Henry Farrell
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himself.bsky.social
Henry Farrell
@himself.bsky.social
38K followers 640 following 6.7K posts

Professor of democracy and international affairs. http://www.henryfarrell.net and newsletter at http://www.programmablemutter.com. Underground Empire: How America Weaponized the World Economy (Holt, Penguin). https://www.publishersweekly.com/9781250840554. .. more

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Henry Farrell is an Irish-born political scientist at Johns Hopkins University. He previously taught at the University of Toronto and earned his PhD from Georgetown University. His research interests include trust and co-operation; e-commerce; the European Union; and institutional theory. He is an elected member of the Council on Foreign Relations. .. more

Political science 57%
Economics 15%
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himself.bsky.social
Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 4h
isn't it good?

Reposted by Henry Farrell

carlbergstrom.com
Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 4h
Between the human verification, and the three factor authentication and so forth, I can transfer my life savings to a random bitcoin account easier than I can read a Nature paper my library subscribes to.
asociologist.bsky.social Dan Hirschman @asociologist.bsky.social · 9h
Is everyone else getting human verification screens when they just open a normal journal article url? Not downloading the pdf, just clicking to the article from a TOC email say? I feel like this is new this year, and probably reflects what @carlbergstrom.com is talking about here.
carlbergstrom.com Carl T. Bergstrom @carlbergstrom.com · 16h
When we talk about the costs that LLMs impose on society we should not forget the fact that nothing works anymore because everyone is so scared of getting their shit scraped.

I can't even use google scholar from my university or starlink because they send too much traffic.

Reposted by Stephen A. Meserve

himself.bsky.social
Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 5h
the political economy of what gets put up on university websites is one of the great unexplored rabbithole warrens of our era.
drjlhazelton.bsky.social Jacqueline L. Hazelton @drjlhazelton.bsky.social · 6h
I used to think it was crazy that faculty never updated their images. But then I learned what a PITA it is. @wearehighered.bsky.social
dan-punday.bsky.social Dan Punday @dan-punday.bsky.social · 1d
Also, seriously, give some thought to your department picture. It's literally the way you present yourself to current and potential students. Tons of different ways to do it, but the slapdash way that most faculty just put up a random picture and leave it there for 20 years is crazy to me.

himself.bsky.social
Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 5h
mine too (and "shoggoth gap" has obvious current application - www.economist.com/by-invitatio... )

Reposted by Olúfẹ́mi Táíwò

himself.bsky.social
Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 5h
years ago, my colleague Steve Teles and @mschmitt9.bsky.social wrote what I think is still the definitive piece on how to think about this - hewlett.org/wp-content/u...

Reposted by Henry Farrell, Stephen A. Meserve

drjlhazelton.bsky.social
Jacqueline L. Hazelton @drjlhazelton.bsky.social · 6h
I used to think it was crazy that faculty never updated their images. But then I learned what a PITA it is. @wearehighered.bsky.social
dan-punday.bsky.social Dan Punday @dan-punday.bsky.social · 1d
Also, seriously, give some thought to your department picture. It's literally the way you present yourself to current and potential students. Tons of different ways to do it, but the slapdash way that most faculty just put up a random picture and leave it there for 20 years is crazy to me.

Reposted by Henry Farrell, Catherine J. Frieman

tomewing.bsky.social
Tom Ewing @tomewing.bsky.social · 7h
Narnia books as Isekai Manga
1. My Sweet Tooth Made Me The Villainess’ Slave 2. In Another World, The Dwarves Picked Me To Lead The Revolution 3. All At Sea With My Level 0 Sailing Skills 4. On A Mission In Another World And I Can’t Remember The Cheat Codes 5. That Time I Got Reincarnated As A Horse 6. Help! My Uncle’s In Love With The Demon Queen! 7. Reincarnated In Another World Just As The Game’s Ending

Reposted by Joanna Bryson, Will Jennings, Henry Farrell , and 2 more

samfr.bsky.social
Sam Freedman @samfr.bsky.social · 11h
Here's a chart from the post.... quite a change in a single generation.

Reposted by Henry Farrell

birdsnfrogs.bsky.social
nestor guillen @birdsnfrogs.bsky.social · 1d
The essay, which I started working in full during the ICM, owes its framing to the important work of @himself.bsky.social, @alisongopnik.bsky.social, @cshalizi.bsky.social, and James Evans on LLMs as cultural technologies 2/

www.science.org/doi/full/10....
www.science.org

Reposted by Henry Farrell

birdsnfrogs.bsky.social
nestor guillen @birdsnfrogs.bsky.social · 1d
Last week I posted my essay on LLMs, cultural technologies, and mathematics. It is my earnest attempt at convincing mathematicians that should be optimistic, even prideful, at this critical moment:

birdsnfrogs.github.io/2026/09/12/F... 1/
Happy, those able to know the causes of things
birdsnfrogs.github.io

himself.bsky.social
Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 1d
the wonderful thing is that it is announced in a newsletter where Newton thanks god that they didn't launch Hard Fork in the middle of SBF-mania, or they might have been pulled in, heaven forfend.

himself.bsky.social
Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 1d
Do you know is there a way to actually implement repeated author and topic penalties or is that not implemented yet? [there are buttons but they just seem to lead to info rather than options]. That is my dream feature for a feed.

himself.bsky.social
Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 1d
Hard Fork ==> Machine Gods ==> Hard Pass

Reposted by David Darmofal

himself.bsky.social
Henry Farrell @himself.bsky.social · 1d
This is a great friendly department for junior faculty
garciaponce.bsky.social Omar García-Ponce @garciaponce.bsky.social · 2d
We're hiring!

GW’s Political Science Department is seeking a junior tenure-track professor in Comparative Politics.

The search is open to any substantive or regional focus and all methodological approaches.

Review of applications begins October 16.

www.gwu.jobs/postings/128...
Assistant Professor of Political Science
The Department of Political Science invites applications for a tenure-track position in Comparative Politics at the rank of Assistant Professor beginning as early as Fall 2027. This position is pendin...
www.gwu.jobs

Reposted by Henry Farrell

natematias.bsky.social
J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 2d
By threatening to surveil scholars, disrupt academic meetings, detain scientists, and uproot scientists’ families, such policies chill speech, force conformity, and—as the judge in the @thecoalition.bsky.social case concluded—disrupt the free exchange of ideas.

Reposted by Safiya U. Noble, Lisa W. Fazio, Carl T. Bergstrom , and 5 more

natematias.bsky.social
J. Nathan Matias @natematias.bsky.social · 2d
How do we find hope, persistence, & success at defending essential rights?

Today in @science.org, I published a letter with @rebekahtromble.bsky.social & @ubiquity75.xyz explaining how free inquiry is threatened by government restrictions on movement.

www.science.org/eprint/CBDR2...
Free inquiry depends on freedom of movement
Starting in May 2025, the US government implemented an immigration policy that targeted noncitizen researchers for visa denials, visa revocations, detention, and deportation on the basis of the topics and findings of their work (1). In response, scholars and civil society groups at the Coalition for Independent Technology Research (CITR) documented the policy’s effects on their research and sued the State Department, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Justice Department to stay the policy (2). Scholarly societies, including the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) (3) and the Association of Internet Researchers (AOIR) (4) issued public statements in support of academics’ freedom of movement. In July 2026, a federal court suspended the policy (5), marking a victory for scientific progress (6). However, threats to freedom of movement remain a powerful tool for repressive governments to force and entice scholars into submission. Scholars and administrators should continue to defend the integrity of science by defending the right to freedom of movement.
www.science.org

Reposted by Henry Farrell

datasociety.bsky.social
Data & Society @datasociety.bsky.social · 2d
Oct 7: Join "Muskism" coauthor @quinnslobodian.com & "Against Tech Oligarchy" coauthors @js-tan.bsky.social & Clarissa Redwine to discuss the structural forces shaping tech power, and what we can learn from the tech worker movement, with D&S's @aihathing.bsky.social. datasociety.net/news-events/...
Graphic promoting an online book talk titled “Power and Resistance in the Age of Tech Oligarchy.” The event features authors Clarissa Redwine, JS Tan, and Quinn Slobodian, moderated by Aiha Nguyen, and takes place October 7, 2026, at 2 PM ET. The graphic includes images of the two featured books, Against Tech Oligarchy and Muskism: A Guide for the Perplexed, along with black-and-white portraits of the speakers.

Reposted by Elizabeth Saunders, David M. Farrell, Valerie Mueller , and 3 more

garciaponce.bsky.social
Omar García-Ponce @garciaponce.bsky.social · 2d
We're hiring!

GW’s Political Science Department is seeking a junior tenure-track professor in Comparative Politics.

The search is open to any substantive or regional focus and all methodological approaches.

Review of applications begins October 16.

www.gwu.jobs/postings/128...
Assistant Professor of Political Science
The Department of Political Science invites applications for a tenure-track position in Comparative Politics at the rank of Assistant Professor beginning as early as Fall 2027. This position is pendin...
www.gwu.jobs