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aspen

• 8 min read
black and white close-up photograph of a small stack of five books: a thick hardcover, a thin pamphlet, a battered-edged journal, a paperback, and a small hardcover.
Photo by Sebastian Kuss / Unsplash

I tend to read a lot of articles and essays, and sometimes I want to share them even if I don’t have a lot of thoughts to add. This page is where I’ll post links to interesting, useful, and/or insightful materials. They will span a broad range of topics, and I may include my own brief annotation to discuss things that stood out to me or why I added the resource to the list.

Each list item will be organized by when it was added to the list, with new items at the top of each category. I’m also adding the date of the list item’s posting to the end of its bullet point; these are formatted numerically with year followed by month, such as February 2026 being 202602.

Please note that I am still compiling articles I’ve read in the past (in addition to continuing to update this page moving forward). In addition, I'm testing highlighting newly added materials to better draw attention to them--more to come!

Table of Contents

autism

collective liberation

  • Why I used to “hate” kids., Devon Price (Apr 21, 2025): An important essay on the (harmful, generalizing) language often used of kids being gross, loud, etc. This kind of language can perpetuate harmful stereotypes and perspectives on children, and it can contribute to a form of ageism. (202602)
  • The Origins of the Nonprofit Industrial Complex, Claire Dunning (May 29, 2023): Back in Jan 2025, I read Care Work, and in it author Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha mentions how nonprofits were created in the 1960s as a means to manage dissent. I dug into this a bit, and while that’s a bit of an oversimplification (nonprofits have existed since the late 1800s), it is true that the nonprofit-industrial complex emerged post-WWII and now perpetuates systemic issues by applying short-term and highly surveilled/restricted bandages rather than offering the types of radical, extensive overhauls that our systems need. Nonprofits rely on governmental and foundation grants to be able to exist and do their work, which leads to things like 1) programs being watered down to appease/adhere to said funders, 2) useful programs getting shut down due to lack of funding, 3) higher degrees of funding reserved for more popular/established nonprofits that have a lot of community connections, which harms grassroots and smaller organizations. (202602)

disability justice

  • Does ADHD Mean You Can't Form Habits?, Jesse Meadows on Sluggish (March 12, 2026): ADHD, habit-formation, and inequality. Lately I’ve been struggling with saying/admitting to others that I have ADHD; autism is an easier say, but I still have a lot of internalized ableism around ADHD. This essay examines habit-formation in the context of ADHD, why a lot of (lower-income) ADHDers struggle with habits, and the ways that habits are linked to contexts and systems. (20260317)
    • “Koi also points out a material ‘double bind’ — the fact that low socioeconomic status is correlated with ADHD, meaning that a lot of ADHDers likely do not have the financial means to change their environments in ways that allow them to access to the self-control strategies they need to thrive”
    • The only way I remember things is, like Jesse, leaving them out and in my line of sight. Every morning I put my journal and meds by my pillow, and then when I get into bed, if I haven’t already taken my meds when my alarm reminder goes off (in which case, meds go into bedside table), I’ll take them, and then if I feel up for it I write in my journal. I text myself reminders and leave them unread until I can address them and either delete the message or edit the format to strikethrough. I leave unanswered emails and texts as unread so I have that visual cue. A lot of stuff like that.
  • Dyslexia and the Reading Wars, David Owen (Dec 22, 2025): On dyslexia and how we teach reading. Did you know that around 40% of incarcerated people are unable to read? A shocking and disturbing figure (202602)
  • You Might Not Recover from Burnout. Ever., Devon Price (Oct 15, 2024): I read this essay when it originally came out, and I still semi-regularly think about it. It also relates into the idea shared by Imani Barbarin and other disability advocates that non-disabled people are pre-disabled. (202602)

generative AI & its harms

  • 'AI Is African Intelligence': The Workers Who Train AI Are Fighting Back, Jason Koebler (Mar 12, 2026): On the abusive practices involved in human labor behind AI (20260321)

    • “The message of many data labelers and of the lawyers who have been helping them is that artificial intelligence is not a magical tool built by people in San Francisco making millions of dollars a year and pushing their companies to insane valuations. Artificial intelligence is an extractive technology that relies on the brutal labor of underpaid workers around the world. For years, the work of African data labelers has been more or less ‘ghost work,’ the unseen, hidden labor that lets American tech companies build their products.”

  • The New Artificial Intelligentsia, Ruha Benjamin (Oct 18, 2024): This essay reflects on gen AI as a false promise of progress, as a modern eugenics movement, and as something not inevitable, but worth fighting back against. As she paraphrases philosopher Émile P. Torres, “AI is as a religion for atheists.” I like how she uses the language of evangelism in this article to highlight how much this movement is based on far-flung dreams and wild philosophies that demand belief and obedience despite their flimsy foundation. (202602)

    • “To riff on the late great Octavia E. Butler, whose prescient 1993 novel Parable of the Sower begins in summer 2024—it may be the end of the world, but there are other worlds.”
    • I was introduced to Ruha Benjamin through one of my MLIS classes; we read a chapter from her book on technological racism and how bias gets baked into technology and algorithms, whether intentional or not.

  • 'How come I can’t breathe?': Musk's data company draws a backlash in Memphis, Ariel Wittenberg (May 6, 2025): Environmental impact of gen AI, right now, and how gen AI intersects with environmental racism. These people, these communities, and these lives are worth saving now, not becoming collateral that we will one day look back on with sombreness and say (falsely), “We didn’t know, we made a mistake, but we’ll honor their memories.” Honor and uplift the living today, don’t wait until they’re dead to feel remorseful. (202602)

  • On the Very Real Dangers of the Artificial Intelligence Hype Machine, Emily M. Bender & Alex Hanna (May 13, 2025): The AI hype (hastily overselling all of its benefits) and the fraught and contentious history of AI, this article also includes some real examples of how unfettered AI can and has harmed people. (202602)

  • Stop AI-Shaming Our Precious, Kindly Em Dashes—Please, Brian Phillips (Aug 20, 2025): I love em-dashes, and as such I was deeply dismayed when people started claiming they’re indicators of genAI writing. Good grammar and an understanding of and command over punctuation does not mean something is LLM-created! There’s also a persistent issue with autistic folks’ writing getting incorrectly flagged as genAI. (202602)

  • The time has come to declare war on AI, Drew Magary (Dec 4, 2025): “AI is evil. It’s a bunch of crappy products engineered to wage war on mankind itself, and not in cool sci-fi ways. It’s a banal evil, same as so many of the other evils that you and I have encountered over the years.” (202602)

  • The Business of Balance, Martina Di Licosa (Sep 8, 2025): A critique of Ground News, who (around the time of the article's publication) suddenly seemed to sponsor a lot of YouTubers (always be suspicious when a company suddenly seems to advertise with everyone) (202602)

lgbtq+ archives & history research

liberatory library & archives work

Highlighting the people, projects, and articles within library & information science that are working to challenge institutional power structures and hierarchies, including decolonization and anti-racism.

  • Loot Does Not Become Heritage Because It Has Aged Well, Alioune Samb: Okay, so this one is on museums, sue me. “This omission [of how and under what conditions something enters a collection] is not accidental. It is institutional. Museums are not only guardians of objects; they are guardians of language. And language has this formidable power: to transform violence into neutrality. A raid becomes an expedition. A seizure becomes a transfer. A war trophy becomes heritage. A scholarly varnish is applied, and time is invited to do the rest. Yet varnish does not erase history. / Silence is not neutral. It is staged.” (20260317)
  • Zines by Violet B. Fox on AI, radical cataloguing, masking in 2025, and more (202602)
  • Sandy Berman: The Making of a Radical Librarian, Sandy Berman with Minneapolis Interview Project (March 8, 2022): Berman worked to update and correct Library of Congress subject headings that were outdated and derogatory. I read this article before starting my MLIS program, and it made me so deeply excited to learn that librarians are putting in work to address systemic harms. (202602)
    (202602)

tech & digital privacy & safety

  • Liberation Toolbox, YK Hong's project that discusses surveillance and privacy matters (202602)
  • Activist Checklist, which has great Checklists and Resources, including printables (202602)

trans & gender-variant matters

  • I don’t know how to age as a trans person, Kim Cheng Tom (Dec 23, 2025): "There’s been sweetness in my life, and I believe there will be more, no matter how bitter it gets. I hope some 19-year-old trans kid reads this and feels like a sweet life is possible for them. This is my evidence." (202602)
    • This article also has some great links to other articles and news sources that are worth checking out and reading
  • Trans-Formative Change, Guernica & Dean Spade (March 1, 2011): Politics and the problems with relying on lawsuits to obtain rights for marginalized/vulnerable groups. I also really like this quote about writing and publishing: “There are some things I wish weren’t out there, but I really believe in letting yourself change over time and accepting earlier iterations.” (202602)
  • Some effects of testosterone give me dysphoria. That doesn’t mean I regret it., Devon Price (Sep 1, 2025): Devon's substack is honestly one of my favorite things to read, and I always love its explorations on everything from gender and sex to autism and breaking down pop neuroscience. I found this article to be a beautiful example of the kind of self-love and curiosity trans people have, and how we're constantly making and re-making ourselves. (202602)
  • The Beautiful Failure of Being a Man, Devon Price (Jan 1, 2025): Another great piece by Price, this one on cis and trans men & their shared experiences. (202602)
  • 10 years since the ‘transgender tipping point’, Jude Ellison S. Doyle (May 30, 2024): On the issues of trans visibility and the ways that marginalized people are commodified and praised for their entertainment contributions, but are not recognized as fully human. There was a brief period of time when trans people were included in TV shows, our experiences turned into storylines for side characters. Maybe this was a sign of acceptance, many thought—but the backlash has been swift and powerful, all-consuming. (202602)
    • “‘As Black trans activists and scholars like Tourmaline, Che Gossett and Juliana Huxtable have taught us, visibility is in many ways a trap,’ Ashley says. ‘It doesn’t bring benefits nearly as much as it places a target on your back, and that’s a particularly visceral lesson for us.’”
    • “Yes, here we are: more visible, less powerful; more known, less loved; more seen, less safe; but here, known to each other and the world, in ways that would have been unimaginable a decade back.”