Emma Spiro
@emmaspiro.bsky.social
Associate Professor at the UW iSchool, Co-Founder UW Center for an Informed Public | PhD in Sociology from UC Irvine | Research: social networks, sociology, information integrity & computational social science.
Reposted by Emma Spiro
Data the public relies on is vanishing. In a new article, ISR researchers @maggielevenstein.bsky.social and @johnkubale.bsky.social explain what’s happening, how it affects public trust, and what can be done to preserve critical data.
Read more: myumi.ch/D8XdE
#DataPreservation #ProtectScience
Read more: myumi.ch/D8XdE
#DataPreservation #ProtectScience
August 18, 2025 at 4:08 PM
Data the public relies on is vanishing. In a new article, ISR researchers @maggielevenstein.bsky.social and @johnkubale.bsky.social explain what’s happening, how it affects public trust, and what can be done to preserve critical data.
Read more: myumi.ch/D8XdE
#DataPreservation #ProtectScience
Read more: myumi.ch/D8XdE
#DataPreservation #ProtectScience
Reposted by Emma Spiro
Are you a researcher (from HCI, communication, or information science) studying online misinformaiton, disinfromation, hate speech, polarization, or related information toxicity? Apply to attend our CSCW workshop (with both remote and in-person options).
Does your work explore mis/disinformation, scams, hate speech, or other forms of harmful information online?
We are convening a CSCW workshop to bring together a global community focused on information disorder. We welcome short submissions, due August 8th.
cscw2025infodisorder.netlify.app
We are convening a CSCW workshop to bring together a global community focused on information disorder. We welcome short submissions, due August 8th.
cscw2025infodisorder.netlify.app
August 4, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Are you a researcher (from HCI, communication, or information science) studying online misinformaiton, disinfromation, hate speech, polarization, or related information toxicity? Apply to attend our CSCW workshop (with both remote and in-person options).
Reposted by Emma Spiro
Excited to announce that my paper "The persuasive potential of AI-paraphrased information at scale" with my wonderful collaborators @yiweixu.bsky.social, @maddyjalbert.bsky.social, and @emmaspiro.bsky.social has been published at PNAS Nexus!
Link: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Link: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
The persuasive potential of AI-paraphrased information at scale
Abstract. In this article, we study how AI-paraphrased messages have the potential to amplify the persuasive impact and scale of information campaigns. Bui
academic.oup.com
July 24, 2025 at 6:24 PM
Excited to announce that my paper "The persuasive potential of AI-paraphrased information at scale" with my wonderful collaborators @yiweixu.bsky.social, @maddyjalbert.bsky.social, and @emmaspiro.bsky.social has been published at PNAS Nexus!
Link: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Link: academic.oup.com/pnasnexus/ar...
Reposted by Emma Spiro
NEW: The Trump administration cut research funding that sought cures for future pandemics, examined the causes of dementia and tried to prevent HIV transmission.
ProPublica heard from more than 150 researchers to understand the work that’s been lost.
ProPublica heard from more than 150 researchers to understand the work that’s been lost.
Shattered Science: The Research Lost as Trump Targets NIH Funding
The Trump administration cut research funding that sought cures for future pandemics, examined the causes of dementia and tried to prevent HIV transmission. More than 150 researchers shared with…
projects.propublica.org
June 12, 2025 at 12:00 PM
NEW: The Trump administration cut research funding that sought cures for future pandemics, examined the causes of dementia and tried to prevent HIV transmission.
ProPublica heard from more than 150 researchers to understand the work that’s been lost.
ProPublica heard from more than 150 researchers to understand the work that’s been lost.
Reposted by Emma Spiro
I urge everyone to read Unbreaking’s new page on everything the govt is doing to destroy & diminish medical research funding.
It’s the best thing I’ve read on this topic: @lizneeley.bsky.social & co have such done an incredible job.
unbreaking.org/issues/medic...
It’s the best thing I’ve read on this topic: @lizneeley.bsky.social & co have such done an incredible job.
unbreaking.org/issues/medic...
Medical Research Funding — Unbreaking
How the administration is breaking the government, and what that means for all of us.
unbreaking.org
May 30, 2025 at 9:38 PM
I urge everyone to read Unbreaking’s new page on everything the govt is doing to destroy & diminish medical research funding.
It’s the best thing I’ve read on this topic: @lizneeley.bsky.social & co have such done an incredible job.
unbreaking.org/issues/medic...
It’s the best thing I’ve read on this topic: @lizneeley.bsky.social & co have such done an incredible job.
unbreaking.org/issues/medic...
Reposted by Emma Spiro
Reposted by Emma Spiro
Sociologists—learn skills for expanding the reach of your research. The deadline for the ASA Policy Outreach Program Fellowship is just 2 weeks away, on May 29. Must have PhD in sociology & 3+ years of experience. https://bit.ly/ASAPOP
May 14, 2025 at 8:22 PM
Sociologists—learn skills for expanding the reach of your research. The deadline for the ASA Policy Outreach Program Fellowship is just 2 weeks away, on May 29. Must have PhD in sociology & 3+ years of experience. https://bit.ly/ASAPOP
Reposted by Emma Spiro
I spoke with Science about scholars—myself included—self-censoring.
In my case, my team and I feared losing our NSF funding for Expert Voices Together (expertvoicestogether.org), a program, ironically, built to support researchers and journalists under attack.
www.science.org/content/arti...
In my case, my team and I feared losing our NSF funding for Expert Voices Together (expertvoicestogether.org), a program, ironically, built to support researchers and journalists under attack.
www.science.org/content/arti...
Trump’s ‘fear factor’: Scientists go silent as funding cuts escalate
Many worry about retribution. But for others, speaking out is worth the risk
www.science.org
May 13, 2025 at 1:56 PM
I spoke with Science about scholars—myself included—self-censoring.
In my case, my team and I feared losing our NSF funding for Expert Voices Together (expertvoicestogether.org), a program, ironically, built to support researchers and journalists under attack.
www.science.org/content/arti...
In my case, my team and I feared losing our NSF funding for Expert Voices Together (expertvoicestogether.org), a program, ironically, built to support researchers and journalists under attack.
www.science.org/content/arti...
Reposted by Emma Spiro
We are delighted to share the publication of Risky Research: An AoIR Guide to Researcher Protection and Safety, the culmination of over two years of collaborative effort by the AoIR Risky Research Working Group.
aoir.org/riskyresearc...
aoir.org/riskyresearc...
May 2, 2025 at 2:26 AM
We are delighted to share the publication of Risky Research: An AoIR Guide to Researcher Protection and Safety, the culmination of over two years of collaborative effort by the AoIR Risky Research Working Group.
aoir.org/riskyresearc...
aoir.org/riskyresearc...
Reposted by Emma Spiro
Fantastic, helpful, hopeful content to share from "Why Social Science" www.whysocialscience.com thanks to @cossa.bsky.social @popassocamerica.bsky.social @popresearchctrs.bsky.social
Why Social Science?
www.whysocialscience.com
May 1, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Fantastic, helpful, hopeful content to share from "Why Social Science" www.whysocialscience.com thanks to @cossa.bsky.social @popassocamerica.bsky.social @popresearchctrs.bsky.social
Reposted by Emma Spiro
Applications are open for the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science SICSS 2025 at UCLA! Apply by May 2!
Free, 2-wk institute in comp social science for grad students, postdocs & early-career faculty.
sicss.io/2025/ucla/
@ianlundberg.bsky.social @jenniebrand.bsky.social
Free, 2-wk institute in comp social science for grad students, postdocs & early-career faculty.
sicss.io/2025/ucla/
@ianlundberg.bsky.social @jenniebrand.bsky.social
April 25, 2025 at 9:33 PM
Applications are open for the Summer Institute in Computational Social Science SICSS 2025 at UCLA! Apply by May 2!
Free, 2-wk institute in comp social science for grad students, postdocs & early-career faculty.
sicss.io/2025/ucla/
@ianlundberg.bsky.social @jenniebrand.bsky.social
Free, 2-wk institute in comp social science for grad students, postdocs & early-career faculty.
sicss.io/2025/ucla/
@ianlundberg.bsky.social @jenniebrand.bsky.social
Reposted by Emma Spiro
🏛️ Funding #EquityInitiatives = funding academic careers
New #Socius study by Drs. Gates, @lauraknelson.bsky.social, Grudt & @kzippel.bsky.social finds #NSF #ADVANCE awards help faculty doing #OrganizationalChange work maintain—or boost—#ResearchProductivity.
Read: doi.org/10.1177/2378...
New #Socius study by Drs. Gates, @lauraknelson.bsky.social, Grudt & @kzippel.bsky.social finds #NSF #ADVANCE awards help faculty doing #OrganizationalChange work maintain—or boost—#ResearchProductivity.
Read: doi.org/10.1177/2378...
April 23, 2025 at 3:54 PM
🏛️ Funding #EquityInitiatives = funding academic careers
New #Socius study by Drs. Gates, @lauraknelson.bsky.social, Grudt & @kzippel.bsky.social finds #NSF #ADVANCE awards help faculty doing #OrganizationalChange work maintain—or boost—#ResearchProductivity.
Read: doi.org/10.1177/2378...
New #Socius study by Drs. Gates, @lauraknelson.bsky.social, Grudt & @kzippel.bsky.social finds #NSF #ADVANCE awards help faculty doing #OrganizationalChange work maintain—or boost—#ResearchProductivity.
Read: doi.org/10.1177/2378...
Reposted by Emma Spiro
🚨 NEW: Crowdsourced database of #NSF grant terminations. 🚨
We've been able to collect info on >110 cancelled grants that were cancelled on Friday. Thanks to all the researchers who reported over the holiday weekend. 🧪 airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...
We've been able to collect info on >110 cancelled grants that were cancelled on Friday. Thanks to all the researchers who reported over the holiday weekend. 🧪 airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...
Airtable | Everyone's app platform
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airtable.com
April 21, 2025 at 7:57 PM
🚨 NEW: Crowdsourced database of #NSF grant terminations. 🚨
We've been able to collect info on >110 cancelled grants that were cancelled on Friday. Thanks to all the researchers who reported over the holiday weekend. 🧪 airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...
We've been able to collect info on >110 cancelled grants that were cancelled on Friday. Thanks to all the researchers who reported over the holiday weekend. 🧪 airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...
Reposted by Emma Spiro
🚨Report your NSF grant terminations! 🚨
We are starting to collect information on NSF grant terminations to create a shared resource as we have for NIH. The more information we collect, the more we can organize, advocate, and fight back! Please share widely!
airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...
We are starting to collect information on NSF grant terminations to create a shared resource as we have for NIH. The more information we collect, the more we can organize, advocate, and fight back! Please share widely!
airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...
April 19, 2025 at 12:11 AM
🚨Report your NSF grant terminations! 🚨
We are starting to collect information on NSF grant terminations to create a shared resource as we have for NIH. The more information we collect, the more we can organize, advocate, and fight back! Please share widely!
airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...
We are starting to collect information on NSF grant terminations to create a shared resource as we have for NIH. The more information we collect, the more we can organize, advocate, and fight back! Please share widely!
airtable.com/appGKlSVeXni...
Reposted by Emma Spiro
NEW: Entire scientific fields have been wiped out by the nearly 800 grants cancelled at NIH, finds a @nature.com analysis of the unprecedented cuts.
About half of all 2024 NIH projects related to LGBT+ health or vaccine hesitancy — gone.
See the other topics and US states hardest hit here:
About half of all 2024 NIH projects related to LGBT+ health or vaccine hesitancy — gone.
See the other topics and US states hardest hit here:
How Trump 2.0 is slashing NIH-backed research — in charts
Nature analyses which fields of science and US states are being hit hardest by grant terminations.
www.nature.com
April 10, 2025 at 8:36 PM
NEW: Entire scientific fields have been wiped out by the nearly 800 grants cancelled at NIH, finds a @nature.com analysis of the unprecedented cuts.
About half of all 2024 NIH projects related to LGBT+ health or vaccine hesitancy — gone.
See the other topics and US states hardest hit here:
About half of all 2024 NIH projects related to LGBT+ health or vaccine hesitancy — gone.
See the other topics and US states hardest hit here:
Reposted by Emma Spiro
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/s...
Kind of speechless. Thank you to @katrinamillerphd.bsky.social for coving our movement so well. @standupforscience.bsky.social @jpflores.bsky.social @samschuelstein.bsky.social @leslie-bern.bsky.social @emmalovesscience.bsky.social
Kind of speechless. Thank you to @katrinamillerphd.bsky.social for coving our movement so well. @standupforscience.bsky.social @jpflores.bsky.social @samschuelstein.bsky.social @leslie-bern.bsky.social @emmalovesscience.bsky.social
Hit by ‘Gut Punches,’ Scientists Band Together to Protest Trump
Stand Up for Science aims to revive a movement that started in 2017, but with an all-new team and a more focused vision.
www.nytimes.com
March 6, 2025 at 4:04 PM
www.nytimes.com/2025/03/06/s...
Kind of speechless. Thank you to @katrinamillerphd.bsky.social for coving our movement so well. @standupforscience.bsky.social @jpflores.bsky.social @samschuelstein.bsky.social @leslie-bern.bsky.social @emmalovesscience.bsky.social
Kind of speechless. Thank you to @katrinamillerphd.bsky.social for coving our movement so well. @standupforscience.bsky.social @jpflores.bsky.social @samschuelstein.bsky.social @leslie-bern.bsky.social @emmalovesscience.bsky.social
Reposted by Emma Spiro
Join us for the 2025 Political Networks & Computational Social Science Conference (sites.google.com/view/confpol...), Aug 11-14 at Harvard & Northeastern, with Duncan Watts delivering the keynote. Workshops: Aug 11-12; panels: Aug 13-14. Submit by March 28:
forms.gle
March 4, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Join us for the 2025 Political Networks & Computational Social Science Conference (sites.google.com/view/confpol...), Aug 11-14 at Harvard & Northeastern, with Duncan Watts delivering the keynote. Workshops: Aug 11-12; panels: Aug 13-14. Submit by March 28:
Reposted by Emma Spiro
📢In our latest Editorial, we reflect on what science tells us about the importance of diversity. www.nature.com/articles/s43...
Based on the science, diversity matters - Nature Computational Science
We reflect on what science tells us about the importance of diversity.
www.nature.com
February 19, 2025 at 2:31 PM
📢In our latest Editorial, we reflect on what science tells us about the importance of diversity. www.nature.com/articles/s43...
Reposted by Emma Spiro
Here’s a strategy: 1) establish the frames, what problems will these changes cause, how will they impact communities; 2) inspire people to use those frames to tell their own stories of their families or communities are impacted; 3) amplify those stories.
Scientists and journalists need to figure out right quick how to explain to the average person how a massive change in research indirects will impact the medical care they and their children get (eg at the local children’s hospital), the education their children will get, the price of tuition, etc.
February 8, 2025 at 3:09 AM
Here’s a strategy: 1) establish the frames, what problems will these changes cause, how will they impact communities; 2) inspire people to use those frames to tell their own stories of their families or communities are impacted; 3) amplify those stories.
Reposted by Emma Spiro
Excellent 🧵 on this evening's NIH announcement of a dramatic reduction in indirect rates for research institutions, which amounts to a generational restructuring of the US research and development ecosystem. These cuts are effective immediately, not just for new grants but for existing ones.
6. The policy does not just affect funding going forward. All existing NIH grants will have their indirect rates cut to 15% as of today, the date of issuance.
For a large university, this creates a sudden and catastrophic shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars against already budgeted funds.
For a large university, this creates a sudden and catastrophic shortfall of hundreds of millions of dollars against already budgeted funds.
February 8, 2025 at 12:44 AM
Excellent 🧵 on this evening's NIH announcement of a dramatic reduction in indirect rates for research institutions, which amounts to a generational restructuring of the US research and development ecosystem. These cuts are effective immediately, not just for new grants but for existing ones.
Reposted by Emma Spiro
It’s as broad and devastating as the early reports implied. (Thank you to @marisakabas.bsky.social for the early original reporting, which @washingtonpost.com acknowledges here.)
wapo.st/4gfgcHQ
wapo.st/4gfgcHQ
White House pauses all federal grants, sparking confusion
The Trump administration has put a hold on all federal financial grants and loans, affecting tens of billions of dollars in payments.
wapo.st
January 28, 2025 at 3:09 AM
It’s as broad and devastating as the early reports implied. (Thank you to @marisakabas.bsky.social for the early original reporting, which @washingtonpost.com acknowledges here.)
wapo.st/4gfgcHQ
wapo.st/4gfgcHQ
Reposted by Emma Spiro
Please repost! We’re trying hard to sort out rumors from truth + would like to hear from anyone affected by the new federal orders + NIH pause. Patients, scientists, health equity researchers: please contact us below. We won’t share anything without your permission. www.statnews.com/2025/01/25/t...
Are you affected by the Trump administration’s pause on health communications, science meetings, and reviews?
Have you been affected by the Trump administration’s pause on communications, science meetings, and reviews? @statnews would like to hear from you.
www.statnews.com
January 26, 2025 at 5:02 PM
Please repost! We’re trying hard to sort out rumors from truth + would like to hear from anyone affected by the new federal orders + NIH pause. Patients, scientists, health equity researchers: please contact us below. We won’t share anything without your permission. www.statnews.com/2025/01/25/t...
Reposted by Emma Spiro
New summer institute for up-and-coming scholars across disciplines whose work investigates or intersects with disinformation: disinfoinstitute.org
The first iteration will be this June in San Diego. Applications are due January 31.
The first iteration will be this June in San Diego. Applications are due January 31.
Disinformation Summer Institute (DSI) - Disinformation Summer Institute
Disinformation Disinformation is false or misleading information created and spread to advance policy, political, economic or ideological goals. It is sometimes used by industries, governments, and ot...
disinfoinstitute.org
January 13, 2025 at 8:43 PM
New summer institute for up-and-coming scholars across disciplines whose work investigates or intersects with disinformation: disinfoinstitute.org
The first iteration will be this June in San Diego. Applications are due January 31.
The first iteration will be this June in San Diego. Applications are due January 31.