Rachel Fish
@rachelefish.bsky.social
Sociologist studying schools, disability, race, gender. Associate Prof at Smith College. Former elem teacher. Parent. Cycling enthusiast. She/her/hers.
Reposted by Rachel Fish
Amid all that is happening, I urge you to pre-order my new book. As our systems further collapse and the state chooses to spend its funds terrorizing communities rather than investing in our collective care, we need to bear witness 1/5 www.harpercollins.com/products/in-...
In Sickness and in Health
An urgent and deeply affecting account of America's failure to provide meaningful support to its chronically ill and disabled citizens and our resulting...
www.harpercollins.com
January 15, 2026 at 6:41 PM
Amid all that is happening, I urge you to pre-order my new book. As our systems further collapse and the state chooses to spend its funds terrorizing communities rather than investing in our collective care, we need to bear witness 1/5 www.harpercollins.com/products/in-...
Reposted by Rachel Fish
"The sweeping study... found that using AI in education can 'undermine children's foundational development' and that 'the damages it has already caused are daunting.'"
They include limiting kids' cognitive, social, and emotional developmen, and increasing inequity.
www.npr.org/2026/01/14/n...
They include limiting kids' cognitive, social, and emotional developmen, and increasing inequity.
www.npr.org/2026/01/14/n...
The risks of AI in schools outweigh the benefits, report says
A new report warns that AI poses a serious threat to children's cognitive development and emotional well-being.
www.npr.org
January 15, 2026 at 12:14 PM
"The sweeping study... found that using AI in education can 'undermine children's foundational development' and that 'the damages it has already caused are daunting.'"
They include limiting kids' cognitive, social, and emotional developmen, and increasing inequity.
www.npr.org/2026/01/14/n...
They include limiting kids' cognitive, social, and emotional developmen, and increasing inequity.
www.npr.org/2026/01/14/n...
Reposted by Rachel Fish
I really want ppl w/o Minneapolis connections to understand
You might've heard that Mpls public schools went hybrid bc so many families are in hiding. Well, a coworker just told me that today, during his kid's hybrid class, a kid's apt building was raided onscreen
*Everyone has stories like this*
You might've heard that Mpls public schools went hybrid bc so many families are in hiding. Well, a coworker just told me that today, during his kid's hybrid class, a kid's apt building was raided onscreen
*Everyone has stories like this*
January 13, 2026 at 6:06 PM
I really want ppl w/o Minneapolis connections to understand
You might've heard that Mpls public schools went hybrid bc so many families are in hiding. Well, a coworker just told me that today, during his kid's hybrid class, a kid's apt building was raided onscreen
*Everyone has stories like this*
You might've heard that Mpls public schools went hybrid bc so many families are in hiding. Well, a coworker just told me that today, during his kid's hybrid class, a kid's apt building was raided onscreen
*Everyone has stories like this*
Reposted by Rachel Fish
It would appear I am now a columnist at Inside Higher Ed. My first piece focuses on McCarthyism, censorship, and our current moment in higher education. This is an essay I started nearly 6 months ago so I'm glad to finally share it with y'all.
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...
Censorship Arrives on Campus
In her debut column, “Echoes in the Quad,” higher education policy scholar Dominique J. Baker explores how the political oppression of the McCarthy era reverberates in the stifling of academic freedom...
www.insidehighered.com
January 13, 2026 at 2:24 PM
It would appear I am now a columnist at Inside Higher Ed. My first piece focuses on McCarthyism, censorship, and our current moment in higher education. This is an essay I started nearly 6 months ago so I'm glad to finally share it with y'all.
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...
www.insidehighered.com/opinion/colu...
I also received one of these emails - my paper has been fed into an LLM without consent, and now they want me to evaluate the "ideas" the LLM generated for next projects... "If you find these ideas valuable, you are welcome to pursue them with no obligations — they are our gift to you." Gee, thanks!
somebody at UChicago is feeding preprints to LLMs without authors' consent, in a research study
they have the gall to suggest to authors they've opted-in that they volunteer to evaluate the LLMs' suggestions regarding their own work.
lol, lmao even. here is the invite and my reply
they have the gall to suggest to authors they've opted-in that they volunteer to evaluate the LLMs' suggestions regarding their own work.
lol, lmao even. here is the invite and my reply
January 6, 2026 at 2:38 AM
I also received one of these emails - my paper has been fed into an LLM without consent, and now they want me to evaluate the "ideas" the LLM generated for next projects... "If you find these ideas valuable, you are welcome to pursue them with no obligations — they are our gift to you." Gee, thanks!
Reposted by Rachel Fish
Lest anyone for a single moment thinks this latest coup is a somehow a dramatic breach of long-term US foreign policy.
January 3, 2026 at 10:08 AM
Lest anyone for a single moment thinks this latest coup is a somehow a dramatic breach of long-term US foreign policy.
Reposted by Rachel Fish
The other thing about normalizing gAI use in higher ed is that we are teaching our students that they cannot trust their own creativity, their own thoughts and brains, their own skills without having it reshaped/shellacked/transmogrified by LLMs. We’re setting them up for failure and dependence.
December 28, 2025 at 12:46 PM
The other thing about normalizing gAI use in higher ed is that we are teaching our students that they cannot trust their own creativity, their own thoughts and brains, their own skills without having it reshaped/shellacked/transmogrified by LLMs. We’re setting them up for failure and dependence.
Reposted by Rachel Fish
Ive been blocked by some pro-gAI academics on here who think Im "ableist" for refusing to allow gAI in my classrooms, but the thing is I do fundamentally believe that we make a moral statement when we decide to teach students that they must rely on this kind of theft to read, write and think.
This is a great example of how genAI steals from us all on multiple levels. It's stolen a promotional spot for real books and authors, it's stolen a job from an actual journalist who could have compiled this, it's stolen an opportunity for parents to be recommended good NZ books for their kids
#4 sounds like a lovely book but I didn't write it. Have had whānau up and down the country send me clippings lol
Whoever put together this list that has been circulated to regional papers, didn't fact check.
Whoever put together this list that has been circulated to regional papers, didn't fact check.
December 25, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Ive been blocked by some pro-gAI academics on here who think Im "ableist" for refusing to allow gAI in my classrooms, but the thing is I do fundamentally believe that we make a moral statement when we decide to teach students that they must rely on this kind of theft to read, write and think.
Reposted by Rachel Fish
Behold: the first-ever list of news outlets that have banned generative AI in their reporting. As of today, this is literally information that you cannot find on Google.
My goal is to fill the starter pack, so please send over suggestions with supporting evidence!
go.bsky.app/8cn1XfT
My goal is to fill the starter pack, so please send over suggestions with supporting evidence!
go.bsky.app/8cn1XfT
December 17, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Behold: the first-ever list of news outlets that have banned generative AI in their reporting. As of today, this is literally information that you cannot find on Google.
My goal is to fill the starter pack, so please send over suggestions with supporting evidence!
go.bsky.app/8cn1XfT
My goal is to fill the starter pack, so please send over suggestions with supporting evidence!
go.bsky.app/8cn1XfT
Reposted by Rachel Fish
Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things
December 15, 2025 at 8:41 PM
Grading and googling hallucinated citations, as one does nowadays, and now that LLMs have been around for a while, I've discovered new horrors: hallucinated journals are now appearing in Google Scholar with dozens of citations bc so many people are citing these fake things
Reposted by Rachel Fish
Most daycares and private preschools won’t enroll children with disabilities. Especially for low income families, Head Start is their *only option*.
Head Start is a 60-year-old US Department of Health and Human Services program that, among other things, creates inclusive and accessible classrooms for children with disabilities. But those applying for funding were told by the Trump regime to avoid the words "inclusion" and "disability." 🤡
Head Start centers told to avoid 'disability,' 'women' and more in funding requests
New court documents reveal a list of nearly 200 words or phrases the Trump administration told Head Start programs it does not want to see in their funding requests.
www.npr.org
December 13, 2025 at 3:33 PM
Most daycares and private preschools won’t enroll children with disabilities. Especially for low income families, Head Start is their *only option*.
Reposted by Rachel Fish
It’s good to see papers start to address LLMs as structural plagiarism — provenance, more hidden than the original words or training data. www.nature.com/articles/s42...
LLM use in scholarly writing poses a provenance problem
Nature Machine Intelligence - LLM use in scholarly writing poses a provenance problem
www.nature.com
December 14, 2025 at 11:13 AM
It’s good to see papers start to address LLMs as structural plagiarism — provenance, more hidden than the original words or training data. www.nature.com/articles/s42...
Reposted by Rachel Fish
so far tonight msnbc has interviewed two students from brown university that are also survivors of separate high school shootings.
insanity.
insanity.
December 14, 2025 at 1:28 AM
so far tonight msnbc has interviewed two students from brown university that are also survivors of separate high school shootings.
insanity.
insanity.
Reposted by Rachel Fish
That and the attempts to force AI despite few people wanting it and LOTS of people trying to figure out how to get rid of it. This isn't a desired technology. This isn't like when people lined up in excitement for iphones; it's like when the phones all came loaded with unwanted U2 albums.
December 11, 2025 at 2:55 PM
That and the attempts to force AI despite few people wanting it and LOTS of people trying to figure out how to get rid of it. This isn't a desired technology. This isn't like when people lined up in excitement for iphones; it's like when the phones all came loaded with unwanted U2 albums.
Reposted by Rachel Fish
I was informed the Department of Education was shutting itself down and yet they have been making a dramatic blockbuster-style preview of their new ideological project? youtu.be/bUNVdCduGKg?...
December 8, 2025 at 11:44 AM
I was informed the Department of Education was shutting itself down and yet they have been making a dramatic blockbuster-style preview of their new ideological project? youtu.be/bUNVdCduGKg?...
Reposted by Rachel Fish
This tech is destructive of human creativity and intellect. It is burning the planet so people can avoid thinking. Administrators who embrace it are hastening their own demise.
December 5, 2025 at 1:47 AM
This tech is destructive of human creativity and intellect. It is burning the planet so people can avoid thinking. Administrators who embrace it are hastening their own demise.
Agreed. Higher levels of accommodations reflect the ways that our schools are not accessible places for many students. Privilege and inequality matter in terms of access to diagnosis, as well as the social and cultural capital to advocate for accommodations.
Not convinced there are a lot of students faking it to get academic accommodations.
What I do believe:
-the barriers to getting accommodations is high
-there is an equity issue in whose parents can pay for the assessments that underlay obtaining those accommodations
-tests are part of the problem.
What I do believe:
-the barriers to getting accommodations is high
-there is an equity issue in whose parents can pay for the assessments that underlay obtaining those accommodations
-tests are part of the problem.
Even by the standards of The Atlantic, this is an extraordinarily weak evidence base for an article.
Data from a tiny handful of schools that isn't measuring the variable at issue and a few thin, secondhand anecdotes.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Data from a tiny handful of schools that isn't measuring the variable at issue and a few thin, secondhand anecdotes.
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
December 4, 2025 at 12:55 AM
Agreed. Higher levels of accommodations reflect the ways that our schools are not accessible places for many students. Privilege and inequality matter in terms of access to diagnosis, as well as the social and cultural capital to advocate for accommodations.
So excited to get @angelafrederick.bsky.social ‘s book in the mail!
November 25, 2025 at 11:59 AM
So excited to get @angelafrederick.bsky.social ‘s book in the mail!
Reposted by Rachel Fish
I am gutted to learn of @sfdirewolf.bsky.social (Alice Wong’s) passing. She was always a warm friend, a wonderful spirit, and someone who fostered my own growth. She helped me see that, as a #disabled person with chronic illness, I matter—I am whole. I’ll be posting some of Alice’s work. ❤️ forever
November 15, 2025 at 11:37 AM
I am gutted to learn of @sfdirewolf.bsky.social (Alice Wong’s) passing. She was always a warm friend, a wonderful spirit, and someone who fostered my own growth. She helped me see that, as a #disabled person with chronic illness, I matter—I am whole. I’ll be posting some of Alice’s work. ❤️ forever
Reposted by Rachel Fish
Something everyone needs to know about @sfdirewolf.bsky.social Alice Wong was her commitment to Palestine. Just a year ago, she & I wrote a letter in @literaryhub.bsky.social defending six Palestinian journalists. Sadly, Alice now joins two of them on the other side: Anas al-Sharif & Hossam Shabat
November 15, 2025 at 8:40 AM
Something everyone needs to know about @sfdirewolf.bsky.social Alice Wong was her commitment to Palestine. Just a year ago, she & I wrote a letter in @literaryhub.bsky.social defending six Palestinian journalists. Sadly, Alice now joins two of them on the other side: Anas al-Sharif & Hossam Shabat
Academics: I'm serving as an external letter writer for a tenure case for the first time. Any tips on serving in this role? Any thoughts on roughly how much time I should set aside?
November 3, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Academics: I'm serving as an external letter writer for a tenure case for the first time. Any tips on serving in this role? Any thoughts on roughly how much time I should set aside?
Reposted by Rachel Fish
🚨 1/ SCOOP We all know Pamela Paul is not a good journalist. But in her (poorly argued) WSJ screed on the alleged "growing divide" in LGBTQ circles abt trans rights, she reports ESPECIALLY badly—including abt Jose Arango & his boyfriend who dumped him.
Paul didn't talk to the boyfriend.
I did.
Paul didn't talk to the boyfriend.
I did.
November 2, 2025 at 7:06 PM
🚨 1/ SCOOP We all know Pamela Paul is not a good journalist. But in her (poorly argued) WSJ screed on the alleged "growing divide" in LGBTQ circles abt trans rights, she reports ESPECIALLY badly—including abt Jose Arango & his boyfriend who dumped him.
Paul didn't talk to the boyfriend.
I did.
Paul didn't talk to the boyfriend.
I did.
Reposted by Rachel Fish
the adl is no longer, by its own definition, america’s preeminent jewish civil rights organization — because it’s no longer a civil rights organization at all
Anyway if you still work at this genocidal hate group working on behalf of apartheid in Israel and fascism in the US—and if you still quote them as an authority in any news story—you're endangering all of us.
www.jta.org/2025/10/29/u...
www.jta.org/2025/10/29/u...
ADL removes ‘Protect Civil Rights’ from website as it narrows its mission amid right-wing attacks - Jewish Telegraphic Agency
The removal took place after FBI Director Kash Patel said he would cut ties with the ADL, though it is unclear if that has happened.
www.jta.org
October 29, 2025 at 8:26 PM
the adl is no longer, by its own definition, america’s preeminent jewish civil rights organization — because it’s no longer a civil rights organization at all
Great work, @lauramauldin.bsky.social . So needed.
"Reporting the thoughts of a billionaire as news is as grotesque as the amount of wealth they’ve been allowed to accumulate." I had a lot of fun writing this for @thenewrepublic.bsky.social -- seeing Gates' thoughts on climate change reported yesterday made me cranky
October 29, 2025 at 8:58 PM
Great work, @lauramauldin.bsky.social . So needed.
Reposted by Rachel Fish
Here is the proposed agreement the Trump admin sent to UCLA, which administrators fought tooth and claw to keep secret ucop.edu/communicatio...
ucop.edu
October 25, 2025 at 12:17 AM
Here is the proposed agreement the Trump admin sent to UCLA, which administrators fought tooth and claw to keep secret ucop.edu/communicatio...