Zarine Kharazian
@zarine.net
phd candidate @cip.uw.edu, @communitydata.science, & @hcde.uw.edu. I study how to govern public knowledge institutions under attack.
zarine.net
zarine.net
Reposted by Zarine Kharazian
The Eric Schickler essay in Larry Bartel's symposium on "What Trump Has Taught Us About Political Science" is one of the most insightful pieces I've read in 2025.
US institutions turned out to be weak, and we have to rethink conventional wisdom.
open access: academic.oup.com/psq/advance-...
US institutions turned out to be weak, and we have to rethink conventional wisdom.
open access: academic.oup.com/psq/advance-...
November 19, 2025 at 8:08 PM
The Eric Schickler essay in Larry Bartel's symposium on "What Trump Has Taught Us About Political Science" is one of the most insightful pieces I've read in 2025.
US institutions turned out to be weak, and we have to rethink conventional wisdom.
open access: academic.oup.com/psq/advance-...
US institutions turned out to be weak, and we have to rethink conventional wisdom.
open access: academic.oup.com/psq/advance-...
i've always been fascinated by cultural property theft/antiquities trafficking (NOT partaking in it 🙃) dream job in another life, tbh
Denver Post confirms what we’ve been hearing: nearly all federal HSI agents with expertise on cultural property crimes have been reassigned to immigration duties in recent months.
Major loss of law enforcement capabilities in the world’s largest art market.
www.denverpost.com/2025/11/06/u...
Major loss of law enforcement capabilities in the world’s largest art market.
www.denverpost.com/2025/11/06/u...
The U.S. was a leader in cultural heritage investigations. Now those agents are working immigration enforcement.
Homeland Security Investigations, the department’s investigative arm, once had as many as eight agents in its New York office investigating cultural property cases.
www.denverpost.com
November 7, 2025 at 3:47 AM
i've always been fascinated by cultural property theft/antiquities trafficking (NOT partaking in it 🙃) dream job in another life, tbh
Reposted by Zarine Kharazian
Friend and colleague Ryan McGrady has an excellent piece in Tech Policy Press on Grokipedia. Rather than excoriating the new project for Elon worship (true, but hardly interesting), he looks into how Grokipedia redefines sources for encyclopedic knowledge: www.techpolicy.press/with-grokipe...
With Grokipedia, Top-Down Control of Knowledge Is New Again | TechPolicy.Press
Ryan McGrady asks, who is Grokipedia for, other than its owner?
techpolicy.press
November 3, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Friend and colleague Ryan McGrady has an excellent piece in Tech Policy Press on Grokipedia. Rather than excoriating the new project for Elon worship (true, but hardly interesting), he looks into how Grokipedia redefines sources for encyclopedic knowledge: www.techpolicy.press/with-grokipe...
Reposted by Zarine Kharazian
Late to this, but if you aren't willing to stand up for trans people that puts you on the side of the villains. There is no excuse and no "strategy" that justifies it. Either stand with people under attack from the state or get out of the way so someone with a working moral compass can step up.
gavin newsom says he wants to pass legislation banning trans people from playing sports in california
October 30, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Late to this, but if you aren't willing to stand up for trans people that puts you on the side of the villains. There is no excuse and no "strategy" that justifies it. Either stand with people under attack from the state or get out of the way so someone with a working moral compass can step up.
Reposted by Zarine Kharazian
Slate: Scholars, including @cip.uw.edu graduate research assistant and @hcde.uw.edu PhD candidate @zarine.net, say "recent attacks on Wikipedia differ from earlier critiques" of the website, which had focused on Wikipedia's content.
Read more: slate.com/technology/2...
Read more: slate.com/technology/2...
A Wikipedia Conference Took a Dark Turn. Unfortunately, It’s Not a Total Surprise.
An armed man at a gathering of the website’s volunteers is just the latest reminder: Editing the internet’s encyclopedia has never been riskier.
slate.com
October 30, 2025 at 6:25 PM
Slate: Scholars, including @cip.uw.edu graduate research assistant and @hcde.uw.edu PhD candidate @zarine.net, say "recent attacks on Wikipedia differ from earlier critiques" of the website, which had focused on Wikipedia's content.
Read more: slate.com/technology/2...
Read more: slate.com/technology/2...
Interested in doing a Ph.D studying online communities, governance, digital open infrastructure, etc.? Several faculty at @communitydata.science are recruiting students for next year! Join our Prospective Student Q&A on September 26: blog.communitydata.science/prospective-...
Prospective PhD Student Q&A – September 26th
Thinking about applying to graduate school? Wonder what it’s like to pursue a PhD or research-based master’s degree? Interested in understanding relationships between technology and society? …
blog.communitydata.science
September 15, 2025 at 9:57 PM
Interested in doing a Ph.D studying online communities, governance, digital open infrastructure, etc.? Several faculty at @communitydata.science are recruiting students for next year! Join our Prospective Student Q&A on September 26: blog.communitydata.science/prospective-...
Reposted by Zarine Kharazian
Nudging very much appeals to people who want a politics without politics.
The damage from the Nudge era is brutal. It made politicians believe that they could secure the political outcomes they wanted w/o having to be political, w/o having to take chances on & make cases for their positions. Add a Clintonesque Third Way hangover & you get a bad, ineffective worldview.
July 15, 2025 at 2:31 AM
Nudging very much appeals to people who want a politics without politics.
moonflower... santana cover 🌸
July 7, 2025 at 3:21 AM
moonflower... santana cover 🌸
Reposted by Zarine Kharazian
Drawing on some of my work from the past year at the Center for an Informed Public, I published a piece in Lawfare with my colleague Stephen Prochaska.
@ashlynba.bsky.social and Stephen Prochaska explore the ways the MAGA movement uses courts and litigation to propel fringe rumors about election fraud into mainstream consciousness. www.lawfaremedia.org/article/how-...
How Strategic Litigation Feeds On and Fuels Political Narrative
Fringe election fraud rumors are becoming legal drama—weaponized lawsuits and policies that present fiction as fact on social media.
www.lawfaremedia.org
July 1, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Drawing on some of my work from the past year at the Center for an Informed Public, I published a piece in Lawfare with my colleague Stephen Prochaska.
a new short research brief with @mako.cc and @aaronshaw.bsky.social synthesizes some of the work I presented at @communitydata.science Science of Community Dialogues back in April! zenodo.org/records/1560...
Online Community Resilience: Governing Public Information Goods Under Attack
Online communities steward a complex set of public information goods. These goods face a range of urgent threats: strategic information pollution and governance capture; legitimacy attacks by external...
zenodo.org
June 5, 2025 at 9:19 PM
a new short research brief with @mako.cc and @aaronshaw.bsky.social synthesizes some of the work I presented at @communitydata.science Science of Community Dialogues back in April! zenodo.org/records/1560...
Reposted by Zarine Kharazian
For the June issue of @thenation.com, I wrote about the Harper’s letter 5 years later, and how under a quarter of its signatories have spoken out about Mahmoud Khalil and other campus activists imprisoned for speech.
They All Signed the “Harper’s” Letter. Where Are They Now?
Many of those who were loudest in denouncing cancel culture then are now curiously silent in the face of Donald Trump’s assaults on free speech.
www.thenation.com
May 16, 2025 at 10:14 PM
For the June issue of @thenation.com, I wrote about the Harper’s letter 5 years later, and how under a quarter of its signatories have spoken out about Mahmoud Khalil and other campus activists imprisoned for speech.
Reposted by Zarine Kharazian
7/ And the study has harmed CMV, an important public sphere for people to engage in debate, learn new things, have their assumptions challenged, and maybe even their minds changed. Are people going to trust that they aren’t engaging with bots? And if they don’t, can the community serve its mission?
April 26, 2025 at 10:02 PM
7/ And the study has harmed CMV, an important public sphere for people to engage in debate, learn new things, have their assumptions challenged, and maybe even their minds changed. Are people going to trust that they aren’t engaging with bots? And if they don’t, can the community serve its mission?
Reposted by Zarine Kharazian
Ed Martin's latest target: Wikipedia.
The interim U.S. attorney and pro-Trump bulldog has sent a letter seeming to threaten the Wikimedia Foundation's tax-exempt status over allegations that it is "spreading propaganda." Our story: www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
The interim U.S. attorney and pro-Trump bulldog has sent a letter seeming to threaten the Wikimedia Foundation's tax-exempt status over allegations that it is "spreading propaganda." Our story: www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Wikipedia’s nonprofit status questioned by D.C. U.S. attorney
Ed Martin sent a letter to the Wikimedia Foundation accusing it of spreading propaganda
www.washingtonpost.com
April 25, 2025 at 11:02 PM
Ed Martin's latest target: Wikipedia.
The interim U.S. attorney and pro-Trump bulldog has sent a letter seeming to threaten the Wikimedia Foundation's tax-exempt status over allegations that it is "spreading propaganda." Our story: www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
The interim U.S. attorney and pro-Trump bulldog has sent a letter seeming to threaten the Wikimedia Foundation's tax-exempt status over allegations that it is "spreading propaganda." Our story: www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2...
Seattle! Playing the NEW Hidden Hall in Fremont this Sunday with my funk/r&b/latin group, Soleado 😌💃
April 25, 2025 at 3:41 AM
Seattle! Playing the NEW Hidden Hall in Fremont this Sunday with my funk/r&b/latin group, Soleado 😌💃
Reposted by Zarine Kharazian
🚨 My first solo-authored piece is out in Electoral Studies! 👽
I examine when and how conspiracy theories become participatory, increasing political mobilization. Using the United States and Turkey as cases of a most-different-systems design, I explore how conspiracy theories drive political action.
I examine when and how conspiracy theories become participatory, increasing political mobilization. Using the United States and Turkey as cases of a most-different-systems design, I explore how conspiracy theories drive political action.
Partisan and non-partisan conspiracy theories’ diverging effects on political participation
What role do conspiracy theories play in mobilizing political action? Both historical and contemporary accounts have written on the role of conspiracy…
www.sciencedirect.com
March 21, 2025 at 12:44 AM
🚨 My first solo-authored piece is out in Electoral Studies! 👽
I examine when and how conspiracy theories become participatory, increasing political mobilization. Using the United States and Turkey as cases of a most-different-systems design, I explore how conspiracy theories drive political action.
I examine when and how conspiracy theories become participatory, increasing political mobilization. Using the United States and Turkey as cases of a most-different-systems design, I explore how conspiracy theories drive political action.
Reposted by Zarine Kharazian
So weird to see colleges promoting their USNWR grad school rankings today like grad students aren’t being disappeared by their government.
April 8, 2025 at 9:54 PM
So weird to see colleges promoting their USNWR grad school rankings today like grad students aren’t being disappeared by their government.
This is tomorrow! Register online here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
April 3, 2025 at 9:08 PM
This is tomorrow! Register online here: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F...
Are you an organizer of an online group/community thinking through governance strategies for resisting online information manipulation? Join
@communitydata.science for our next Community Dialogue!
@communitydata.science for our next Community Dialogue!
We're hosting another Community Dialogue discussing the Role of Community Governance with @zarine.net and @paulgowder.bsky.social on April 4th @ 12pm CT!
You can learn more and register here: blog.communitydata.science/community-di...
You can learn more and register here: blog.communitydata.science/community-di...
Community Dialogue on The Role of Community Governance
Join the Community Data Science Collective (CDSC) for our 11th Science of Community Dialogue! This Community Dialogue will take place on April 4th at 12:00 pm CT. This Dialogue focuses on resisting…
blog.communitydata.science
March 19, 2025 at 9:06 PM
Are you an organizer of an online group/community thinking through governance strategies for resisting online information manipulation? Join
@communitydata.science for our next Community Dialogue!
@communitydata.science for our next Community Dialogue!
Reposted by Zarine Kharazian
DHS just detained a Columbia student who helped lead campus protests—a direct attack on campus activism. This timeline shows why authoritarians fear student protests: they're often the first and most effective catalysts for pro-democracy movements.
March 9, 2025 at 9:05 PM
DHS just detained a Columbia student who helped lead campus protests—a direct attack on campus activism. This timeline shows why authoritarians fear student protests: they're often the first and most effective catalysts for pro-democracy movements.
New paper in International Peacekeeping with Naomi Miyashita, Laura De Backer, and @katestarbird.bsky.social: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
How Strategic Information Operations Affect Peacekeeping: Two Case Studies from the Central African Republic
Strategic information operations – efforts by individuals or groups to shape public opinion using propaganda, rumors and facts – pose significant challenges to peacekeeping missions. These operatio...
www.tandfonline.com
March 6, 2025 at 5:29 PM
New paper in International Peacekeeping with Naomi Miyashita, Laura De Backer, and @katestarbird.bsky.social: www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
Reposted by Zarine Kharazian
The New Yorker says Wikipedia is a beacon of hope, with quotes from me and @mako.cc www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
Elon Musk Also Has a Problem with Wikipedia
Lately, Musk’s beef has merged with a general conviction on the right that the site is biased against conservatives.
www.newyorker.com
March 4, 2025 at 11:35 PM
The New Yorker says Wikipedia is a beacon of hope, with quotes from me and @mako.cc www.newyorker.com/news/the-led...
Reposted by Zarine Kharazian
The lawsuit brought by Rumble and Trump Media against Brazilian Supreme Court Justice de Moraes is *fascinating* in ways that will need a long thread to unpack. 1/
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com
February 19, 2025 at 5:53 PM
The lawsuit brought by Rumble and Trump Media against Brazilian Supreme Court Justice de Moraes is *fascinating* in ways that will need a long thread to unpack. 1/
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...
Reposted by Zarine Kharazian
each one of those university programs that push kids to "be entrepreneurial" and "solve community problems with innovation" is a public policy failure and an abdication of the role of the university in the public sphere.
stop putting me on committees if you dont want me to say this to deans.
stop putting me on committees if you dont want me to say this to deans.
December 13, 2024 at 9:19 PM
each one of those university programs that push kids to "be entrepreneurial" and "solve community problems with innovation" is a public policy failure and an abdication of the role of the university in the public sphere.
stop putting me on committees if you dont want me to say this to deans.
stop putting me on committees if you dont want me to say this to deans.
Reposted by Zarine Kharazian
join us in seattle this september! we're especially interested in thinking about "social model collapse," aka how the introduction of novel technologies like AI tools disrupt core social and technical processes that sustain communities
@s0hw.bsky.social and @kayleachampion.bsky.social are organizing a panel at 4S 2025 and the call for submissions is still open! Check out our blog to learn more: blog.communitydata.science/thinking-abo...
Thinking about AI harms to communities? Submit to our upcoming 4S Panel!
We advocate for consideration of harms to communities (including online communities) as they respond to, are used for, and incorporate generative AI algorithms. One area of risk is one we call R…
blog.communitydata.science
January 23, 2025 at 8:46 PM
join us in seattle this september! we're especially interested in thinking about "social model collapse," aka how the introduction of novel technologies like AI tools disrupt core social and technical processes that sustain communities