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Hannah Alpert-Abrams

@halperta.bsky.social

2.2K followers 1.1K following 940 posts

Here for the humanities. Grant maker, union organizer, former federal worker, digital humanist. Writing about labor, careers, higher education, and technology. Founder @sidracollaborative. east tennessee based | tsalagi and tsoyaha lands halperta.com

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Hannah Alpert-Abrams @halperta.bsky.social · Aug 2

I just posted a free workbook that aims to help university workers better understand when and how to take risks in the fight against fascism in higher ed.

halperta.com/shalperta%20...

Taking Action in Higher Ed

Taking Action for Higher Education is a workbook to assist university workers in assessing personal risk and making decisions about how and when to take action to resist fascism.

halperta.com

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Reposted by Hannah Alpert-Abrams

Sonja Drimmer @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social · 2d

People think the first thing Gutenberg printed was the Bible. This is false. The first things he printed were a political prophecy, propaganda about the Turks’ threat to Christendom, & a popular school text. If you want a parallel to AI, that’s it: making $ from conspiracies, racism, & school slop.

Olivia Guest · Ολίβια Γκεστ @olivia.science · 3d

really nice piece on this btw from @sonjadrimmer.bsky.social sonjadrimmer.com/blog-1/2025/...

"The Printing Press Democratized Knowledge": When Slogans Masquerade as History — Sonja Drimmer

The phrase is said so frequently it seems, like the mechanism it celebrates, to mechanically replicate itself.  It's become a favorite catchphrase among tech boosters of any sort (see my post on...

sonjadrimmer.com

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Hannah Alpert-Abrams @halperta.bsky.social · 3d

That was a tie!!!??? You have always been a fashion icon.

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Reposted by Hannah Alpert-Abrams

Erica 👻 🌲 📕 @rickirobin.bsky.social · 3d

In response to that skeet asking if anything amazing has ever happened to you bc of social media: my friendship w @halperta.bsky.social is rooted irl, & has crossed continents & platforms w long gaps & reunions, exchanges of art & ideas. My answer is yes (&)

I love seeing this book in the world!

Hannah Alpert-Abrams @halperta.bsky.social · 3d

Looking to read immersive, deeply considered essays about land, labor, and the subtle politics of inhabitation in rural Alaska?

I am so excited to have received Ghosts of Distant Trees by my incredibly talented friend @rickirobin.bsky.social

Photo of the cover of Ghosts of Distant Trees by Erica Watson, depicting pine trees in a circle of red and gold.

The back cover of Ghosts of Distant Trees with a blurb and description of the book. “In Ghosts of Distant Trees, Watson traces the layered ecologies of Denali National Park, Alaska - its vast, shifting landscape, seasonal labor rhythms, and the subtle politics of inhabitation.”

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Hannah Alpert-Abrams @halperta.bsky.social · 3d

YES it's such a beautiful book 🗻

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Hannah Alpert-Abrams @halperta.bsky.social · 3d

@rickirobin.bsky.social has always been a brilliant writer and I cannot wait to see what she has written in her new book.

porphyry.press/ghosts-of-di...

Ghosts of Distant Trees by Erica Watson — Porphyry Press

porphyry.press

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Hannah Alpert-Abrams @halperta.bsky.social · 3d

Erica and I met in Buenos Aires in 2006 (shown here with our friend Leopoldo) and reconnected just this spring in Flagstaff, AZ (shown here eating burritos). In the meantime we stayed in touch through long emails, livejournal posts, and substacks.

Three very young people (early 20s) smile at the camera while huddled under a tent. Erica has bangs, glasses, and dangly earrings. I have short curly hair and no grays. Leopoldo has a little mustache and a red shirt.

Erica and I take a selfie in a Mexican Restaurant in 2025. Erica still has bangs, transparent glasses, dangly earrings, and a Denali Forever pin. I have shorter hair, a lot more gray, and a Tennessee State Parks hoodie. We are both slightly sunburned. Behind us is an eerie painting of two blond girls with piercing blue eyes.

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Hannah Alpert-Abrams @halperta.bsky.social · 3d

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Hannah Alpert-Abrams @halperta.bsky.social · 4d

Absolutely unhinged fantasies about what learning in the age of AI means on my timeline today.

The most important thing they reveal is that many educators never took learning seriously.

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Reposted by Hannah Alpert-Abrams

Henny Gesserit @nmjmredux.blacksky.app · 5d

This is only 12 miles from where my family lives. When you use AI in any form, people are affected directly

Rob Milton @therobmilton.com · 6d

- put down the damn AI.

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Reposted by Hannah Alpert-Abrams

Sidra Collaborative @sidracollaborative.bsky.social · 6d

Introducing Sidra Collaborative co-founder Hadassah St. Hubert! Hadassah is dedicated to helping cultural heritage funders and workers scope ideas and programs, while identifying resources to support thriving creatives. She can help build emergency response funding programs.

sidracollaborative.com

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Reposted by Hannah Alpert-Abrams

American Council of Learned Societies @acls1919.bsky.social · 6d

ACLS has released a statement regarding the White House “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”: bit.ly/3IviMig

We call for the immediate rejection of the “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”...No institution that is committed to the free pursuit of knowledge should submit to the degradation of autonomy and academic freedom contained in it. -ACLS Statement Regarding White House “Compact for Academic Excellence in Higher Education”

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Hannah Alpert-Abrams @halperta.bsky.social · 6d

Thank you so much @jennortegren.bsky.social @jammaj.bsky.social

Hannah Alpert-Abrams @halperta.bsky.social · 6d

Make maintaining your friendships a daily practice, and treat it as seriously as other people treat romance or careers.

Reposted by Hannah Alpert-Abrams

Nicole Chung @nicolechung.bsky.social · 7d

okay, that’s enough. let’s take the rest of the week off.

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Hannah Alpert-Abrams @halperta.bsky.social · 7d

Amazing resources, thank you so much!!

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Hannah Alpert-Abrams @halperta.bsky.social · 7d

Thank you!!

Reposted by Hannah Alpert-Abrams

Erin Grievances @erinbartram.bsky.social · 7d

If you are a supporter and reader of @contingent-mag.bsky.social one of the biggest things you can do to help us at the moment is get this CFP to the NTT folks in your life. The fracturing of social media has made it very difficult to get the word out esp. to adjuncts and VAPs.

CFP: A Time of Monsters

The monster has been here all along. It is a historical constant that manifests in wildly different ways across time, place, and culture. Whatever form it takes, the monster claws at categories; it un...

contingentmagazine.org

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Hannah Alpert-Abrams @halperta.bsky.social · 7d

What's your favorite resource for understanding how to define and recognize propaganda?

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Reposted by Hannah Alpert-Abrams

Prisonculture @prisonculture.bsky.social · 7d

Wishing everyone a good week ahead. Take care of yourselves and don't give in to the fascists.

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Hannah Alpert-Abrams @halperta.bsky.social · 7d

I like to tell this story because it's good to be reminded that it is not random that our voice-activated services were built to sound like women and be treated like slaves.

It was done on purpose, by people who knew better.

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Hannah Alpert-Abrams @halperta.bsky.social · 7d

In the late 2010s, I was friendly with some people who were in the room during the meetings where Apple decided what its Siri should look and sound like.

They argued that voice-activated tools should not be built to sound like women because it would propagate misogyny. They were overruled.

Hypervisible @hypervisible.blacksky.app · 7d

Granted I am in no way the audience for this, but finding it hard to believe that part of the next wave is machines that speak unprompted.

One issue is ensuring the device only chimes in when useful, preventing it from talking too much or not knowing when to finish the conversation — an ongoing issue with ChatGPT.

“The concept is that you should have a friend who’s a computer who isn’t your weird AI girlfriend . . . like [Apple’s digital voice assistant] Siri but better,” said one person who was briefed on the plans. OpenAI was looking for “ways for it to be accessible but not intrusive”.
“Model personality is a hard thing to balance,” said another person close to the project. “It can’t be too sycophantic, not too direct, helpful, but doesn’t keep talking in a feedback loop.”

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Hannah Alpert-Abrams @halperta.bsky.social · 7d

Nooo didn't mean to delete that post

Hannah Alpert-Abrams @halperta.bsky.social · 7d

I like to bring this up because it is good to remember that it is not random that these tools were designed to seem like women and be treated like slaves.

Reposted by Hannah Alpert-Abrams

kay slater @kslater.bsky.social · Aug 27

In “Against AI: Critical Refusal in the Library,” I examine LIS as in need of a values-realignment, asking readers to refuse the technosolutionism we are so often offered in place of human-centered possibilities, like taking racism, climate change, and labor rights seriously

doi.org/10.1353/lib....

Project MUSE - Against AI: Critical Refusal in the Library

doi.org

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Hannah Alpert-Abrams @halperta.bsky.social · 8d

I feel like every AI news story is "we used AI to try to solve the wrong problem and on reflection it didn't work"