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Sari Altschuler

@sarialtschuler.bsky.social
2.5K followers 1.3K following 86 posts

Associate Prof, Director of Health, Humanities, and Society Program at Northeastern. The Medical Imagination (Penn Press, 2018) + Before Disability: A History of American Citizenship (Penn Press, 2026). Coeditor: Keywords for Health Humanities (NYU, 2023).

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Sari Altschuler @sarialtschuler.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
A fun thing: My talk at the AAS this past July about my new book _Before Disability: A History of American Citizenship_ was broadcast on C-SPAN yesterday morning! (I missed it!) If you're interested, check it out here: www.c-span.org/program/book... Huge thanks to the @amantiquarian.bsky.social!
c-span.org
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Sari Altschuler @sarialtschuler.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
Here’s a fun thing I got to do today! Thanks, @sunsetandecho.bsky.social! avidly.org/first-senten...
avidly.org
First Sentence Fridays: Sari Altschuler - Avidly
First Sentence Fridays is a series focused on the style and experience of new books. About Before Disability: A History of American Citizenship: The history of
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Lauren Klein @laurenfklein.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
@miriamposner.com's SEEING LIKE A SUPPLY CHAIN, out in October from @yalepress.bsky.social, which offers a timely lesson on how capitalism shapes software design--and thus what we can and cannot know about the information (and people) our software rests upon. yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300... 5/
yalebooks.yale.edu
Seeing Like a Supply Chain
A history of the technology of supply-chain management from punch cards to neural nets, and how the ambiguity built into that technology helps companies and ...
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Lauren Klein @laurenfklein.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Britt Rusert's AFRIC-AMERICAN PICTURE GALLERY, out in September with @dukepress.bsky.social, which reanimates and theorizes William J. Wilson's speculative museum of Black art, decades if not centuries before an actual museum of Black art came to be: www.dukeupress.edu/the-afric-am... 4/
dukeupress.edu
The Afric-American Picture Gallery: William J. Wilson's Speculative Museum of Black Art
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Lauren Klein @laurenfklein.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
@mollyfarrell.bsky.social's NEW WORLD CALCULATION, in many ways a prehistory of DATA BY DESIGN, which shows how settler colonialism and racial capitalism set our current data practices in motion. It's out next month with @stanfordpress.bsky.social: www.sup.org/books/litera... 3/
sup.org
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Lauren Klein @laurenfklein.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
One of the nicest and most unexpected pleasures of having worked on a book for so long is that all of the friends you make along the way, who have also been working on their books for so long, eventually finish those books--all at the same time! I am feeling so much vicarious pride in 1/
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Lauren Klein @laurenfklein.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
@sarialtschuler.bsky.social's BEFORE DISABILITY, which looks to the era before disability was pathologized (and racialized) to show how disability once represented the promise of US citizenship, out now with @pennpress.bsky.social: www.pennpress.org/978151282951... 2/
pennpress.org
Before Disability – Penn Press
A literary, legal, and cultural history of disability, race, and citizenship between the Revolution and the Civil WarThe history of disability rights is ofte...
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Sari Altschuler @sarialtschuler.bsky.social · 13/07/2026
If you're going to be hanging out near Worcester tomorrow (or would like to join online), I'd love to see you!
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Peter @notalawyer.bsky.social · 12/07/2026
victory lapping on this one
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Julia Métraux @juliametraux.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Pleasure to talk to @sarialtschuler.bsky.social about her new book, which traces how disability shaped citizenship, including efforts by white people to portray Black and Indigenous people as inherently disabled to deprive them of rights. New at @motherjones.com. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
How disability shaped American citizenship
A new book reveals the long relationship between race, disability, and nationhood in the revolutionary-era United States.
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Matthew L Reznicek @drreznicek.bsky.social · 26/06/2026
Cannot wait to read @sarialtschuler.bsky.social’s newest book
Book cover of Before Disability: A History of American Citizenship by Sari Altschuler. A white background with an American flag that has sign language signs instead of stars
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Joseph Rezek @rezekjoe.bsky.social · 21/06/2026
Got to celebrate the publication of @sarialtschuler.bsky.social’s new book today- BEFORE DISABILITY: A HISTORY OF AMERICAN CITIZENSHIP. What a project!!!
Selfie with me and Sari, with her book
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Xine Yao PhD (she/they) @xineyaophd.bsky.social · 18/06/2026
"How Disability Shaped American Citizenship" Mother Jones interviews @sarialtschuler.bsky.social on her new book! www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
motherjones.com
How disability shaped American citizenship
A new book reveals the long relationship between race, disability, and nationhood in the revolutionary-era United States.
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Mother Jones @motherjones.com · 16/06/2026
We tend to treat disability politics as a modern phenomenon. It’s not. @sarialtschuler.bsky.social's new book explains "how disability helped to shape US citizenship and, in turn, how the formation of US citizenship shaped disability."
motherjones.com
How disability shaped American citizenship
A new book reveals the long relationship between race, disability, and nationhood in the revolutionary-era United States.
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Sari Altschuler @sarialtschuler.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
Loved doing this interview with @juliametraux.bsky.social !
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Sari Altschuler @sarialtschuler.bsky.social · 17/06/2026
For Before Disability’s publication day (yesterday! I missed it on here!) @motherjones.com published this interview! @pennpress.bsky.social
pennpress.bsky.social
Penn Press (@pennpress.bsky.social)
Advancing knowledge, fostering collaboration, informing the future https://www.pennpress.org/
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Morgan McCullough @morganmccullough.bsky.social · 16/06/2026
Happy pub day to @sarialtschuler.bsky.social! Learn more about her new book, Before Disability, in the most recent issue of Sally Franklin's Bookshelf
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Joseph M. Adelman @jmadelman.bsky.social · 14/06/2026
Get a sneak peek at Before Disability, new from @sarialtschuler.bsky.social. Today at Sally Franklin’s Bookshelf, she explains how the book explores the “entangled history of disability, race, and citizenship” in the United States before the Civil War. #VastEarlyAmerica @pennpress.bsky.social
cliodigital.media
Sari Altschuler, Before Disability — Clio Digital Media
Yesterday, June 13, was the  160th anniversary of the US Congress passing the 14th Amendment  (it was ratified two years later, in 1868). The 14th Amendment is one of several important Ame...
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Dr Surekha Davies, Historical Monster Consultant (she/her) @drsurekhadavies.bsky.social · 05/06/2026
@sarialtschuler.bsky.social will appreciate this thread - and folks on here might like to read her new book, BEFORE DISABILITY: A History of American Citizenship. bsky.app/profile/sari...
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Sari Altschuler @sarialtschuler.bsky.social · 01/06/2026
Fun podcast conversation about my new book, Before Disability: www.listennotes.com/podcasts/ser...
listennotes.com
SIO516: How a Botched 1840 Census "Proved" Freedom Made Black Americans Disabled, with Sari Altschuler
00:45:33 - The history of disability rights is often treated as a modern story, but what if that framing misses centuries of earlier, more complicated history?…
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Lauren Klein @laurenfklein.bsky.social · 27/05/2026
Students were always my imagined readers when I was writing DATA FEMINISM. Every time I asked myself, "How do I explain this clearly?" or "Why should people care?" I was thinking of them. So getting to build a course around those questions felt like coming back to my (Google Docs) home
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Sari Altschuler @sarialtschuler.bsky.social · 26/05/2026
It's real! Too many people to thank, but I'm feeling so very grateful for the years of conversation, learning, and generosity that made this book possible. More about the book below --
Left hand holds a white hardcover book. The top half features an American flag with ASL alphabet replacing stars. Bottom half reads “before disability. A history of American citizenship. Sari Altschuler” in blue, red, and off-white text.
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Matthew L Reznicek @drreznicek.bsky.social · 29/04/2026
"This misunderstanding of humanities work is so broadly pervasive in medicine tat the submission category 'Humanities' in JAMA describes the publication venue for 'personal vignettes,' 'original poems,' and art appreciation." @sarialtschuler.bsky.social
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John Abernathy @john-abernathy.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
Photo by Pierre Lavie. Yes this is me. And I threw my Leica. It landed on the bass plate with hardly a scratch. Another Photographer grabbed it along with my phone and I was able to track him later. I was held face down tear gas deployed right in front of me and pepper sprayed directly into the eye.
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jamelle @jamellebouie.net · 17/01/2026
wrote about the occupation in minnesota with a closing note on how the white house has exactly one tactic — repression with goons — but no particular strategy for dealing with entrenched resistance. gift link.
nytimes.com
Opinion | This Is the Only Card Trump Can Play
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Acyn @acyn.bsky.social · 13/01/2026
AOC: I want everybody to understand that the cuts to your health care are what’s paying for this. You get screwed over to pay a bunch of thugs in the street that are shooting mothers in the face.
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Minnesota Star Tribune @startribune.com · 13/01/2026
Federal authorities have tear-gassed a crowd outside the Whipple Federal Building at Fort Snelling. Follow updates here. bit.ly/3Lakres
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Chris Hayes @chrislhayes.bsky.social · 09/01/2026
In the video that the shooter took, which I believe was leaked to be exculpatory, he appears to yell “fucking bitch” after he shoots Renee Good.
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Sari Altschuler @sarialtschuler.bsky.social · 19/12/2025
It’s feeling very real!!! Publication date: June 16, 2026. @pennpress.bsky.social
This is a white book cover with an older American flag in the top half. The stars are replaced by the ASL alphabet. Below, the text reads: “BEFORE DISABILITY: A History of American Citizenship. Sari Altschuler”
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Senator Chris Van Hollen @vanhollen.senate.gov · 10/10/2025
This is what courage in the face of authoritarianism looks like. No university should take Trump's bribe & surrender their integrity — bending the knee to a bully only feeds the beast & puts ALL our rights at risk. Others should follows MIT’s example ASAP.
washingtonpost.com
MIT rejects Trump administration deal for priority federal funding
MIT is one of the nine schools that were asked to agree to adopt conservative priorities and policies in exchange for funding perks.
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Sari Altschuler @sarialtschuler.bsky.social · 25/08/2025
Not sure how long this has been going on, but it looks like you can get my book and other great books for less than $10 right now!
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Sari Altschuler @sarialtschuler.bsky.social · 09/07/2025
I guess this makes it real! Here's the page for my second book Before Disability: A History of American Citizenship - forthcoming with @pennpress.bsky.social in June 2026. www.pennpress.org/978151282951...
pennpress.org
Before Disability – Penn Press
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Ailise Bulfin @ailise-bulfin.bsky.social · 08/04/2025
This may be of interest to #MedicalHumanities folks (& we'd appreciate a repost) @ucdhumanities.bsky.social @tlrhub.bsky.social @oxmedhum.bsky.social @durhamimh.bsky.social @desfitzgerald.bsky.social @sarialtschuler.bsky.social @riacheyne.bsky.social @aryaray.bsky.social @the-polyphony.bsky.social
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Chris Murphy @chrismurphyct.bsky.social · 19/02/2025
Remember, everything is part of the same story. They need to destroy our democracy and crush dissent because letting billionaires take over the government in order to steal from us isn't popular and a functioning democracy wouldn't allow it.
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Governor JB Pritzker @govpritzker.illinois.gov · 20/02/2025
Tyranny requires your fear, your silence, and your compliance. Democracy requires your courage.
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Noah Lanard @nlanard.bsky.social · 18/02/2025
DOGE in practice: Disabled Army veteran who has 4 kids and did 3 tours overseas is fired from his job at Bronx VA hospital
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Senator Ed Markey @markey.senate.gov · 05/02/2025
Tonight we rallied outside the Treasury Department as members of Congress were denied access to the very building where Musk’s minions have been allowed to root around in American’s personal data. No one elected Elon Musk. Dems must vote no on all nominees & fight to stop this.
Senator Markey holds a microphone in front of a crowdPicture of the Treasury DepartmentSenator Markey holds a microphone in front of a crowd holding resist and we will not be silenced and no one voted for Elon Musk signsNobody Elected Musk sign
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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez @aoc.bsky.social · 30/01/2025
It’s important to know that a lot of productive activity is happening in person and offline, too. Not all of it can be broadcast online, but we’ve had hundreds of people showing up to our trainings, mobilizations, and more. Keep going. Tyranny is eroded by a sea of small acts. Everything matters.
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Sari Altschuler @sarialtschuler.bsky.social · 28/01/2025
THIS. Call your representatives today. They are counting, and it matters.
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Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 28/01/2025
Jim Acosta announces on air that he's leaving CNN and says, "it is never a good time to bow down to a tyrant ... don't give in to the lies."
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Lauren Klein @laurenfklein.bsky.social · 18/12/2024
More new work! This one, in the Lancet, about what clinicians can learn from the humanities when confronted with AI scribes, is a collab w/ @sarialtschuler.bsky.social, Ian Huntingdon, and @mariaa.bsky.social. Also, a new area for me. And a 🧵 obvs 1/ www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
thelancet.com
Clinician as editor: notes in the era of AI scribes
Every clinician has a strategy. Between patients, before going home, late at night—clinical notes must be written. They are essential for recording patient visits, ensuring continuity of care, arriving at accurate diagnoses, and facilitating communication between doctors, as well as providing medico-legal protection and enabling reimbursement. But these notes are increasingly burdensome to write, thanks in part to the electronic health record (EHR). Artificial intelligence (AI) scribes—computational systems that record clinical encounters and produce narrative summaries—promise much-needed help.
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Sari Altschuler @sarialtschuler.bsky.social · 16/12/2024
Just because you can go from Boston to NYC and back in the same day doesn’t mean you should.
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Lauren Klein @laurenfklein.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
So interesting to think with practicing clinicians (and @sarialtschuler.bsky.social and @mariaa.bsky.social) on how AI scribes are shifting roles and skillsets, and how ideas from the humanities about narrative and editing are what's required
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Sari Altschuler @sarialtschuler.bsky.social · 02/12/2024
So excited to see this collaboration with brilliant colleagues published in the Lancet today! Here's our discussion of the humanities skills (esp. narrative + editing) healthcare practitioners will need in the age of AI scribes. @iandarin.bsky.social @mariaa.bsky.social @laurenfklein.bsky.social
Clinician as editor: notes in the era of AI scribes
Every clinician has a strategy. Between patients, before going home, late at night—clinical notes must be written. They are essential for recording patient visits, ensuring continuity of care, arriving at accurate diagnoses, and facilitating communication between doctors, as well as providing medico-legal protection and enabling reimbursement. But these notes are increasingly burdensome to write, thanks in part to the electronic health record (EHR). Artificial intelligence (AI) scribes—computational systems that record clinical encounters and produce narrative summaries—promise much-needed help. Indeed, in many settings, health-care organisations are already adopting this technology. Nevertheless, AI scribes arrive at a moment when the note has already been changing, with legislation 
increasingly granting patients access to their medical records.
Given AI scribes’ promised disruption, it is crucial to consider 
what clinical notes are and what we want them to be. 
Both the clinical encounter and the record of it are fundamentally narrative affairs: the clinical encounter unfolds as a story and the note documents that story. Early 19th-century patient records were long, detailed narratives about particular patients and their histories. But these records promise and limitations.
became increasingly succinct. Forms replaced paragraphs, and shared terminology replaced personal anecdotes; as historian practice of narrative medicine. John Harley Warner explains, there was a shifting “narrative preference for what was universal and precise over what was This trend continues in notes today with their dispassionate style and specialised terminology, ready to be packaged for health-care coders and billers.
A few decades ago, efforts to recentre narrative, especially narrative medicine and narrative-based medicine, emerged to address the depersonalised style of modern medicine exemplified by such notes. So much of medicine i…biases—particularly troubling given medicine’s ongoing research and care disparities. AI-generated summaries can also hallucinate details, making up disturbing interactions if words or phrases resemble training data patterns and inserting inaccuracies. AI can introduce insensitive, incorrect, offensive, or stereotype-based language, gender misattribu- tion, and even diagnostic errors, a set of problems that will be magnified by automation bias—the bias to accept AI decisions and text as more authoritative than human ones.
There are also unique challenges posed by the clinical encounter for AI because of, as machine learning researcher Juan Quiroz and his team put it, the “complex nature of the clinical environment and clinical conversation”. In his experience as a practising clinician who is piloting an AI scribe, one of us (IH) has noticed that AI scribes can miss information from longitudinal clinician–patient relationships and non-verbal communication. They sometimes make speech-to-text transcription errors, confuse the clinician’s story with the patient’s, include details not appropriate to the EHR, use potentially judgemental language, omit important details, add plausible but incorrect information, and overstep their purview, making diagnostic suggestions rather than generating summary. Accents make the speech- to-text transcription less accurate. Most AI scribes today work in limited languages. Some of these issues may improve, but the fundamental problem remains: open notes emphasise notes as interpersonal narrative just as AI scribes seek to automate the task.
To counter these risks of automation, clinicians using AI scribes should view their new role as note editor—a transition best supported by training in editorial and narrative skills. Most immediately, seasoned clinicians will need to reduce transcription errors, odd word choices, extraneous details, and disclosures inappropriate for the record as well as adding missed details and often rewriting AI-ge…
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Susan Rinkunas @susanrinkunas.com · 23/10/2024
Some people believe that not voting for Kamala will somehow punish Democratic leadership when it will actually punish abortion seekers, LGBTQ people, immigrants and their families, and, yes, anti-war activists
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Sari Altschuler @sarialtschuler.bsky.social · 12/01/2024
Not everything you write feels equally good or important, but I’m really proud of this essay, which is probably the best thing I’ve ever written. (a little look into the book I'm finishing on disability, race, and citizenship) www-cambridge-org.ezproxy.neu.edu/core/journal...
This is a composite of three images. The top left shows a picture of the cover of PMLA (journal) with an orange flower. The bottom left image is the beginning of the notes section which features the thanks described above. And the right hand image features a hand on the first page with the title "Babo's 'Mute'-ny: Deaf Culture and Black Testimony in Antebellum America" followed by the first few paragraphs, which can be found at the link in the main post text.
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Sari Altschuler @sarialtschuler.bsky.social · 02/12/2023
Americanist friends, look at this amazing Vietnamese- American Emerson by Tammy Nguyen on display right now at the ICA!
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Dave Weimer @dweimer.bsky.social · 08/09/2023
Working on a mappy book? Apply for the The Smith Center First Book Workshop in Map History! It's a two-day, in person workshop at the Newberry Library for 3 book writers to help get some great books in map history published! Apply and learn more: newberry.slideroom.com#/dashboard/p...
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