes of ethics) AND ALSO be agents of violence? ❔(1/7)
#AcademicSky #STS #Anthropology
doi.org/10.1080/1937...
️I ask:❔How is it possible for engineers to both be ethical & responsible (according to their codes of ethics) AND ALSO be agents of violence? ❔(1/7)
#AcademicSky #STS #Anthropology
Class, Critique, and Containment: Arcs of Historical Change in Australian Engineering Ethics Codes
Participation in national professional associations is a common strategy for self-distinction. Since 1919, some Australian engineers have joined a national association, affirming agreement to align...
doi.org
October 22, 2025 at 6:27 AM
️✨New theoretical argument regarding 'responsible engineering' out today!✨
doi.org/10.1080/1937...
️I ask:❔How is it possible for engineers to both be ethical & responsible (according to their codes of ethics) AND ALSO be agents of violence? ❔(1/7)
#AcademicSky #STS #Anthropology
doi.org/10.1080/1937...
️I ask:❔How is it possible for engineers to both be ethical & responsible (according to their codes of ethics) AND ALSO be agents of violence? ❔(1/7)
#AcademicSky #STS #Anthropology
Reposted by Mallory James
Und weil das so oft passiert: Bitte haltet dagegen & macht nie mit! Nachfragen, was gemeint ist! Bei Geraune darauf hinweisen, dass man(n) das nicht blöd nachplappern sollte! Erzählen, dass/was man völlig Gegenteiliges von der Kollegin weiss! Sich laut wundern, was an „schwierig“ schwierig wäre!
Und mir fallen auf Anhieb übrigens sehr, sehr viele Kolleginnen ein, von denen mir irgendwelche männlichen Kollegen irgendwann mal gesagt haben, sie seien „schwierig“. Diese meist raunende & nicht näher erläuterte Abwertung von Frauen in der Wissenschaft ist so verbreitet wie normalisiert.
October 21, 2025 at 12:11 PM
Und weil das so oft passiert: Bitte haltet dagegen & macht nie mit! Nachfragen, was gemeint ist! Bei Geraune darauf hinweisen, dass man(n) das nicht blöd nachplappern sollte! Erzählen, dass/was man völlig Gegenteiliges von der Kollegin weiss! Sich laut wundern, was an „schwierig“ schwierig wäre!
Reposted by Mallory James
Different POV: fewer graduate students may mean less science, but perhaps better science. Academia hides behind “training” while using PhDs as cheap labour. Experienced scientists are often more effective. If research needs workforce, employ PhDs, don’t disguise jobs as “training”. #academicsky
October 21, 2025 at 9:42 PM
Different POV: fewer graduate students may mean less science, but perhaps better science. Academia hides behind “training” while using PhDs as cheap labour. Experienced scientists are often more effective. If research needs workforce, employ PhDs, don’t disguise jobs as “training”. #academicsky
Reposted by Mallory James
I saw a tragically AI-generated version of this poster, so I have recreated a 100% human-made version for all your protest sign needs.
October 18, 2025 at 4:00 PM
I saw a tragically AI-generated version of this poster, so I have recreated a 100% human-made version for all your protest sign needs.
I love this 🍁🍂🍁
October 16, 2025 at 10:52 AM
I love this 🍁🍂🍁
East München in the fall
October 14, 2025 at 10:46 AM
East München in the fall