kai milanovich
@kialectics.bsky.social
philosophy & social work grad student @ uw seattle | they/them 🏳️⚧️ | feminist epistemology, applied ethics and philosophy of (social) science | program design and community education manager @ trans-wa
phil.washington.edu/people/kai-milanovich
phil.washington.edu/people/kai-milanovich
Pinned
kai milanovich
@kialectics.bsky.social
· Nov 25
Intro for new followers:
I am a grad student working in philosophy (PhD) and social work (MSW). Here is a brief view of how I have been working at the intersection of these fields:
I am a grad student working in philosophy (PhD) and social work (MSW). Here is a brief view of how I have been working at the intersection of these fields:
also: i was, on the basis of this paper, awarded the Nancy Hartsock Endowed Graduate Student Award, which recognizes creative achievements of an emerging scholar doing work in feminist theory.
New paper up from Kai Milanovich - 'Distinguishing Situated Knowledge and Standpoint Theory: Defending the Achievement Thesis'
Distinguishing Situated Knowledge and Standpoint Theory: Defending the Achievement Thesis | Hypatia | Cambridge Core
Distinguishing Situated Knowledge and Standpoint Theory: Defending the Achievement Thesis
www.cambridge.org
July 3, 2025 at 6:45 PM
also: i was, on the basis of this paper, awarded the Nancy Hartsock Endowed Graduate Student Award, which recognizes creative achievements of an emerging scholar doing work in feminist theory.
hey, look! my first paper was published in Hypatia
New paper up from Kai Milanovich - 'Distinguishing Situated Knowledge and Standpoint Theory: Defending the Achievement Thesis'
Distinguishing Situated Knowledge and Standpoint Theory: Defending the Achievement Thesis | Hypatia | Cambridge Core
Distinguishing Situated Knowledge and Standpoint Theory: Defending the Achievement Thesis
www.cambridge.org
July 3, 2025 at 6:33 PM
hey, look! my first paper was published in Hypatia
Reposted by kai milanovich
hi everybody! if you're an academic philosopher and would prefer your colleagues didn't produce propaganda which furthers the trump administration's attempt to eradicate transgender people from public life, consider reading/signing this open letter about it!
dearprofessorbyrne.wordpress.com
dearprofessorbyrne.wordpress.com
Dear Professor Byrne
dearprofessorbyrne.wordpress.com
June 29, 2025 at 1:01 AM
hi everybody! if you're an academic philosopher and would prefer your colleagues didn't produce propaganda which furthers the trump administration's attempt to eradicate transgender people from public life, consider reading/signing this open letter about it!
dearprofessorbyrne.wordpress.com
dearprofessorbyrne.wordpress.com
Reposted by kai milanovich
The revolution is full of 60-year-old women who love their trans kids.
June 14, 2025 at 8:04 PM
The revolution is full of 60-year-old women who love their trans kids.
Reposted by kai milanovich
1/5 I am pleased to announce a new paper, based on a talk I gave last year at the annual meeting of the Human Biology Association. This link is open 4 a free read for a while but eventually it will get pay-walled because I can't afford open access. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Rethinking Gender/Sex Identity
Until quite recently, investigations of gender/sex development operated from a baseline assumption that gender/sex is dichotomous or binary. Most such studies constructed gender/sex outside of or adj....
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
April 27, 2025 at 7:21 PM
1/5 I am pleased to announce a new paper, based on a talk I gave last year at the annual meeting of the Human Biology Association. This link is open 4 a free read for a while but eventually it will get pay-walled because I can't afford open access. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1...
Reposted by kai milanovich
Reposted by kai milanovich
The next administrator who sends me a “be patient—this is business as usual” email gets this piece in reply. Worth a read.
Having watched with growing alarm the developments of the last 24 and 36 hours in Washington, I thought I’d take a stab at how the US media would cover this story if it was happening in a foreign country. Here’s that story that should be written this weekend: www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/musk-s-jun...
Musk's Junta Establishes Him as Head of Government
Imagining how we'd cover overseas what's happening to the U.S. right now
www.doomsdayscenario.co
February 1, 2025 at 6:21 PM
The next administrator who sends me a “be patient—this is business as usual” email gets this piece in reply. Worth a read.
Reposted by kai milanovich
I was walking down Canal Street and bought this. It’s crazy how quickly they can get merch made these days.
January 17, 2025 at 12:35 PM
I was walking down Canal Street and bought this. It’s crazy how quickly they can get merch made these days.
fortunately this year's #SSWR25 is taking place just a few miles from home. looking forward to meeting the wonderful social work researchers :)
January 16, 2025 at 9:30 PM
fortunately this year's #SSWR25 is taking place just a few miles from home. looking forward to meeting the wonderful social work researchers :)
i think i stumbled upon a fake (or AI generated?) book that uses the name of a Yale historian.
December 30, 2024 at 8:12 AM
i think i stumbled upon a fake (or AI generated?) book that uses the name of a Yale historian.
what Brett means is that there are no good philosophers. it’s just the contemporary form of Plato’s no knowledge argument
December 20, 2024 at 9:13 PM
what Brett means is that there are no good philosophers. it’s just the contemporary form of Plato’s no knowledge argument
Alison has written such a diverse body of work and i have found it all insightful! her work on standpoint theory got me interested in the project i’m working on in my phd, and she is also fostering my appreciation of phil sci. i’m so glad she’s getting more recognition!
Warm congratulations to Alison Wylie and good pick, Rotterdam! I learned of Alison’s work in the early 2000s when what she did, philosophy of archaeology plus feminist theory, seemed totally out of the norm in our discipline. But she did what she believed in and now it’s (almost) mainstream. Bravo!
Alison Wylie awarded honorary doctorate by Erasmus University Rotterdam
Philosopher of science Alison Wylie was awarded an honorary doctorate for her contributions to the philosophy of science during the 111th Dies Natalis on Nov. 8
www.eur.nl
December 20, 2024 at 7:39 PM
Alison has written such a diverse body of work and i have found it all insightful! her work on standpoint theory got me interested in the project i’m working on in my phd, and she is also fostering my appreciation of phil sci. i’m so glad she’s getting more recognition!
when i did DSP work in Kansas City the pay was abysmal. i cannot imagine that personal budget in NYC
Our new study in Disability and Health Journal shows that Direct Support Professionals have very high rates of food and housing insecurity. Their pay is effectively set by Medicaid reimbursement rates, implying that gov'ts have institutionalized economic insecurity among DSPs and their households.
December 19, 2024 at 9:29 PM
when i did DSP work in Kansas City the pay was abysmal. i cannot imagine that personal budget in NYC
kinda wild, as a grad student in philosophy, to just keep learning about more of the disciplines closet skeletons
Completely agree with @helendecruz.net. We're all of us replaceable. She's responding to McGinn's blog bemoaning being cancelled. Even if we weren't all replaceable I'd still think he was. (He also fails to acknowledge the hand he played in his own downfall.)
helendecruz.substack.com/p/against-tw...
helendecruz.substack.com/p/against-tw...
Against two-tier philosophy
I have been meaning to write something about my health.
helendecruz.substack.com
December 18, 2024 at 7:25 AM
kinda wild, as a grad student in philosophy, to just keep learning about more of the disciplines closet skeletons
Reposted by kai milanovich
Sex! Based! Rights! Aren't! A! Thing!
- sincerely, a human rights expert
- sincerely, a human rights expert
December 17, 2024 at 2:09 PM
Sex! Based! Rights! Aren't! A! Thing!
- sincerely, a human rights expert
- sincerely, a human rights expert
minimalist hell
(listening exclusively to 'variations on a theme' while grading student papers all on the same prompts)
(listening exclusively to 'variations on a theme' while grading student papers all on the same prompts)
December 17, 2024 at 2:23 AM
minimalist hell
(listening exclusively to 'variations on a theme' while grading student papers all on the same prompts)
(listening exclusively to 'variations on a theme' while grading student papers all on the same prompts)
Reposted by kai milanovich
I know the school officials here failed miserably, but I also want to note just how unprepared schools are for this. Realistically, the legal landscape here is not clear cut, and enforcement (at all levels) is abysmal. We're failing young victims in all sorts of ways.
“In November, students walked out to protest what they viewed as the school’s failure to investigate the scope and scale of the AI-generated media.”
Several parents are suing the school, “alleging that it failed to act when it was required to and that it failed to adequately protect its students.”
Several parents are suing the school, “alleging that it failed to act when it was required to and that it failed to adequately protect its students.”
Almost Half The Girls At This School Were Targets Of AI Porn. Their Ex-Classmates Have Now Been Indicted.
The accused are alleged to have created 347 images and videos of 60 female victims, 48 of whom were previously their classmates at a small school in Pennslyvania.
www.forbes.com
December 12, 2024 at 1:40 AM
I know the school officials here failed miserably, but I also want to note just how unprepared schools are for this. Realistically, the legal landscape here is not clear cut, and enforcement (at all levels) is abysmal. We're failing young victims in all sorts of ways.
Reposted by kai milanovich
All of these “gender tests” are state-sanctioned sexual assault.
It is so inherently violating to have your body sized up so that someone can determine whether to violate your rights.
It is so inherently violating to have your body sized up so that someone can determine whether to violate your rights.
Trans women in Florida prisons now have to get breast exams to figure out whether their breasts are big enough that prison officials think they should get to keep their bras.
Wild reporting from @journo-beth.bsky.social : www.themarshallproject.org/2024/12/10/n...
Wild reporting from @journo-beth.bsky.social : www.themarshallproject.org/2024/12/10/n...
December 10, 2024 at 4:56 PM
All of these “gender tests” are state-sanctioned sexual assault.
It is so inherently violating to have your body sized up so that someone can determine whether to violate your rights.
It is so inherently violating to have your body sized up so that someone can determine whether to violate your rights.
me being tucked into my dogmatic slumber
Giving all my epistemic buddies an epistemic kiss on the forehead and tucking them all into epistemic bed epistemically
December 10, 2024 at 7:52 PM
me being tucked into my dogmatic slumber
Reposted by kai milanovich
I just published this paper that argues that, in the US, criminal law cannot carry feminist messages. This is a reason against using criminal law responses to combat gender-based violence. Please check it out!
philpapers.org/rec/WIRMMH
philpapers.org/rec/WIRMMH
Amelia M. Wirts, Mixed Messages: How Criminal Law Fails to Express Feminist Values - PhilPapers
Criminal law practices in the US, including policing and incarceration, have drawn heavy criticism for their disproportionate impact on black people, particularly black men. At the same time, some fem...
philpapers.org
December 5, 2024 at 8:35 PM
I just published this paper that argues that, in the US, criminal law cannot carry feminist messages. This is a reason against using criminal law responses to combat gender-based violence. Please check it out!
philpapers.org/rec/WIRMMH
philpapers.org/rec/WIRMMH
yeah but like. that's just subjective man
A good rule of thumb is that when philosophers refer to something as objective it is something fake that doesn't exist, when they refer to something as subjective it is something we definitely know exists, and that they always mean it to be worse and more problematic to appeal to the latter.
December 6, 2024 at 4:57 PM
yeah but like. that's just subjective man
Reposted by kai milanovich
Embarrassing! Just found someone appealing to an inductive argument as if it shows anything. Do they even teach Hume in schools nowadays!? Wtf is going on in chemistry grad school.
December 6, 2024 at 9:07 AM
Embarrassing! Just found someone appealing to an inductive argument as if it shows anything. Do they even teach Hume in schools nowadays!? Wtf is going on in chemistry grad school.
Reposted by kai milanovich
love a good distinction
December 5, 2024 at 4:42 PM
love a good distinction
“A cisgender boy who wants testosterone to kick off the development of male sex characteristics can still get it. A transgender boy who wants testosterone for the exact same reason cannot.”
The Supreme Court appears set to Dobbs-ify the law of sex equality, gutting a half-century of equal protection principles and replacing them highly selective “neutrality” toward discrimination.
With @dahlialithwick.bsky.social: slate.com/news-and-pol...
With @dahlialithwick.bsky.social: slate.com/news-and-pol...
Brett Kavanaugh Is Using the Logic of Dobbs to Pursue a Dangerous New Agenda
Skrmetti involves bans on gender-affirming care for trans children.
slate.com
December 5, 2024 at 1:58 AM
“A cisgender boy who wants testosterone to kick off the development of male sex characteristics can still get it. A transgender boy who wants testosterone for the exact same reason cannot.”
Reposted by kai milanovich
Barrett and other conservatives don't seem to see how state-sanctioned discrimination against trans people basically always takes the form of sex discrimination—imposing unique restrictions on people's rights based on their sex assigned at birth. Frustrating that the argument isn't breaking through.
December 4, 2024 at 4:04 PM
Barrett and other conservatives don't seem to see how state-sanctioned discrimination against trans people basically always takes the form of sex discrimination—imposing unique restrictions on people's rights based on their sex assigned at birth. Frustrating that the argument isn't breaking through.