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Hannah Waight

@hwaight.bsky.social
1.2K followers 785 following 82 posts

Assistant Professor University of Oregon Sociology | Former Postdoc NYU CSMaP | Ph.D. Princeton Sociology | Research on media, information, politics, China, computational social science | Opinions are my own | hwaight.github.io

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Reposted by Hannah Waight
Alex Ip 葉清霖 @alexip718.com · 15/09/2026
I was in the United States on OPT until the Trump administration wrongfully denied my STEM Extension request. Charging my institution (*not* the employer) $100,000 per head is disturbing and basically ends all forms of legal immigration unless you're Polish, Hungarian, or white South African
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Adam Bonica @adambonica.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
There are four overlapping scandals here: 1. Fundraising spam tactics are hallmarks of elder financial exploitation 2. The Dem establishment is in on it 3. Most of what is raised goes to fundraising consultants 4. Capitulation to legal threats by NYT and The Bulwark on a fully vetted story 🧵👇
data4democracy.substack.com
Hook and Squeeze
How Democratic consultants, committees, and party leaders built a fundraising spam pipeline that funnels money from a captive pool of elderly donors into their own operations.
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Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · 15/05/2026
Thank you @meharpist.bsky.social. It was a pleasure working with you on this paper.
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Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Thank you so much @jenjennings.bsky.social !
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Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Wonderful to work on this with you @jatucker.bsky.social !
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Reposted by Hannah Waight
Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
New in Nature: LLMs give "the party line" in the languages of authoritarian regimes. This works when they control the media, which feeds pretraining data. We show more state control over the media means less critical LLMs. 6 studies spanning 38 languages & 13 models. Details ↓
Scatter plot of 38 countries plus China showing the proportion of LLM responses favorable to the regime in the local language vs. World Press Freedom Index score. Lower press freedom predicts more regime-favorable responses; all production models pooled.
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Brandon Stewart @bstewart.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
1/ New @Nature! We study how powerful institutions shape the information environment for LLMs. Commercial LLM training is opaque, so we trace a path from state-coordinated media -> training data -> model responses.
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Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
Here's a free link to the paper: rdcu.be/fiyrF
rdcu.be
State media control influences large language models
Nature - Government-controlled media influences the output of large language models via their training data, and models queried in the languages of countries with lower media freedom show a...
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Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · 13/05/2026
I’m excited to share a new paper in Nature that shows how large language models launder the strategic rhetoric of authoritarian states. Paper here: www.nature.com/articles/s41.... A thread.
nature.com
State media control influences large language models - Nature
Government-controlled media influences the output of large language models via their training data, and models queried in the languages of countries with lower media freedom show a stronger ...
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Reposted by Hannah Waight
Matt Seybold @mattseybold.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
Retractions never get proportional attention. This one should.
arstechnica.com
Influential study touting ChatGPT in education retracted over red flags
The retracted study on ChatGPT in education was already cited hundreds of times.
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Reposted by Hannah Waight
Justin Hendrix @justinhendrix.bsky.social · 10/05/2026
"Residents in Fayetteville, Georgia, noticed low water pressure last year. The utility discovered two unaccounted-for water connections at one of the nation’s largest data center campuses."
politico.com
A data center drained 30M gallons of water unnoticed — until residents complained about low water pressure
Residents in Fayetteville, Georgia, noticed low water pressure last year. The utility discovered two unaccounted-for water connections at one of the nation’s largest data center campuses.
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Anjali Dayal @anjalikdayal.bsky.social · 05/05/2026
“The dismantling of USAID, according to models from Boston University epidemiologist Brooke Nichols, “has already caused the deaths of six hundred thousand people, two-thirds of them children,” Gawande wrote.” hsph.harvard.edu/news/usaid-s...
hsph.harvard.edu
USAID shutdown has led to hundreds of thousands of deaths | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
The Trump administration’s decision to shut down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths from infectious diseases and malnutrition, accord...
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Adam Visokay @avisokay.bsky.social · 23/04/2026
Excited to announce that Tyler McCormick and I are organizing a Summer Institute in Computational Social Science at the University of Washington, with a focus on AI and social science research. July 6-17 We encourage applications from PhD students, postdocs, and junior faculty: sicss.io/2026/uw/
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Roi Livne @rlivne.bsky.social · 18/04/2026
Earlier today, @uofmpress.bsky.social sent me the front cover design of Xiaohong Xu’s forthcoming book. It will come out in October 2026. Gorgeous art by Dahong Liu. Provocative foreword by Ho-fung Hung. Brilliant scholarship by Xiaohong Xu.
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Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
The US loses its status as a liberal democracy for the first time in 50 years. V-dem now classifies the US as an electoral democracy.
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Some kind of invasive ape 🏳️‍⚧️ @wargonopsid.bsky.social · 03/03/2026
morethanjustparks.substack.com/p/blm-announ... there's info on who to complain to to try to stop this at the end of the article, lets share this message and try our best to stop it.
morethanjustparks.substack.com
BLM Announces Plan to Fell Oregon's Last Great Forests
One billion board feet per year... 30 days to make your voice heard.
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Jairo I. Fúnez-Flores @insurgentthought.bsky.social · 16/02/2026
Less than two years ago, Texas Tech University suspended me for speaking out against genocide. Today I found out I was denied tenure.
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Reposted by Hannah Waight
Sol Messing @solmg.bsky.social · 04/02/2026
Last week the story was that TikTok censored anti-Trump/ICE/Pretti videos after the U.S. ownership change. We investigated with a large set of US TikTok data and found some interesting results, short thread...
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Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social · 26/01/2026
ICE is changing tactics in Maine: "Now, the volunteers in Maine say federal agents have started showing up at their homes and intimidating them or threatening arrest. Some of them, masked and wearing tactical gear, have issued stark warnings not to follow them." www.pressherald.com/2026/01/23/i...
pressherald.com
ICE watchers in Maine say they were threatened by federal agents
Community members have been monitoring the activity of immigration agents in Greater Portland.
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Kim Lane Scheppele @kimlanelaw.bsky.social · 27/12/2025
Don’t let the holidays hide this story Here’s part of the plot to steal the midterms. stateline.org/2025/12/18/t...
stateline.org
Trump’s DOJ offers states confidential deal to remove voters flagged by feds • Stateline
The U.S. Department of Justice has sent confidential draft agreements on voter data sharing to more than a dozen states, part of the Trump administration’s effort to obtain unredacted voter rolls, wit...
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Reposted by Hannah Waight
Derek Silva @derekcrim.bsky.social · 14/12/2025
There is an absolute fucking scandal going down at The New School, wherein at appears that the university is funnelling to a MEMBER OF THE SCHOOL’S BOARD while purging faculty and staff. This should be headline news. x.com/uaw7902/stat...
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Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · 23/09/2025
We recently wrote a follow blog post summarizing this @amjsoc.bsky.social article. Please follow this link to read more: blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/20...
blogs.lse.ac.uk
Americans’ shifting perceptions of income inequality are a story of class and partisan identity | USAPP
Income and class inequality have played an increasingly prominent role in American political discourse since the financial crash of 2008. In new research, Hannah Waight and her co-author Adam Goldstei...
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Jenni @jennismovingcastle.bsky.social · 19/09/2025
Sociology we have to talk about ASA/Footnotes' decision to publish an article about how *checks notes* a sociologist in upper admin *checks notes* used Sociology to *checks notes* cut the Sociology Program at their university. 🙃 www.asanet.org/footnotes-ar...
asanet.org
Sociology in the Provost’s Office: Leading through Contraction | American Sociological Association
Across the United States, higher education is contracting. Since 2010, colleges and universities have lost more than two million students. The
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Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · 22/08/2025
New blog post summarizing my recent paper with Adam Goldstein in the AJS: blogs.lse.ac.uk/usappblog/20...
blogs.lse.ac.uk
Americans’ shifting perceptions of income inequality are a story of class and partisan identity | USAPP
Americans’ shifting perceptions of income inequality are a story of class and partisan identity Income and class inequality have played an increasingly prominent role in American political discourse s...
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Reposted by Hannah Waight
Rodger Sherman @rodger.bsky.social · 03/08/2025
the USA built a system of higher education so good that smart/rich people from across the world came here, spending billions to learn here, subsidizing education for Americans while spending money to live in our cities and towns. our government arbitrarily decided we should stop doing that
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Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
Thank you @thomasdavidson.bsky.social and Danny Karell for all your hard work on this! Really thankful to have been a part of this special issue!
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Reposted by Hannah Waight
Thomas Davidson @thomasdavidson.bsky.social · 01/08/2025
I’m delighted to share that the August 2025 special issue of Sociological Methods & Research on Generative AI is out now. Along with my co-editor, Daniel Karell, we put together this issue to build on the conference we organized last year. Here's a thread on each of the ten papers:
A screenshot of the Sociological Methods & Research website showing the special issue title
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Daniel Tadmon @danieltadmon.bsky.social · 16/06/2025
✨New✨ postdoc opportunity to collaborate with @mollycopeland.bsky.social and myself on an exciting project on geography, community, and mental health at @ndsociology.bsky.social. Happy to talk to anyone interested. Please resky (or whatever retweeting is called here)! apply.interfolio.com/169206
apply.interfolio.com
Apply - Interfolio {{$ctrl.$state.data.pageTitle}} - Apply - Interfolio
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Reposted by Hannah Waight
Jason Greenfield @jasong.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
Excited to share “Quantifying Narrative Similarity Across Languages” was just published! Amazing work by my wonderful coauthors — read more below!
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Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · 18/06/2025
I am thrilled to share a new article in Sociological Methods & Research, “Quantifying Narrative Similarity Across Languages”. My co-first author Sol Messing and our collaborators developed a new approach to measuring “narrative similarity” between texts: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
journals.sagepub.com
Quantifying Narrative Similarity Across Languages - Hannah Waight, Solomon Messing, Anton Shirikov, Margaret E. Roberts, Jonathan Nagler, Jason Greenfield, Megan A. Brown, Kevin Aslett, Joshua A. Tuck...
How can one understand the spread of ideas across text data? This is a key measurement problem in sociological inquiry, from the study of how interest groups sh...
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Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · 07/06/2025
Excellent new work by one of our graduate students
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Reposted by Hannah Waight
American Sociological Association @asanews.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Read the first article from the ASA Sex & Sexualities Section's new journal, in which editors Krystale E. Littlejohn @drklittlej.bsky.social, U of Oregon, & Amy L. Stone @amylstone1.bsky.social, Trinity University, consider the importance of nurturing a sociology of sex & sexualities. bit.ly/3EyV56r
bit.ly
Sage Journals: Discover world-class research
Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.
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Reposted by Hannah Waight
Isabel García Valdivia, Ph.D. @igarciavaldivia.bsky.social · 04/06/2025
📣🚨 NEW ARTICLE: Many #immigrants are aging & remain undocumented. What is their experience of illegality as they age–specifically their fear of deportation? New publication @sfjournal.bsky.social! Please read and share widely. 🔗 here: bit.ly/SF25-LCI (summary below) /1
bit.ly
Life course illegality: how the life course and aging shape the experience of illegality
Abstract. Scholars have studied in detail how immigrants experience illegality in the US. Many have focused on immigrants’ fear of deportation as central t
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American Journal of Sociology @amjsoc.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
Hannah Waight and Adam Goldstein show that inequality perceptions have become increasingly polarized by partisanship.This gap has been driven by Republicans, whose increasing disavowal of growing inequality contributed to an overall decline in Americans’ perceptions in the new gilded age.
journals.uchicago.edu
The Polarization of Inequality Perceptions in the New Gilded Age | American Journal of Sociology: Vol 0, No ja
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Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · 02/06/2025
1/ I am excited to share my new article with Adam Goldstein in the American Journal of Sociology. We harmonized a set of historical public opinion data from 1966-2013 to investigate the shifting bases of inequality perceptions in the United States. www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/...
journals.uchicago.edu
The Polarization of Inequality Perceptions in the New Gilded Age | American Journal of Sociology: Vol 0, No ja
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S. Michael Gaddis @smgaddis.bsky.social · 06/05/2025
Many correspondence audits collect data on multiple characteristics but don't examine all potential forms of discrimination. In our latest paper on @socarxiv.bsky.social, “Missing Results of Discrimination,” we show that scholars may unintentionally miss key findings. osf.io/preprints/so...
osf.io
Missing Results of Discrimination: A Systematically Comparative Meta-Analysis and Re-Examinations of Racial, Gender, and Intersectional Discrimination using Correspondence Audits
Intersectionality theory argues that race and gender cannot be fully understood in isolation or through an additive approach. However, field experiments frequently examine aggregate racial or gender…
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Daniel Laurison @daniellaurison.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
JOB! Please RT. Swarthmore is hiring for our Social Science Quantitative Lab Associate to support & do teaching quant methods to undergrads. Especially looking for people familiar with sociology and/or political science, and R. Apply by 4/18. apply.interfolio.com/165892 Happy to answer questions.
Maroon banner at the top with the Swarthmore logo, then the text:
Social Science Quantitative Laboratory Associate
Swarthmore College: Sociology & Anthropology Department
Location
Swarthmore, Pennsylvania
Open Date
Apr 05, 2025

Description
Swarthmore College is seeking an individual to serve as an Associate in its Social Sciences Quantitative Lab (SSQL). This appointment is for a full-time, academic-year position for three years, with the possibility of renewal upon successful review. The expected starting date is August 2025.


The SSQL promotes students’ quantitative skills by providing tutorial services, statistical consultation, and research support to students in the social sciences. More information about the SSQL can be found here: https://www.swarthmore.edu/ssql.

Swarthmore College is a highly selective liberal arts college whose mission combines academic rigor with social responsibility. It is located in the suburbs roughly 10 miles west of Philadelphia and 15 miles north of Wilmington and has a SEPTA stop right on campus. Swarthmore has a strong institutional commitment to diversity, and actively seeks and welcomes applications from candidates with exceptional qualifications, particularly those with demonstrable commitments to a more inclusive society and world. Applicants from traditionally underrepresented groups are strongly encouraged to apply. For more information on Faculty Diversity and Excellence at Swarthmore, see http://www.swarthmore.edu/faculty-diversity-excellence/information-candidates-new-faculty

Responsibilities (continues in next image)
Planning and facilitating in-person workshops and classroom visits to support the teaching of quantitative methods in the social sciences—particularly in Political Science and Sociology/Anthropology—with the goal of familiarizing students with statistical software (R, Stata, and Excel) and helping them develop related data skills, including data collection, management, visualization, analysis, and exportResponsibilities (continiued) 
Providing statistical support to students during regular office hours and by appointment, including assisting students with the identification, manipulation, and analysis of data sets for their empirical research projects

Planning and hosting stand-alone workshops to train students to work with statistical software commonly used in the social sciences, such as R, Stata, Python, Matlab, and/or Geographic Information System (GIS)

Collaborating with social science faculty teaching quantitative courses on how best to support their courses and their students

Creating additional opportunities for students with less experience in quantitative and computational methods to develop skills and confidence

Offering supplementary workshops in quantitative social sciences to help students develop skills for success as research assistants and to prepare them for quantitative careers and job markets

Qualifications
A Master of Arts or Science (MA or MS), or equivalent, in Political Science, Sociology, Economics, Public Policy, Statistics, Data Science, or a related field is required; a PhD in one of these fields is preferred.

Familiarity with statistics/econometrics, causal inference methods, and preparing data for quantitative social science research is required. Familiarity with computational and simulation methods is a plus.

Programming expertise in R and Excel and ability to learn new technical skills are required. Expertise in Python, Matlab, GIS, and/or other related software is a plus.

Demonstrated excellence in inclusive and equitable teaching practices that support the success of students from diverse backgrounds and with varying levels of preparation in quantitative skills. We seek applicants who cultivate welcoming classroom environments and use pedagogical strategies that promote belonging, engagement, and academic growth for all students.
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Sandra González-Bailón @sgonzalezbailon.bsky.social · 07/04/2025
Looking forward to this, next week! 'The Impact of AI on (Mis)Information' asc.upenn.edu/cind2025, w/ @ndiakopoulos.bsky.social @hwaight.bsky.social @jolukito.bsky.social @lexipalmer.bsky.social Kaicheng Yang @ekvraga.bsky.social Kiran Garimella & Jennifer Allen + @ylelkes.bsky.social @asc.upenn.edu
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Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · 04/04/2025
See this link for a press release on my @pnas.org new paper on propaganda in China with Yin Yuan, Molly Roberts, and Brandon Stewart: www.eurekalert.org/news-release... @uoregon.bsky.social
eurekalert.org
New research shows that propaganda is on the rise in China
Hannah Waight, an assistant professor of sociology at the UO, and her collaborators found that the use of state-planted propaganda is on the rise in China. And it’s not just a tool for spreading...
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Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · 21/03/2025
Thank you @chinadigitaltimes.net we would not have been able to do this work without you!
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Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · 12/03/2025
Adding Bluesky channels! #polisky #commsky #AcademicSky #sociology #css
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Hannah Waight @hwaight.bsky.social · 11/03/2025
How can researchers identify covert state propaganda campaigns in China? My co-authors Yin Yuan, Molly Roberts, Brandon Stewart @bstewart.bsky.social and myself are excited to share our new article in PNAS (@PNAS): doi.org/10.1073/pnas... Thread below.
doi.org
The decade-long growth of government-authored news media in China under Xi Jinping | PNAS
Autocratic governments around the world use clandestine propaganda campaigns to influence the media. We document a decade-long trend in China towar...
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ASA Theory Section @asatheory.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
It’s that time of year again — the call for papers for the Junior Theorists Symposium is live! Submit your précis here: bit.ly/jts2025
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Sandra González-Bailón @sgonzalezbailon.bsky.social · 11/12/2024
New publication (4+ years in the making): “The Diffusion and Reach of (Mis)Information on Facebook”. shorturl.at/VE2fU We analyze the propagation of 1B+ posts across content moderation regimes, with @davidlazer.bsky.social @jatucker.bsky.social @taliastroud.bsky.social @annenbergpenn.bsky.social
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Chris Bail @chrisbail.bsky.social · 20/11/2024
Applications to host a 2025 Summer Institute in Computational Social Science are due December 1st. Feel free to email me with questions and/or help connecting with others (especially since grant support will be limited): sicss.io/host
sicss.io
Host a Partner Location
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